More about Journals
Submitted by Sharing with you all , excerpts of my girl’s journal entries when she was in primary 2. They were written to her form teacher on a weekly basis with a topic posted. I thought the posting of topics was a marvelous ideas as it helps to draw out the feelings and ideas of the child who may otherwise resort to the mundane entries of daily happenings.
What touched me most were the comments posted by the form teacher at the end of each journal entry. From those comments, the form teacher showed that she could empathize and understand the child’s feelings. It was no wonder that Madam W is my girl’s favourite teacher till now.
The journal entries were to be written in a school exercise book wrapped in a nice, wrapping paper. I got my girl to use a plain, coloured paper decorated with her photographs for the cover .
JC’s Journal
3.1.05
What I like about today
Today, I am pleasantly surprised when I hear that Mdm W is my form teacher this year again. She taught me when I was in Primary one. She was good to me. I liked the game called Bingo. It was fun and exciting. I wish I can play that game with my friends again.
7.1.05
The kindest person I know…
Today, I make many new friends. They are very good to me. They wait for me, walk with me and play with me. I am very excited. The kindest person I know is M. We are good friends. We usually play together, wait for each other and talk to each other. It is really exciting.
14.1.05
The nicest thing I did for anyone was …
The nicest thing I did for Mdm W. was helping her to carry the games to the bench in the middle of the classroom.
3.2.05
I feel angry when…
I feel angry when my friends make fun of me, my parents scold me and my brother bullies me. I am really very angry when all these things happen. It really hurts my feelings. I wish that these things will not happen again.
15.2.05
Something I learnt recently is I can measure things very well and learn to draw good models. To draw good models, you have to use a model ruler. You also need a model ruler to measure things. It is fun.
4.3.05
If I could change one thing, I would change my pair of eyes. I wish that I have perfect eyes so that I don’t need to wear glasses. Wearing glasses is troublesome because it will become blur if am in a cold place or a hot place and I look better without glasses.
24.03.05
I would like to design a beautiful card for my parents because they do many things for me. They help me with my homework, pray for me, check my homework and borrow many interesting books for me to read. They are the best parents in the whole wide world. I love them.
1.4.05
The best joke I’ve ever heard is the gorilla story. Once upon a time, there was a gorilla and a hunter. The hunter shot many arrows at the gorilla but it caught all the arrows flying towards him. The hunter was frightened and quickly ran away. The gorilla cheered for himself and beat his chest with his hands holding all the arrows. What do you think happen to the gorilla and why?
8.4.05
I’d like to meet Brian , Gregg, Kris and Jon. They live in
27.8.05
I feel it’s wrong when people bully me. They should be polite to people instead of bullying them. There was once that my brother bullied me. My heart hurt. I thought that my brother was very mean to me.
16.9.05
I wish I had never done…
I regretted hitting my brother. Even though he has done something wrong, I think I still shouldn’t hit him. It should be better if I forgive him. I also should say sorry to him.
wow, I wonder when my p1
wow, I wonder when my p1 teacher will do that.
i remember my p6 teacher
i remember my p6 teacher also started a writing journal routine with us but it became another homework we had to do. not that it was dreary, just that sometimes there’s really nothing to write abt n stil must write for the sake of writing. so a little sian. personally i also m not much of a diary keeper. after start, always stop after a few weeks, no discipline ;p
but starting at p1 and p2 and giving them a topic is a wonderful idea! start from young may help keep a habit! another common idea (which i m sure all parents would have done back in their schooldays) wil be to do "jian bao". cut out newspaper articles, read thru it and comment on it. this is a way of training kids to give a well-thought argument to defend their opinions. i remember one teacher took the time to explain how not to say "fei hua" (rubbish) so that we do not go thru the motion of paraphrasing an article. maybe the more experienced parents/teachers can give a writeup on this?
thanks csc for this! 🙂
Teacher's Initiatives
Some teachers do practise journal writing with their students.
I have heard of one pre-school who does it with the students
at K2 level… along with show and tell… plus a short written
expression (like a short composition). I salute teachers with
these initiatives. Most times, these are beyond the school’s
curriculum, hence the word – ‘initiatives’!
Story starters or journal entry starters are a great way to motivate
non-independent writers to pen their thoughts. It’s like channelling
the children’s thoughts into one direction – as given. This prevents
the mind from wandering off and taking wee bit too long to go into
the thinking process… especially if the entries are meant for them
to finish within a given time frame.
Tks for the sharing, jie-csc! Good one!