Analyzing Primary Sources: GK Writing Prompts & Activities

Children playing with Campbell kid dolls. — Children playing with Campbell kid dolls

Primary source images are great resources for integrating language arts with social studies. The activities below were designed around the Kindergarten grade-level Common Core State Standards for writing.

Text Types and Purposes
Kindergarten Writing Standards	Writing Prompts / Activity Ideas
1. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is…).	Give this picture a title and describe why you chose that title. Do you like this picture? [Grade 1 standard: Why or why not?] What story does this picture tell? Would you give the story a thumbs up or a thumbs down? [Grade 1 standard: Why?] What questions do you have about this picture?
2. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.	What is this a picture of? List the different shapes you see. How many people do you see? Circle all of the people with _______. How many __________ do you see? List all of the objects that start with the letter “___”.
3. Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.	What is happening in this picture? Imagine you are a person in this picture. What are you saying? Imagine you are an object in this picture. What are you thinking? If you could talk to someone/something in this picture, what would you say? What might have happened before this picture was taken? [Grade 1 standard: Why do you think so?] What might happen next in this picture? [Grade 1 standard: Why do you think so?]
Production and Distribution of Writing
4. (begins in grade 3)	N/A
5. With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed.	Provide students with feedback (teacher or peer) on one of the prompts.
6. With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.	Publish images and student responses on a blog or using slide presentation software.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge
7. Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favorite author and express opinions about them).	Have students compare and contrast two pictures with a similar theme. Then ask them to describe which picture they prefer. [Grade 1 standard: Why?]
8. With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question.	Ask students to describe how a picture relates to their own lives. Ask students to describe how a picture relates to a theme or unit that you teach.
9. (begins in grade 4)	N/A
Range of Writing
10. (begins in grade 3)	N/A