Class Writing Journals- Set #2 Using Informational Text!!

Boy howdy, am I excited about these!!  Based on feedback from buyers, I made another set of Class Writing Journals, but this time they focus on INFORMATIONAL writing.  It's like I am getting the kids to write mini-reports without them knowing.  Kinda sneaky of me, but a teacher has to do what a teacher has to do!

These match original- narrative journal set, but have a tiny twist in execution. A student reads from a non-fiction book from my class library, then they WRITE about it in the journal that matches that topic. For example, if they choose a book about Abraham Lincoln, then they write about it in the "Cool People" journal.  If they pick a book about volcanoes, they write some interesting facts about it in the Natural Disaster journal. Get it?

Additionally, each book has an "Idea Bank" on the inside cover.  This is chock-full of questions to help guide the student's writing.  There is also a mini word bank at the bottom, which was a really popular feature with my narrative set. :-)

                                      

I picked topics that were high interest to most students and that teachers would most likely have books about in their classrooms.

This set includes:
Amazing Animals  (kiddos can read any animal book and write about it.)
Bugs! Bugs! Bugs!  (insects and spiders)
Cool People (biographies and community worker books would work here.)
Cool Places (atlases, countries, states, travel books)
Dinosaurs
Human Body
Natural Disasters (tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes...)
Rocks (any type of rock or mineral book)
Ocean Friends (ocean animals)
Out of This World (space)
Wild Weather (clouds, storms, rain)

My students just LOVE writing in the journals and it is their favorite go to activity during Writer's Workshop time.  I encourage them to not only answer the questions but to include text features in their journal entries.

These have had RAVE reviews from all of the teachers who use Daily 5 and use them in their Work on Writing Centers. You can also use them to promote writing in your science and social studies centers, too!!

Here is an example of a finished book:

Just to mix it up, in a few weeks we are going to swap journals with our big-kid buddy class and see what they write in ours. We will reciprocate and add to theirs as well.  Last year this was the biggest deal- EVER!!

Be on the lookout.... I am also working on a PERSUASIVE set next.  That should spark some great writing!!

Happy writing!

Teach-A-Roo