Location: indoor or outdoor

Materials: one notebook for each child and markers, crayons, or colored pencils

Journals can be a wonderful ongoing activity for the children in your class. Over the course of the year it provides a detailed record of a child's progress with drawing, writing, and storytelling.

Two important things to keep in mind: journals should always be voluntary, don't force kids to draw in them; journals should always be completely open-ended, meaning don't tell kids what to draw.

When children are done with their drawing, ask them to tell you about what they drew. Write their words at the bottom of the page.

Possible Extensions:

• This can be a great activity to do at nap time for the kids that don't nap
• Vary the materials made available to your kids for new opportunities for creativity (ex: stamps, stickers, different types of pens, pencils, markers, etc.)
• You may have some children that want to draw on many, many pages every time they sit down. That's ok! You may just need to add additional pages to their journal to keep up.