Journeys (aka Journals)

We began writing in our journals on day one.  I had to giggle when my new friends called the journals their "journeys."  Oh, how wise they are- their journals will truly be an example of their journey through kindergarten.  That's exactly why I like to begin writing in journals from day one.  When we look back, it will be so neat to see growth.

I've tried a variety of methods for keeping journals organized.  One year, I gave each student a binder clip as a bookmark.  This summer, I came across this ingenious idea from Jaime at What's The Buzz In First Grade.  A ribbon bookmark!  SO SMART!

So, first I scrounged around through my craft stash, and then through my mom's craft stash for ribbon.  We had ribbon from my wedding five years ago and ribbon from other projects.  I showed my wonderful paraprofessional the idea and she took care of business and added a ribbon bookmark to each journal.

Another part of the journaling process is making sure that each page is dated.  This is important for documentation purposes.  One year I begged a date stamp from our school librarian.  She no longer used it as the records were now kept in the computer database and not in the card catalog.  This was easy for me to do and I may do this again.

But to start off the school year, I printed the writing prompt and the date on a mailing label.  This solved the problem of having a writing prompt to accompany the journal entry.  My next step in the journaling process will be inviting parent volunteers to come in and help me during writer's workshop.  I'm so excited- I have many parents that have expressed an interest in volunteering in the classroom.  This will be a great opportunity.