Retelling activities for kindergarten to build and develop sequencing and writing skills. Your early learners will love this monthly retell and write center!
Retelling Activities for Kindergarten
As you get ready to head back to the classroom, you’re probably anticipating a classroom full of students who don’t know how to do anything independently yet. You’ve just left a room of kinders that you have taught SO MUCH, and now it’s time to do it all over again. Take a deep breath, you’ve got this! Kindergartners are eager to learn and they learn best with repetition. Plus, I have just the thing for you! I am super excited about my new Retell and Write center! Your students will be provided with several activities to practice their sequencing skills right from the start with these retelling activities for kindergarten!
Why is retelling so important?
There are many uses for these retelling centers! Kindergarten units typically focus on writing narratives and expository or how to pieces. In these units, students have to write down their experiences or how to do something in chronological order. It’s important to show students that when things happen out of order, they don’t make sense or they don’t work right. Using retelling centers like these, gets students used to putting things in order, especially with their writing.
Retelling also comes into play with their reading comprehension. One of the kindergarten standards is to recall and retell events from the story. They should be able to tell you what happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story, as well as who the characters were and where the story took place. Part of the checklist provided in this retelling center has students making sure they have characters and a setting. It’s good practice to get students used to seeing the checklist so that when more complex texts and writing are placed in front of them, they are used to seeing that script.
August Retell and Write Center
This fun August Writing Center comes with various topics for your kindergartners to use while practicing their sequencing skills. There are four back to school and fall topics covered in this resource.
- How to get ready for school
- How to behave in the cafeteria
- How to wash your hands
- How to make apple pie
These kindergarten students loved putting the puzzles in order during their writing time!
The puzzles are easy to cut so the prep work is quick for you. There are two versions of the puzzle so you can select which works best for your students. The first version has a sentence matching the picture and the second version does not. If your students need the writing support, I would recommend the first version. If not, students can create their own sentences to support each picture. This may be used for your higher sweeties or just later in the school year.
After completing the puzzle, students work on writing the steps. With differentiated writing sheets, you can easily make copies based on your individual students or class. You can print the writing worksheet for students to cut and paste and then label the steps or you can print the sheet that has students write full sentences on primary dotted lines. Students love cutting and pasting the images and putting them in the correct order.
After they paste their images and label or write their words, they can color the pictures. This is a great time to reflect on good coloring skills. Even though the images are small, it’s important to make sure we are doing our best work and using colors that make sense. Plus, it’s good fine motor practice!
Then, students follow a checklist to make sure they have completed all of their tasks. The checklist has students make sure they have characters, a setting, spaces between words, punctuation, words, and colors that make sense. These checklists are great because they can be used during any writing activity throughout the entire year!
Once the students have checked everything off of their list and made sure their work is done correctly, they can share with a friend. A great idea is to have students record their writing if you have an iPad or some type of recording device. You can use an app like Chatterpix or Google Drive to store their sweet little voices on a recording.
Other Ways to use this Center
If your students aren’t able to work independently on these activities, you can use these activities during small group time. Many teachers practice writing skills with their small groups while the other students work quietly on other independent activities or centers. A good tip is to laminate the puzzles so you can use them year after year. Store them in a Ziploc bag or a small plastic container to pull out whenever you need them. Laminating things just makes life easier sometimes!
During your small group time, you can sit with students and walk them through all of the steps so they understand the assignment. If you repeat this week after week, soon enough they will be able to complete the activities on their own and you can focus on helping students with other skills. See what I mean about repetition?
Your students will love these retelling activities for kindergarten! You can check out the new Retell and Write center for August on TPT or you can purchase the growing bundle from my blog store!
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