Mini Journals

This week we are starting something new with our preschooler; Mini Journals. Since my child's ability to hold a pencil is advancing and he is more precise with the written word practice, I believe that he will benefit a lot from this activity. Mini Journals are perfect for preschoolers because they are:

• SMALL (made from folding one paper in half and folded again to make four pages which were then stapled at the top to make a mini booklet) and perfect for little hands.
• CONVENIENT and can be carried anywhere (i.e. to the library, outside, and/or anywhere around the house).
• Perfect for journaling ideas and drawing pictures before, during and after a learning activity.
• Easy to store; you can glue them in a notebook or keep them with your other teaching/learning materials.
• A great learning tool as you can explore or learn about a topic and save all your ideas in a little book. I would like to revisit these journals whenever we revisit the topic that we learned to add or revise learning concepts.
• Unique to every learner: this is very true as you can build and design the journals specific to your child's learning needs. In the beginning, the project will be guided by you because it will help you set learning goals and journal expectations. I have seen experienced Kindergarten teachers use printable pictures and writing samples to guide their students to learn the best possible way to journal. As their students progress through the school year, they eventually become independent journal writers. It all depends on the child's learning needs and how much guidance he/she may need.

For this activity, we used recyclable materials to decorate our journal picture. We read a book about cupcakes called "If you give a Cat a Cupcake" by Laura Numeroff. We then decided to do a journal about cupcakes in the spring theme. In the book, the cat asks for sprinkles to decorate the cupcakes. That was my preschoolers' favorite part of the story and that's why we decided to decorate a cupcake using left over pencil shavings from our sharpener container.

© Everything Family Guide

What's a Mini Journal? It can include:

• Writing Practice
• Academic Vocabulary
• Grammar
• Phonics
• Sentence Writing
• Pictures (either printed or drawn by the child)
• Visual Representations of the concept learned
• And Much more

Mini Journals are a great way to introduce writing and expression of thoughts/emotions. For example, after learning about the life cycle of a butterfly, you can let your child draw a stage of the life cycles or let them draw a butterfly/caterpillar. It is also a good idea to encourage your child to write descriptions of their pictures using academic language. It may seem complex for very young learners (especially Preschoolers or Kindergartners) and that is where the teacher's role comes in play. You will provide written or drawn expectations in the beginning and allow your child to practice rewriting the vocabulary words or coloring in the pictures provided by you. The child can also do activities that promote learning for early writers like cutting, pasting, gluing, arranging or matching based on printed materials provided by you. This means a little more prep on your part but it is not much. It literally took me around 5 to 10 minutes to prepare the journal lesson for my child. For a group of children, it is important to use pre-printed materials or use a Teacher's Master Copy for photocopying multiple copies (Teacher works on a sample or reference copy and then photocopies it for the students' use).

 

Overall, Mini Journals are an awesome learning/teaching tool and we will definitely be sharing our experiences in the coming months. What are some of your journal experiences with your child or students? Also, what are your tips or suggestions for improvement to this particular project? Thanks for reading!

 

Annie