Morning work By Julie

They keep the journal in a two pocket folder. One pocket is labeled "Completed" and the other is labeled "Incomplete".

Each morning they get a journal page which has a place for the date and a question. I require them to write at least a paragraph of 8 sentences. At the bottom of the page, they are to color a picture of their entry. When they are finished with it, they place it in the complete pocket. If it is time for our morning meeting and they have not finished, they place it in the Incomplete side, and finish it later on in the day.
On the last day of the month, the students put the entries in order and we staple them together to send home. They also make a cover sheet to go on top of the entries. (Like..Amber's August Journal)

I do not take a grade for this, but I do check them and make comments on the entries. Comments can be anything like "I like bowling too, but you sound better than me" to "Remember to write in complete sentences".Sometimes I just read it and place a smiley face on it too. They get all types of feedback so as not too expect just one kind.

The parents really like it because it gets them inside their child's head and also, they have a concrete sampling of their writing.
Hope this helps!

PS. I get a lot of the questions from a book called "730 Journal Prompts" (grades 1-3) by the Education Center. There are two for every day of the year. But I also relate some of the questions to what we are learning in the classroom too. A good mix of both.