Journal writing with little learners is SO MUCH FUN (once they get the routine down)! It makes my teacher's heart overflow to see them drawing, writing, and sharing their ideas! I get to see them fall in love with writing and see themselves as writers! What a gift! In this post, I'm going to tell you all the details about how to implement journal writing in your classroom and get your kids excited about writing, too!
Homeschool resource or school teacher printable. Lined handwriting paper with picture window for a student to draw artwork.
Wonderful tips and creative journal ideas to help kids. Writing journal prompts and art journal ideas the whole family can do together.
Inspire your second writers with this list of journal ideas and 2nd grade writing prompts shared by one of our Journal Buddies readers!
Ring in the new year with these January Writing Prompts! Fun, educational, and imagination building ideas for Opinion, Narrative, and Informative writing.
As a writer, you need to have one. Just like you should have a reading journal to help you become a better writer. But, what goes in a writer’s journal?
Fun and creative ideas for your little ones preschool journal. Alphabet, numbers, shapes, and colors practice. Your imagination is your limit.
We introduce journals with our 3 year olds with simple ideas that teach them how to love and care for their little books.
Thank you Tampico Beverages for sponsoring this conversation. This post contains affiliate links. The boys love exploring the outdoors and we are lucky to live near a number of forest preserves. We created some nature
Integrating art and content in the ELA classroom. Tips and resources.
Explore our list of inspiring writing ideas and prompts. These starters are ideal for kids but may also be used by adults!
Are you ready for the month of March? We are all geared up for some fun learning this month! Our March NO PREP packets are done and we are ready to go!
These outdoor writing ideas for primary students are a great way to get kids enjoying outside, but with an academic focus as well!
Unlock the power of journal writing with this FREE Writing Journal Covers & Journal Pages Set! This set includes 10 different print-and-go writing journal covers in both black & white and color versions, along with 7 different styles of journal paper to choose from. Perfect for nurturing journal writing, answering writing prompts, and encouraging creative thinking. Time-saving set up and easy to use this set of writing journal covers and journal paper is substitute-friendly and perfect for group work, independent work, or centers. Created with PreK-4th grade students in mind, this versatile set of journal pages and journal covers is flexible enough to be used for a variety of subjects and grade levels. The option for different journal cover styles and multiple journal paper designs makes this set customizable for the needs of your students and your classroom. Students will love exploring creative writing, prompt writing, and journaling using these fun writing journals, and won't even realize how much they're learning! Here's what you'll get: ✅JOURNAL COVERS- 9 different print-and-go writing journal cover designs in both black & white and color. My Writing Journal This Journal Belongs To _____________ My Pre-K Journal My TK Journal My Junior Kindergarten Journal My Kindergarten Journal My First Grade Journal My Second Grade Journal My Third Grade Journal My Fourth Grade Journal ✅JOURNAL PAPER- 7 different print-and-go journal paper designs. large drawing area with 2 lines for writing large drawing area with 4 lines for writing small drawing area with 6 lines for writing small drawing area with 7 lines for writing minimal drawing area with 9 lines for writing small drawing area with 8 lines for writing (narrow guideline spacing) no drawing area with 13 lines for writing ( narrow guideline spacing) Your students will love having their own special journals to use, not only because of the independence they will quickly develop, but also the ease of keeping track of their work in an organized way. This set of writing journal covers and journal paper is going to be a game-changer for both you and them! Prep is quick and easy... Just choose the covers and journal pages that are right for your students’ needs, print, and assemble, and you're ready to establish new writing routines in your classroom! TEACHERS LIKE YOU SAID… ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Jennifer M. says, "This has been the perfect addition to my classroom. I use it as the cover for my kiddos' writing. I change the color I copy it on, as I change the type of paper (difficulty) I put inside.” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Amy Z. says, "I love this journal resource. I have used it for years and always keep coming back to it as my primary journal resource! I highly recommend!” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Bronwyn C. says, "This was a great resource to send home with my class during one of our remote learning times. We finished off in class when we returned. Gave them the opportunity to write each day.” ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Samantha M. says, "I loved these journal pages. The lines are the perfect size for [my students]. I love that there is a black-and-white option to help save ink!" You may also like… Morning Meeting Questions Activities Morning Work & Journal Prompts Yearlong Set Morning Meeting Activities & Questions Fun Facts Journal Prompts Morning Meeting Questions & Activities Journal Prompts Morning Meeting Joke of the Day Activities & Questions Handwriting Practice ⭐FOLLOW MY STORE AND SAVE! ⭐ It pays to follow me! New products in my store are always 50% off for the first 24 hours they are posted. Click here to follow me and be notified when new products are uploaded. HOW TO GET TPT CREDIT TO USE ON FUTURE PURCHASES ❓Did you know that each time you leave feedback on a TPT purchase, TPT gives you feedback credits that you can use to lower the cost of future purchases? Follow these easy steps: 1. Go to your My Purchases page. (you may need to log in) 2. Click on the Provide Feedback button. 3. You will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. (I value your feedback greatly, as it helps me determine which products are most valuable for your classroom so I can create more for you.) ⚠️ FAQs⚠️ • HAVING DIFFICULTY WITH A FILE? Visit theTPT FAQs section, submit ahelp ticket, or ask me a question on the Q&A tab before leaving feedback. Copyright ©️ One Giggle At A Time. Permission to copy for single classroom use only. Please purchase additional licenses if you intend to share this product.
Blank books provide a great way to encourage kids to write. Here are 3 easy ways to assemble blank books for your writing center, literacy center, and beyond.
Even if you're not a big fan of the outdoors, you can enjoy these Easy Nature Journals for Kids. Grab these printables and resources today!
Here is a freebie for you! I bought all my students spiral notebooks & they get to decorate the cover at our end of the year peace themed bash! Ssh! Don't tell them! My little nuggets have become such fabulous writers & I want to keep that going throughout the summer! You're Welcome future 2nd grade teacher! This is the FIRST YEAR EVER that I finally got my firsties to LOVE writing! I can't wait to share everything I did with them this year. Stay tuned.......... Stop by my blog to grab your freebie! P.S. I also included a size that fits perfectly on the front of a composition notebook. There is a large size included as well that fits on a booklet made out of a large piece of construction paper.
Journal quotes to add to your art journal, bullet journal, or personal journal. These journaling quotes are perfect for creative projects!
No more excuses! Starting a journal with your preschooler is easy and helps develop early writing and fine motor skills.
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Wondering How-to-Use Writing Journals in Kindergarten? Read the tips and get the FREE writing card to get started now!
Teacher Truth- I used to despise teaching Writer's Workshop. I understood the structure of the workshop model and the focus of each grading period, however, I didn't really know WHAT to teach each day during my mini-lessons. Fast forward a couple of years, and I had an amazing opportunity to visit an amazing teacher's classroom and observe her in action and I fell in love with her writing instruction! And then the next year, my amazing team and I decided to each tackle one subject and share our plans. I chose writing (even though it still wasn't my favorite) so I could spend more time learning about teaching writing and *hopefully* fall in love. It worked! Now that I LOVE writing, I wanted to share what I currently do to launch Writer's Workshop! I've taken pieces from what I love from different resources to make what works for me and my students. This post is a little peek into my mini-lessons, anchor charts, and mentor texts that I love! I posted them in the order that I usually teach each lesson, however you can change them around to make it work for you and your group of writers! For each lesson I shared an example of an anchor chart! In my classroom, I always prepped the anchor charts with the title and an image first, but added the content WITH my students during the mini-lesson! The books that I have posted are linked to my Amazon affiliate store. If you purchase them through the link, I will receive a small commission! This might just be one of the most important lessons to launch Writer's Workshop because it explains exactly what it is and what students can expect from their teacher and their own expectations. This is always the very first lesson that I teach when beginning Writer's Workshop and I love using the pie chart as a great visual! I begin this mini lesson using the book Arthur Writes a Story to get my little writers thinking about writing! After we complete the large anchor chart together, my students completed their own mini-anchor chart to glue in their writer's notebooks! I love using these mini-anchor charts because my students can reference them at anytime, even if the large anchor chart is not visible in our classroom anymore! After this lesson, I continue to follow this model for our writing instruction each and everyday! The independent writing time is always the most important and longest part of our writing time! For the next mini-lesson, we discuss WHAT writers actually write! Some groups do a great job at brainstorming different types of writing, while others need a little push! This would be a great mini-lesson to bring out different types of writing to show your little writers! Think cookbooks, Christmas cards, printed e-mails, grocery lists, newspapers, magazines, etc. You can put all these items in a basket to have your writers explore independently, or pull them out while you are making your list as a class! After creating a list as a class, students can either create their own list OR they can simply glue in a similar list into their writer's notebooks or folders! This is another important mini-lesson! It really allows your little writers to think about WHY writers write and why they should write! I love using the book Author A True Story by Helen Lester because it is a story from an author's point of view and allows writers to hear why an actual author chose to write! In my experience, sometimes writers have a difficult time determining WHY they write and might need some guidance to brainstorm ideas for the anchor chart! This particular mini-lesson sets up your expectations for HOW students behave during Writer's Workshop. Using the book Ralph Tells a Story, you can show students what not to do during writing time. This really allows them to brainstorm ideas of what they should be doing during writing! I always teach this lesson right after the {What Good Writers Do} lesson because it always focuses on writing behaviors. For this particular lesson, I reference back to Ralph Tells a Story to help my writers determine what writing should look like, sound like, and feel like in our classroom! For this mini-lesson, I always ask my writers what our classroom would look like, sound like, and feel like if one of our administrators walked into our classroom during writing time. Depending on your class and group of writers, you could complete this in one lesson or split it up into three different lessons! This particular mini-lesson discusses the tools that writers need in order to write. I'm going to be honest, if I'm struggling with time this is probably the first lesson that I would cut out because you could also discuss it in the What Good Writers Do mini-lesson. But, this is a good lesson to go over all the tools that your students can use in your classroom and your expectations for using them. Writing journals or folders? Pencils, erasers, pens for editing? Extra graphic organizers, writing pages? Writing prompts? Word wall or personal dictionaries? There are TONS of writing tools for the writers in your classroom! It's really important to talk about your expectations and even discuss with your writers how they should set up their writing journal or folder! It's common for little writers to not able to keep their belongings organized, so this is a great lesson to really focus on that! Using the book The Day the Crayons Quit is a fun book to use for this lesson because you talk about what would happen if you didn't have access to certain writing tools! "Mrs. Dills, I'm done!" If I had a nickel for every time I've heard that statement, I would probably own my own island! I don't know what it is, but at the beginnin writers always think they are completely finished as soon as they finish with one writing piece! This anchor chart stays up in my classroom for a very long time and I reference it A LOT! This book is a great story to read for this mini-lesson because they are SUPER short stories and allows you to discuss how writers could add lots of details to complete their story!. Then, you could discuss what else writers could do when they think they are done! Because of course, they've really just begun! In my first and second grade classroom, it was very common for my writers to freeze when they couldn't spell a word correctly- especially at the beginning of the year! Some would ask how to spell the word and some would just sit there and not write anything else! This mini-lesson really focuses on stretching out their words the best that they can instead of focusing on spelling the word perfectly. For this mini-lesson, I don't read a mentor text but instead I really focus on modeling how to stretch out words by listening for each sound and then writing them down. I go over each step with the students and then model writing my own story using this strategy. There are times that my writers still have a difficult time stretching out words for their writing, so during this lesson I also give them a personal dictionary. I didn't have a word wall in my classroom, but instead each of my students received a personal dictionary to keep in their desks. I like printing this 2 pages to a sheet and allowing them to keep it in a pocket in the back of their writing journals or folder! And FINALLY, it's time to really dig into story writing! I absolutely LOVE hearing from my little story tellers and I really look forward to teaching them HOW to write a story! This can definitely be broken into multiple days if you want to focus on modeling each step! However, it can easily be taught in one lesson! A Squiggly Story is such a fun little book about a little boy that is learning how to express himself, just like your writers as they learn how to write a story! This is another important anchor chart that I refer back to a lot during my writing instruction. A lot of times writers want to skip right to the writing part, but it's important for them to realize that there is a process! This is a great introductory lesson to the writing process for your little learners! I model this a lot in my classroom! This lesson really focuses on allowing students to come up with their own ideas for writing. I teach this after the {How to Write a Story} lesson because then I can really focus in on the first point, which is thinking of an idea! I like to reference the book Ralph Tells a Story again because the character in that book really struggled with thinking of an idea to write. The character in The Best Story has a similar problem, but she figures out that she should write from her heart! After reading the book, we talk about what is in our heart. Then, we talk about maps and their purpose. It would be really great to show students a picture of an actual map during this lesson! Then, I begin creating my own heart map and have students create their heart maps to keep in their writing journals to use throughout the year! Oh my goodness! I always, always, always have writers that get stuck or frozen and just don't know what to do! Stuck is the cutest book about a little boy whose kite gets stuck in a tree and he is determined to get it out! For this mini-lesson, I really like having my students brainstorm ideas for what they can do when they get stuck during writing time! So the anchor chart will look different each year because it really depends on the ideas that the group comes up with! Then, during independent writing time my students get to practice using those ideas if they get stuck! This might be one of my FAVORITE writing mini-lessons, which is crazy because not a lot of writing actually takes place! This mini-lesson shows the importance of illustrations and having them match your words! All of these book options are great because they have very little or no words at all, and students have to look at each illustration to tell the story. For this particular mini-lesson, I did not create an actual anchor chart with the students. Instead, I drew a simple picture and had students tell me what was happening in MY story! Then, my writers had to do the same thing! I had their return to their desks and they drew a detailed illustration. Afterwards, in pairs, students had to look at each other's illustrations and try to explain what was happening just from their drawings. This really helped them see the importance of their illustrations! To introduce the Writing Process, I like reading the book Rocket Writes a Story and discussing each part with my writers. Of course, this is truly just an introduction and students will not go through the entire writing process in one lesson! However, it is good that they have an understanding of each component and are aware of the process as they begin their writing units! I allow my writers to glue this mini-anchor chart into their writing notebooks so they always have a visual reminder of the writing process even if it is not currently displayed in our classroom! After students have an understanding of the writing process, we spend more time on how writers can fix or "fancy" their writing using the book Fancy Nancy! Although we go over editing and revising in a mini-lesson, this is definitely not the last time that my writers are introduced to this concept. I model editing and revising throughout the entire year and they have A LOT of practice working independently, with writing partners, and during writing conferences! For these lesson ideas in one easy FREE document, click here or the images below! For the mini-anchor charts click here or the picture below! For the personal dictionary click here or the picture below! For the FREE writing notebook cover and dividers, get the password to my Resource Library here! Or click on the image below to get the password emailed to you! Send it my way! Powered By ConvertKit For all of the subject covers click here or the image below! For the books click here or the image below for my Amazon Affiliate storefront! How do YOU launch Writer's Workshop in your classroom!? I hope this post gave you some ideas for your classroom! If you want to save these ideas for later, make sure to pin the image below!
Learn about the benefits of monthly writing prompts for kids. This article gives examples for each month as well as a free writing calendar.
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A Bullet Journal is one of the best planning systems out there and it pairs well with the productivity system Getting Things Done (GTD). Change your life by learning how to use a bullet journal to get things done using GTD.
There is nothing more frustrating than scheduling writing time, carefully preparing your coffee or tea, finally sitting down at your computer or notebook, and then… staring. You start a sentence. “Bah, that sounds terrible.” You get a few sentences down, then you re-read them and think, “That made a lot more sense in my […]
Explore this fabulous list of journal prompts for 3rd graders! May your students' journaling adventures be filled with joy, fun, and creativity.
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Are you looking for a way to get your life organized? Check out these colorful FREE bullet journal printables that will help you track everything from weekly spreads to college work. These beautiful PDF printables are designed with feminity and organization in mind. Get your planner organized today!
If you could do just one exercise a day in order to improve your writing skills, what would it be? That was the question I wanted to answer for our final journal worksheet this year. After all, practice and improvement are the reason we keep writing journals, right? The most exciting answer for me was…
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You may have heard on our social media channels or via our newsletter that we have an exciting new series planned here on The OT Toolbox. Over the next month, you will find strategies, tools, and tips to teach cursive handwriting. This cursive writing series is designed to provide many different ideas for helping kids ... Read more
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