Journal Prompts for Beginning Writers

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I LOVE our monthly journal prompts! Students in Kindergarten write at different levels. We try to engage them in activities that will help develop their writing skills, but sometimes it’s difficult to find something that will fit everyone’s abilities. We have always been told to differentiate our activities to meet every student’s needs. But, how can we do this in a room full of 20+ kids? I came up with Differentiated Thematic Journal Prompts that include a picture/word bank and sentence starters. How can these journals help? The focus on themes will make their writing meaningful and engaging. The thematic picture/word bank will develop their vocabulary skills. And, the sentence starters will help struggling writers feel successful. There are 5 journal prompts for each theme which will cover a week’s worth of writing. Each journal prompt has been provided in three versions. As the students develop their writing skills, the teacher will provide the corresponding writing page. This is how the writing pages are differentiated.

Level 1: These journal pages includes a sentence starter. They may also have extra wording on the picture labels. This will help students write a complete sentence by using the wording on the picture cues.  This format will help struggling writers use complete sentences and have a successful writing experience without the stress.

Level 2: This journal page does not include the sentence starters. Students are encouraged to use their knowledge of phonics skills. They are also encouraged to use any other words that may not be in the illustrated word bank.

Level 3: This journal page is for advanced writers. It does not provide place a for an illustration. This is so that students may have more writing space where they may include details in their sentences. Illustrations may be added to the back of the paper.

I have sets ready for the entire year. If you would like to learn more about them, you can find them all under the JOURNALS tab at the top of my blog. You can also find my Differentiated Journal Prompts in my TPT store.

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January Journal Prompts: Differentiated

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Writing time in kindergarten is so much more fun when students can feel successful and confident in their writing. These differentiated journal prompts are perfect for a classroom of students with a variety of abilities. 

Includes:
-5 daily journal prompts
-3 versions of each page
-picture/ word bank on each page

How are the 3 versions different?
1- Struggling writers use the version with the sentence starter. They simply plug in a word from the picture/word bank to finish the sentence.

2-Independent writers will use the version without the sentence starters. They will use their knowledge of phonics skills to create their own sentences.

3-Advanced writers will use the version with extra lines. This gives them the opportunity to add details and be creative in the writing process.

Click on any picture if you think that you can use these.

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A Teacher’s Resolution

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 Have you set some New Years resolutions for yourself this year? If I were to write down a list of things that I want to do differently this year, the list would be looong. It can be a little hard trying to find some realistic goals, but all we can do is try 🙂  A good way to stick to your goal is to set something out as a reminder because we can easily…  and conveniently forget that we even set a goal at all ;p
My friends at Freebielicious and I want to share some of our goals and resolutions for 2014 with you! To help you get a jump start on the new year we’ve also added some freebies that may help you reach your own similiar goals. 
Many of us are teachers, moms, wives, and bloggers. Our time is very valuable! How many times have you left work late? There is always so much work to do and so many people to talk to, right? Well, getting work done is a must. But, how can we get our plans and materials ready when we chat with our friends so much?  LOL. We are very social butterflies. We like to talk. We talk about things that are work-related and other things that are not so much work-related. And that’s OK, but if you want to pick up your kids from daycare at a decent time,  take the kids to ball practice, get home before the sun goes down, make dinner, help kids with homework, make sure everyone has showered before they go to bed, read the kids a bedtime story, clean the kitchen, and sit back-relax-and watch TV with your hubby, then maybe we need to get a little more work done during our planning time. So here’s my teacher’s resolution that might be similar to yours. 
Ok. To think it and say it might not be enough because I might forget all about it later. So, I created a nice little sign that can be used as a reminder. It’s free for you. Just print, laminate and post it next to your desk or classroom door. Hopefully this will help us learn how to finish early at work and go home early to enjoy our families EVERY DAY! There is a signature line at the bottom so that we can hold ourselves accountable.

Did you notice the signature line? LOL. It says “Signed with high hopes” because no matter how easy the resolution might seem, it can be a little difficult to stick to it at first 🙂
Hop on over to Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations for another resolution and matching freebie!

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Thematic Journals for October- Differentiated

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Students in Kindergarten write at different levels. We try to engage them in activities that will help develop their writing skills, but sometimes it’s difficult to find something that will fit everyone’s abilities. We have always been told to differentiate our activities to meet every student’s needs. But, how can we do this in a room full of 2o+ kids?

I came up with Differentiated Thematic Journal Prompts that include a picture/word bank and sentence starters. How can these journals help? The focus on themes will make their writing meaningful and engaging. The thematic picture/word bank will develop their vocabulary skills. And, the sentence starters will help struggling writers feel successful.

There are 5 journal prompts for each theme which will cover a week’s worth of writing. Each journal prompt has been provided in three versions. As the students develop their writing skills, the teacher will provide the corresponding writing page.

This is how the writing pages are differentiated.

Level 1:

These journal pages includes a sentence starter. They may also have extra wording on the picture labels. This will help students write a complete sentence by using the wording on the picture cues. Extra wording may include something like “a” or “the.”  This format will help struggling writers have a successful writing experience without the stress.level one writing prompts

Level 2:This journal page does not include the sentence starters nor extra wording on labels. Students are expected to use their knowledge of phonics skills.

level 2 writing prompts

Level 3:This journal page is for advanced writers. It does not provide place a for an illustration. This is so that students may have more writing space where they may include details in their sentences. Illustrations may be added to the back of the paper.

level 3 writing prompts
If you need something like this for your classroom, I created 6 themes for an October pack. You can find it here.
 [ezcol_1third]journal prompts for fall[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third]journal prompts for bats[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third_end]journal prompts for spiders[/ezcol_1third_end]

[ezcol_1third]journal prompts for pumpkins2[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third]journal prompts for halloween[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third_end]journal prompts for fire safety[/ezcol_1third_end]

New product= facebook giveaway.
These are our winners.
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Please make sure to leave a comment below, if you are a winner. Your email will be recorded in my blog’s dashboard (not on the blog). I will send this entire set to you as soon as I see your email 🙂
Kinder Alphabet
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