Rainbow Writing Letter Book – What I Use the First 26 Days of Kindergarten
Be prepared for the first month of school with this easy-to-use handwriting booklet for kindergarten. Here is how and why I used this Rainbow Letter Writing Book in my classroom.
Teaching kindergarten is incredibly unique – and that doesn’t begin to describe what teaching is like the very first days of kindergarten.
It’s why I try to share how to start teaching kindergarten off on the right foot in my Back to School Bootcamp.
It’s exactly why I use this introductory handwriting tool. I believe it helps me work smart.
And I’m all about that when it comes to teaching handwriting in kindergarten.
Where It Came From
This rainbow letter writing book was created by my favorite teacher down the hall.
The background info on this little gem of a book is that we, as a grade level team, decided to teach all 26 letters the first 26 days of school (or well the first 27 days of school since we usually started on day 2). That way students who were ready to run, could, and those who needed more time would get that additional support and practice in small groups later.
And the thing you’re going to love, because I know I did, is that it features starting dots.
Yes – starting dots!
You know I’m a fan of using starting dots to teach kindergartners how to write.
This is a half-sheet sized booklet that is perfect for teaching letter formation.
Not too big, not too small. Just right for beginning writers.
How I Used It
This booklet gives you two booklets per page. Each booklet is stapled once or twice. Once if you’re me. Twice if you have an aide or volunteer making these. {wink}
*Bonus tip* I even made up a class set at the end of each school year in preparation for the following year. One less thing to think about on the first day of school.
Each page is designed to help your kinders get the most out of your efforts teaching beginning handwriting.
One Letter A Day
I taught one letter each day. In addition to teaching them the letter name, letter sound and what the uppercase and lowercase version looked like – we taught them how to write each letter.
We taught them where to start each stroke to form the letter properly.
Now, I used one page of this book each day.
They rainbow wrote the letter the day after it was introduced in class. That was done on purpose.
The following morning, we didn’t need whole group instruction to complete the rainbow writing book. Partly because it is repetitive and partly because they just saw me do it yesterday.
It was perfect for morning work.
It helped us form a routine.
I could move throughout the classroom to work with students as needed as this was the last portion of the morning routine and they could quickly begin to do this independently.
Honestly – if you can get something in place during that first full week that feels anything like a “routine” it feels like you’ve moved mountains! This became a part of the routine for those first 27 days of school.
The brilliance in this letter writing book is that they use those starting dots and trace the letter… not just once or twice, but multiple times, using the colors of the rainbow.
It is called rainbow writing.
The Gist of It:
- They trace the letter using the correct formation once with each color crayon.
- Then they color in the matching color dots at the top of each page to help themselves keep track of their work.
- They have finished when they have traced with each color and colored in all of their color word circles.
Simple and brilliant.
Now, be sure to have extra red, blue, green, yellow, orange and purple crayons in your lost crayons bucket to save you time.
And be sure to get these Playdough handwriting cards – they match!
They are perfect to get your literacy centers up and rolling and reinforce the hard work spent on the rainbow letter books.
Bonus Poster
To complement the Rainbow Letter Writing Booklet, I made this printable rainbow poster. You can have it for free!
It is a set of two pages that you can glue onto a 12×17 piece of construction paper to make a poster.
Laminate it if you want.
The top half of the poster shows the order of the colors of the rainbow used in the book. It helps the students better identify what the color words are in each little circle as they keep track of the colors they use.
Rainbow Handwriting Modeling Poster (Free)
The lower half of the poster helps me (and the students) keep track of which letters we’ve covered. We go out of order to maximize letter recognition and identification.
We simply cross out each letter as we’ve worked on it.
Now, before you ask, “How do they know which letter to do?” the following morning. I understand. I get that.
So, let me answer that for you.
In kindergarten, I want to empower them to do this as independently as possible. I leave up the letters that I modeled handwriting from the previous day.
They can see the letter written on the dry erase board and look for the matching letter in their book.
There you have what I use the first 26 (okay, well 27) days of kindergarten to get the ball rolling. I hope that can be helpful to you too.
Do you love the idea of teaching with starting dots like me? Then you’ll want to check out this best kindergarten handwriting font.
If you like what I do here on KindergartenWorks, then be sure to subscribe today. I look forward to sharing ideas with you weekly.
Do you teach the letters A to Z, or in some other order (more related to formation for example!?)
Hi Ben,
At the beginning we teach MSTDA, NFPGHIJO, BWLIRUCK, EQVXYZ… That order worked for us (as was determined by our school) but I think this really could work in any order you want to use.
When we finished the alphabet we came back to teaching a group of letters based on the way they were formed (letters that trace back up for a week, for example).
I used your “rainbow letters” for a “Handwriting Boot Camp” as an small group intervention for 9 kindergarteners. Perfect.
Clever Jo! Thanks for sharing
I’m going to use your font so they can rainbow write their names tomorrow!!
Awesome! Hope it went well!
– Leslie
We start school this Thursday. I am so excited to get the modeling poster! 🙂 When is the give away?
I bought the rainbow writing book and was looking for the modeling poster you mentioned above as a freebie. Can’t seem to find the link??? Would LOVE to have it to go with the book!!!!
It’ll be available shortly after the giveaway! Stay tuned!
– Leslie