Setting Up An Independent Writing Center in Kindergarten

If you know me, then you know that I LOVE our writing center. I think that having a writing center in kindergarten as a part of your literacy centers is so important. But many of us have been hit with a new challenge this year. How so we make our writing center independent for social distancing?

Today, I am going to show you how you can easily take your writing center and make it individual. This would be perfect for in the classroom or to send home as a writing folder for remote learning.

P.S. If you want to see how I normally run my literacy centers, click here.

Make Your Writing Center Folder

The easiest way to make your writing center independent is to make writing center folders. These folders would be a quick and easy addition to your student book boxes or supplies.

For these folders, you will just need: 3-prong poly folders, page protectors, and the writing center printables.

You can grab this writing center folder cover as a FREEBIE here.

If you want to reuse these folders from year-to-year, you can laminate the covers and attach them with glue dots. You can then write students’ names on the front with Sharpie. It will come off at the end of the year by coloring over it with a black Expo marker and wiping clean!

What To Put in Your Kindergarten Writing Center Folders

I use my Themed Writing Center printables for our writing center for the year. This set gives you almost 50 writing center sets for less than a dollar a piece!

These posters are included in that pack. I printed them 4 to a page. You can put these in a page protector inside the writing center folders:

Students can use this as a reference as they are writing. You don’t have to start with all of these activities in your writing folder at the beginning of the year, even if you have all the posters in here!

An alphabet chart is also a good addition to your writing center folders. As your students begin to write independently, this can be a support for them.

If you feel like your students need more support or you teach first or second grade, the ELA helper may be a good addition as well.

Writing Center Vocabulary Cards

Vocabulary cards are an important part of your writing center in kindergarten because they serve as a support for your beginning writers.

I suggest printing your vocabulary cards 2 or 4 to a page. You can see that printing 4 to a page does not make the text that much smaller. Printing in black and white will also save you ink.

These vocabulary cards are included in every one of my writing center packs.

How To Print Pages Smaller:

First, make sure that you open the writing center pack in Adobe. You can see the page thumbnails on the left. You can either hold down “ctrl” and click the pages you want to print OR you can click print and then type in the pages numbers.

1. Make sure that you have the correct page numbers selected.
2. Click “Multiple” to print multiple pages to one page.
3. You can choose how many pages print to a sheet of paper. I suggest choosing two or four.
4. You will most likely want to click “landscape” to make the pages fit better, but you can play around with portrait or landscape to see which one looks better.

You can then easily slip these vocabulary cards into the page protectors and swap them out when you switch themes.

Writing Center Printables for Kindergarten

You can either put the writing center printables in your students’ folders or you can have a spot for them to grab the printables as they need them.

If you are worried about your students going through the activities too fast, you can set a limit or model expectations for how to know when you are done and ready for a new piece.

Here are just a few of the activities I put in our writing center in Kindergarten:

Labeling pages are a great way for beginning writers to practice writing words in context and be exposed to the letters and sounds. They can use the vocabulary cards to help them label.

I also love this list writing activity. Students can use the vocabulary cards to make a list or they can think of their own words and use the alphabet chart to help them stretch out each word.

This Finish the Sentence writing center activity is a freebie in my TpT store (grab it here). This is perfect for both beginning readers and writers!

I always have plain writing paper students can use to write a story, but sometimes they need help thinking of an idea. These story starter pages are included in each writing center pack.

These sentence fix it pages are a good way to practice sentence structure and concepts of print. Students will trace the sentence, fix it, and write it.

You can dedicate one side of the writing folders to a still working side. If students do not finish a piece before centers are over, they can store that piece on the still working side.

Ready to make your own writing center folders?

My Themed Writing Center Activities for the Year are a great place to get started! This bundle will give you almost 50 writing center packs for less than $1 a piece. Plus, as new themes are requested, I add them and you get to download them for FREE!

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