Enjoy the Silence Writing Journals
We are firm believers in the philosophy of draw, write and read (in that order)! When we teach children to draw, they build confidence and strength in their hands. They tap into listening and following direction abilities while building their fine motor skills. When children gain automaticity of words and letters from our daily writing practice then they transition into the ability to form sentences, a child is not only communicating in pictures and words but they are also reading.

Mid year, once a child has automaticity of letters and words, we advocate for taking the sight words of the day, guiding your class in direct instruction for writing those words but also forming a sentence using the sight words of the day. When a teacher guides the students in this practice, students quickly become aware of what makes up a sentence and will likely be more successful in writing them on their own. They learn that a capital letter begins most sentences, there should be spacing between the words, the lowercase letters should be touching the midline, letters should be constructed neatly and sit on the bottom line, and the sentence will end in punctuation. We call these smiley sentences. Children start off with 1 sentence, then graduate to 2-5 sentences. Once the sentences are constructed, students have them checked by a teacher then they either make corrections to their writing or draw a picture that ties to their writing. This journal is great for these weekly classroom or homeschool activities. We advocate for 1 hour a week dedicated to this practice we call “Enjoy the Silence” writing time.

Bottom line is if we want children to know how to write, we have to show them how to write, line by line! We can’t just show them an already constructed sentence and expect them to know what to do or how to craft it correctly on their own.