How these Daily Writing Journals for Kindergarten Improve Handwriting and Drawing Skills

Do you ever feel like there's NO TIME in your day to practice handwriting? Sure, in the first few weeks of school, you do daily handwriting practice, model each letter, and make sure your students know how to write each one.

But soon, you will need to move on to writing sentences. And handwriting gets pushed to the back burner. A few months go by and you are looking at your students' writing, thinking, “Why aren't they writing these letters properly? Why aren't they taking their time writing?”

The truth is… they need to continually practice handwriting DAILY. But, it seems like there's no time, right?!?

Well, what if I told you, that you COULD practice handwriting daily in just 10 minutes a day… PLUS practice drawing skills and writing sentences while you're at it? Here is how these daily writing journals for Kindergarten can improve handwriting and drawing skills!

Daily Journal to Improve Handwriting in Kindergarten

Daily Writing Warm-Up Routine with these Daily Writing Journals for Kindergarten

Have you tried a daily writing journal as the warm-up activity for your whole group writing lesson? From start to finish, it takes just about 10 minutes. These phonics-based daily writing journals for Kindergarten combine multiple skills of drawing, handwriting, and sentence writing for an all-in-one writing warm-up activity. Use this daily to watch your students become independent and confident writers!

Step 1: Directed Drawing

Daily Writing Journals for Kindergarten to Improve Handwriting

The directed drawings were created to help your students learn how to draw 180 basic pictures, using simple lines and shapes. They will follow the step-by-step drawing example, then add details and color to make it their own. Your students will be more confident with drawing on their own, using the drawing skills they’ve learned throughout the rest of their writing activities.

Step 2: Handwriting Practice

After the first few weeks of school, we stop teaching handwriting daily. Our students stop focusing on forming each letter correctly and more on just writing as fast as they can. With these daily writing journals, students will spend time daily on handwriting practice, without adding additional handwriting activities to their writing lesson.

Step 3: Sentence Writing Practice

Sentence writing is a skill that Kindergarteners will learn throughout the year! At the beginning of the year, they are focusing on sentence structure. During the first few weeks, they will just be practicing tracing the sentence. Then, they will move on to tracing a sentence, then re-writing the sentence, and finally writing their own sentence independently! There is also a quick check at the bottom of the page to make sure students check that their sentence is complete.

Daily Writing Journals for Kindergarten with Directed Drawing

The Daily Phonics-Based Writing Journal was designed to give your students more practice with writing skills that there never seems to be enough time for: handwriting and drawing. Here's what some teachers are saying about this resource!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I love the directed drawing part of this resource! It really helps and gives confidence to the students who have difficulty drawing (and their teacher!). We love it!” -Rebecca H.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “We have used this pack every day since the beginning of school. It's simple, engaging, and it empowers both students who feel like artists and students who are intimidated by art. Thank you so much!” -Ashlee B.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “My students constantly say they “can't” draw things or they don't know how. We've done some directed drawing, but adding this to our routine is amazing. From the first one they were hooked!! Excited to draw and write now!” -Athena P.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I love this resource! It really helped my students take control of their writing with reminders and examples in place for those who needed it.” -Jill R.

Implement a Daily Writing Warm-Up with your Students!

You can easily implement a daily writing warm-up routine with these daily writing journals in just 10 minutes a day! Print it daily, bind it together to create a book, or even use the included Google slides to do it in their own writing journals.