End of the day journals

[leighbball]

One of the things I plan to do this year as a way to encourage expressing themselves through writing is an end-of-the-day journal where the kids write about whatever is on their mind about their school day, weekend, etc. I want to have a few prompts in the front of their notebooks to guide them in case they don't have a topic in their head. So far, I've thought of things like:

What did you like about school today?
What did you not like about school today?
What do you hope to learn more about?
How are you being a good friend to your classmates?
Tell me about a friend in the class/grade/school.
What special plans do you have for the weekend?

I'm looking for any other ideas for 2nd graders...this is something I hope to do 3-4 times a week, if not every day. I hope that after a decent amount of modeling, they are able to come up with their own topics as well, but I want to be prepared for those who don't.

Any ideas??

 

[cinaminsweet]

If you go to this site: http://busyteacherscafe.com/wspages/writing.htm and scroll down to where it says Journal Activities, it has a monthly calendar with journal prompts for everyday. Not all of them pertain to a school day, but you still may be able to get some ideas.

 

[Jenni]

Not being in the regular classroom in second grade I am curious about how much journaling an average second grader can do at the beginning of the year. I know when I worked with third graders some of them had trouble writing even a complete paragraph. Will they be allowed to draw pictures for these? I just know in second grade I couldn't write a journal entry, but I was behind so it's hard for me to really know how much most would be capable of.

 

[zoerba]

At the beginning of the year most of your students will probably have a difficult time journal writing. That's okay though, you can still set up the routine! Just begin by having them write as much as they can, whether that's one sentence or five - and then ask them to draw a picture to accompany the writing. Towards the end of the year the students will have no problem filling up half a page...they just have to work to get there!

I really like the idea!

 

[leighbball]

Thanks for your ideas/suggestions! I know that it will take a lot of modeling and I will only get a few sentences, if I'm lucky, during the beginning of the year. But my district is really focusing on writing this year and its one of the areas that I want to work with my students on the most. When I taught 3rd grade this past year, some of my kids weren't very prepared for writing for any type of writing activity.

And my district wants second graders to be able to write 2 paragraphs by the end of the year (like 5 sentences in each paragraph)...so I figure the end of the day journal can build a relationship between the student and me (I'll let them pick one or two a week for me to read) and allow them to express themselves while practicing their writing skills!

I bought notebooks for the end of the day journal...I'm really looking forward to it because it will give the kids something to do as well while I sign homework planners at the end of the day. The kids used to just talk and finish classwork...now they can all be productive!