What does journaling look like in the classroom?

• A journal is a place for children to express themselves through drawing and mark making. The adult’s job is to support and scaffold, based on each child’s need.
• A journal can be a small teacher-made booklet with a few blank pages stapled together, a blank composition book, or a small spiral notebook.
• A journal is a place where children can write stories about themselves, things that happened in their lives, their families, experiences, etc.
• Some children will also want to write stories about fictional events.
• Labeling and dictation are at the heart of young children’s early journaling experiences.
• Initially the child may begin with a drawing and teachers can label the drawing with a few words.
• Eventually children will tell longer stories and may need gentle scaffolding to expand their narratives.

Developmental Stages of Drawing

Developmental Stages of Writing

Establishing the Journaling Environment

1. Think about when you might do journaling, such as in a small group during morning choice or rest time.

2. Create a place in the classroom to keep all of the journaling materials, such as a basket or a shelf in the writing area. This place should be accessible to children and have:

• A journal for each child
• Short writing pencils, colored pencils and crayons
• A date stamp and ink pad
• A basket of familiar pictures/words to give children inspiration and words to copy (mom, dad, cat, etc.)

3. Develop systems for tracking who has had a turn and who needs a turn, each week.  Some teachers:

• Use a “To Do” basket and a “Completed” basket
• Create a weekly checklist
• Divide children into Journaling Groups, for each days of the week

Ways to Inspire Journaling

In whole or small group lessons, teachers could:

• Model journaling using a shared group experience.
• Generate journaling topics (Morning Meeting discussion is a good time for this).
• Create anchor charts of topics for journaling. Some may be: