Episode Details

Do your kindergarten students ask, “How do you spell...?” approximately 75 times during your writing block? You want them to become independent writers, but simply telling them to “sound it out” isn’t always enough, and spelling every word for them definitely isn’t the answer either.

In this episode, we’re talking about what to do when beginning writers don’t know how to spell a word during kindergarten writing. You’ll learn how to decide when to help students stretch out a word, when to send them to a classroom writing resource, and when it’s completely appropriate to just give them the word. We’ll also talk about why perfect spelling shouldn’t be the goal in kindergarten, how phonics skills connect to early writing, and how consistent writing tools and routines can help students become more independent.

If you’re tired of spending your kindergarten writing block bouncing from student to student spelling words, this episode will help you support beginning writers without doing all of the work for them. The goal isn’t perfect spelling. It’s teaching kindergarteners what to do when they get stuck so they can get their own ideas onto paper.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

✏️ How to Teach Them to Write Sentences Workshop
Learn how to explicitly teach sentence writing to beginning writers with a simple, practical plan you can use in a real kindergarten classroom.

📝 Show notes: https://kindergartentoolbox.com/kindergarten-how-do-you-spell-writing-episode-39/

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