I've created a journaling page. It includes a space to draw and a few lines to write. After chatting with my step-mother (a 2nd grade school teacher), she emphasized the importance of journaling even if it's as simple as writing about something they did that day. To sort of reinforce her claim, I found an article written by Tonya Wright where she discusses the value of journal writing. The article can be found on the Literacy Connections website.

Below is an excerpt from the article, but it's worth checking out the original article if you have time.

Journal writing with young children serves five major purposes:
1. It teaches children that their thoughts, feelings, and words can be transferred from their minds onto paper for others to see and read.
2. Children learn to value writing, and to respect the writing of others.
3. Journal writing gives children REAL and RELEVANT opportunities to learn the conventions of print such as:
     a) Print goes from left to right;     b) There is a difference between pictures and text;     c) Print goes from the top to the bottom of a page;     d) Letters make up words, and other rules of the written language.
4. Young children need to experiment with letters, letter sounds, and inventive spelling in a non-threatening way.
5. Writing gives children time to practice the fine motor control that will help them become better writers.

Journaling Page

Vocabulary & Writing Practice

I found two great resources for help in learning new vocabulary and practice writing.

1. Vocabulary word lists from EnchantedLearning.com for K-2nd grade

2. Handwriting Worksheet Creator from Lakeshore Learning

I figure I can use the vocabulary list to create the worksheets. We learn some new words while also practicing our handwriting. How great!!

Analogies

The following is a link to the Analogies folder that contain the worksheets I have created for analogy practice. The level of these may vary significantly, but I have tried to keep it at the level I think Little Man could handle with only minimal help from me. Each worksheet has a corresponding "answer" version.

Analogy Worksheets

Book Reports

Book reports seem to serve multiple purposes for us and is a great tool for not only reading and writing, but also for comprehension and communication. Linked below here is the folder where I have saved the book report worksheets.

The "General" book report seems to work best for us at the moment, but there are other formats. As I find need for the other formats I will create them and add them to this folder.

Book Report Worksheets