Tween Ink! Journal Writing for Tweens

Ever since I've started to do children's programming, I've always wanted to try some kind of writing program. I had my chance last month to do a Journal writing program for 4th - 6th graders. This was a three-part series, with each week having a different topic.

Week 1: How to Get Your Journal Started
This session we discussed a little about why we journal, and the different kinds of journals you could have (travel diaries, shared journals, blogs, etc.) Then we spent the rest of the hour decorating journals I had bought at Staples. I really lucked out with finding about 25 journals on-sale for only $0.70 - $1.00 a piece. The kids then decorated their journals with fabric, felt, stickers, ribbons, and other odds and ends that staff members donated.

Week 2: Discovering Topics to Write About
This session we discussed and shared different topics to write about. Because there were so few of us (only 3 attendees), we all sat at the same table and spent most of the time writing and sharing our responses to the prompts. I had the tweens different writing exercises that I found in the book "Keeping a Journal" by Trudi Trueit. Some of the exercises we did included: Freewriting Activity: Set a timer for 3 minutes. Begin writing whatever pops into your head: the weather, your pet, a hobby, school - anything. Don't worry about spelling, grammar, or punctuation. Don't cross anything out. And whatever you do, don't stop. If your mind goes blank, simply scrawl your name until something else strikes you.
The Real You Activity: Answer the following questions and work to go beyond the simple explanation "because I do" to find a deeper reason. If you can't come up with a reason for each response, leave that part blank and try again later.

1. My favorite color is_______because:




2. My favorite subject in school is________because:




3. I am afraid of_______because:




4. The thing I most admire about myself is________because:

After we did the writing exercises I had the participants write their own prompt on a piece of paper, and then we drew them one-by-one from a bowl and shared the topics and wrote our responses.

Week 3: Using Popular Books to Create Entries

I knew I could pull in the boys this week because I used Diary of a Wimpy Kid in the fliers. My plan this week was to booktalk different books that used journal and diary formats. Some of the titles I had displayed included:
Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf by Jennifer Holm
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Dork Diaries by Rachel Russell
Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow
Safari Journal by Hudson Talbott

I was also going to talk about the 1001 Journals project.

However, things don't always go as planned when programming for children. My numbers for this program were small, some of the reasons being Spring Break and not enough promotion of the program. Would I try this program again? Definitely.