Thursday, June 28, 2012

Best One Yet! And a Freebie!

Have you ever made a product that you are just super duper proud of?  I mean, I'm proud of everything I make.  But this one takes the cake!  I created morning journals for my students:


It includes writing prompts for every day of the school year - and then some!  There are over 300 writing prompts in here people!!


I also made monthly covers for the journals:


And included different pages of line paper:


These are one of my favorite things that I use in my classroom.  My students each receive their journal at the beginning of the month.  Each journal has a cover, a calendar and enough journal pages for the month.

They keep it in a folder in their desk.  After they come in and unpack every morning, they take out their journal and start writing about the prompt for that day.  Then they draw a picture to go with it.  We start with 2 sentences at the beginning of the year and gradually reach 5 sentences by the end of they year.  And I always say "at least" because they are welcome to write more than the required 2-5 sentences!!  I give them about 15 minutes each morning to work on their journals.

This is great for me as well.  While they are quietly writing, I am able to work on attendance, lunch count, etc without interruptions.  It also means I only have to gather morning work once a month, rather than every day.

The journals I created don't have dates on them, just days of the week.  This way, they can be used year after year!

Check them out:
{TpT}
{TN}

Take a peek at my July Writing Prompts for free!


I'm sharing it as part of TBA's Friday Freebie!




Freebie Fridays

And Classroom Freebies Manic Monday!



Classroom Freebies Manic Monday



Also, Beth Ann of Taming My Flock of Firsties is having an awesome giveaway!!


My *brand new* Book Basket Labels is just one of the many great prizes!!  There are a lot of entries already so make you sure you go check it out!


13 comments:

  1. I love your creative and clever journal and monthly journal calendars. May I ask, how do you assemble them? (meaning the variety of journal paper and the black/white composition) book? A+ idea!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I create a journal for each student, each month. I place the cover on top, then the calendar, then as many journal pages as they need for the month and staple the whole thing together! For example, in September we have 18 days (I think). So I would put the September cover on top, then the September calendar, then 9 journal pages back to back. I start the year off with the journal pages that have just two lines. As the students become better writers, I give them pages with more lines. Phew! That was a lot, I hope you followed that! Let me know if you have any other questions!

      Delete
  2. Love these! Are these good for first graders?

    Natalie
    TeacheryTidbits

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great ideas Sara!
    Blessings,

    Jessica Stanford
    Mrs. Stanford's Class
    I could use your help! Check out my latest post ♥

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is great!! I am looking to have my students journal more next year & this is perfect. I am adding it to my wishlist for back to school time!
    Lisa
    Learning Is Something to Treasure

    ReplyDelete
  5. I so miss doing morning work...we didn't have time for anything last year, 5 minutes after the bell, we had to leave for 1/2 hour intervention - bleh!!...we have a new principal, so I'm curious to see what are schedules look like this year....

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a terrific freebie! I'm your latest follower!
    Thank you for sharing this at TBA and linking up!
    ~Fern
    Fern Smith’s Classroom Ideas!
    Fern Smith’s Pinterest Boards!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I just want to say that I may LOVE you after seeing this. I am going to blog about this sometime this week because this is seriously the best idea ever. After about September of last year, morning work seemed to become a HUGE thorn in my side!

    Your newest follower,
    Stephany
    primarypossibilities.bogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Saw these on pinterest! love them. We homeschool and this year we'll be starting k and 1st, so I'm thinking it will be narration and pictures to go along with the prompt for now. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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