At our preschool, the children start the morning with about an hour of center time.
About once a week, one of our center stations is
Journal Writing.
Each child has a small Hilroy exercise book with the pages divided into a blank and interlined section.
The children draw an image of their choosing on the blank section and the teachers scribe their ideas underneath their picture.
As you can see, we tend to write the words exactly as the children say them.
Having the children see that their ideas
can be recorded in WORDS
and then read back to them (just as they told it!)
can be recorded in WORDS
and then read back to them (just as they told it!)
is very exciting for them.
For many of the kids, it is the first time that they have seen their ideas in print!
For many of the kids, it is the first time that they have seen their ideas in print!
And I must say, there is more interest
in journal writing amongst the girls overall,
BUT, once we give the boys a nudge
most of them enjoy coming to the writing table, as well.
Star Wars, monsters, and ghosts
often form the theme of their writing,
but that's fine with us!
We don't have a lot of rules for the journals, but we often ask the children to use at least
3 colours in their work.
It encourages the children to put a little more effort into their drawing - particularly those students who try to be "fast finishers."
Some kids tend to have lots of ideas for us to scribe, while others have trouble coming up with more than a sentence.
For those that are struggling, we will ask some questions to help get a few ideas rolling.
Journal entries don't need to be long, but we do try to encourage everyone to come up with at least two sentences for us to record.
The edges of the next image are cut off, but I had to
include this journal entry anyway.
This year we are also using journal prompt pages.
I made a page for every major holiday, one for each of the seasons, and then a variety focussed on themes like friendship, family, and "all about me."
We glue them right onto the page and use them at various times throughout the year.
I made 27 different journal prompt pages and some covers for the journal books, too!
Check them out in my shop HERE!
I'd love to offer you a free sample from this journal printables set for your own classroom.
If you'd like this prompt page for Earth Day,
just click HERE!
but for us, it's been a good fit.
Excitement over storytelling and creating "books,"
learning to organize thoughts into a logical sequence, developing their pencil grip,
seeing that ideas (their ideas!) can be recorded in print --
all good things
that help set the stage for becoming
a reader!
learning to organize thoughts into a logical sequence, developing their pencil grip,
seeing that ideas (their ideas!) can be recorded in print --
all good things
that help set the stage for becoming
a reader!
