Class Journal

Every student in grade 2 has his/her own personal journal to write in class. They are encouraged to write any stories or personal experiences that they might think interesting. I'm not so sure how often they are required to write, but according to Ilham he writes almost every day, but sometimes he does not have time. I found him purposely misspell during the spelling time in class so that he could stop doing the spelling and write in the journal instead. It seems that every monday when they have spelling, students who have reached 7 mistakes would stop and be required to either read or write while waiting for the other kids to finish their spelling which could be up to 30 words. So one day, Ilham "cheated" on the spelling by leaving out the last alphabet and spending the rest of the time writing his journal.

I think it's definitely a good idea to encourage kids to write and try to express their feeling in the journal. I try to do the same at home, but somehow it's quite difficult to do that. After much persuasions , he did manage to write a few things :( I love one particular story, which he wrote of his own accord, without having to be asked. He was so sad by what happened that he just had to write it immediately. It's a story about his favourite ball and how he lost it, he even drew a coffin for it :) complete with the remark "RIP Ball" which he got from watching Michael Jackson funeral a few months back .

But recently, ever since Ilham read the "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid" book, he is inspired to have a "journal" of his own. I'm happy that he has been writing in it every few days :)