Wacky Word Wednesday: Summer Journal

Objectives:
* To use fine motor skills involved with writing and drawing
* To consistently practice writing and drawing skills daily
* To recall events that happened during the day
* To be creative and use imagination to write stories
* To practice writing longer journals and use more details

Materials:
* spiral notebook or journal
* pencil or pen

Procedure:
* Each day have your child write a journal entry.  This can be a recall of what happened during the day or an original story.  Let them draw a picture to represent their story. This is a great daily exercise to practice writing and help them use their imagination and/or memory skills.  My kids do this every day at school, so it's important to continue during the summer in order to maintain these skills.  I love reading what they write each day!

* For younger children: Let them draw a picture and tell you about it.  Then you can write down what they say.  This is called the Language Experience Approach (LEA).  This helps them recognize that what they say can be written down into words.  They will start to correlate the spoken words with the written words which promotes early reading.

* Extension for older children:  Encourage them to write with more detail, describing each aspect of their story with more adjectives and creative phrases.