Handwriting is an essential lifelong skill that can be introduced in early childhood. To learn handwriting, children must combine language, memory, and fine motor skills. Journaling allows children to practice handwriting in a developmentally appropriate way. This year, the Fireflies Curriculum is offering Discovery Journals in monthly kits to provide more meaningful writing experiences for children.
Here are 5 benefits of using Discovery Journals as a part of handwriting practice:
Journals Offer Space
When children first practice writing, they need ample space to make marks. It is common for a child to use their whole arm and make large strokes until they refine their finger movements. As research from the Institute for Child Success explains, blank, unlined journal pages allow children to work in a designated area while having plenty of room to make marks, draw, and practice forming letters. Lined paper isn’t recommended until children have developed sufficient fine motor skills.
Journals Help Children Communicate
Journaling allows children to practice communicating their thoughts and ideas on paper, which can be represented through scribbles, drawings, and symbolic markings. Writing in a journal can help children process thoughts and articulate feelings they are unable to express verbally. Drawing and mark-making may feel more natural than using words, especially if children don’t have the right vocabulary to describe what they want to say.
Journals Can Be Used for Authentic Assessment and Family Communication
Most children follow predictable stages of writing development. In the emergent stages of writing, children begin to show an understanding that symbols, marks, and text have meaning. They will often scribble or draw to represent writing. Scribbles may begin to imitate cursive writing and have a left-to-right progression, but not be legible. As children become aware that words are made up of letters and that letters have sounds, they may begin to make marks that resemble letter-like shapes. They may also string the letters together in a left-to-right pattern to imitate printed words.
When the Discovery Journals are used regularly over the course of a year, the children’s progression in writing will be evident within the journal pages. You will see the children’s emerging writing as they learn to make marks, scribble, form letter-like symbols, draw pictures, and attempt to print letters and words. When explaining emergent writing skills to families, the journals can be used as a visual aid to show past and current stages of development.
Journal Prompts Are Provided in the Curriculum
Activities in the curriculum guide provide suggestions for when to use the Discovery Journals each month. Children are encouraged to fill out pages that have theme-related prompts mentioned at different times within the month, and there are blank journal pages included that correspond with specific activities that provide opportunities to record observations, express emotions, share thoughts through drawings, practice letter formation, and more.
Journals Connect Different Learning Domains
When children are encouraged to fill out their Discovery Journals, they aren’t just practicing handwriting. Skills across all learning domains are developing. Throughout the year, children will have the opportunity to use their journals to express emotions and show preferences (social/emotional), track observations (science), chart and record (math), draw (creative arts), and share traditions/customs (social studies).
As children move through the progressive stages of writing, they need opportunities to practice handwriting in a developmentally appropriate way. This includes learning how to hold a writing tool, expressing thoughts and feelings on paper, staying within a designated space to write, and exploring how lines and marks can convey meaning. Journaling is a great way to do all of these things!
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