Dear Diary...

Hello!

Diary writing is an excellent practice that can help students polish their writing skills. It not just aids in building complete and meaningful sentences but students learn to express through words at a very early stage. It also gives the freedom to choose what you want to write about.

My students of grade 02 came across this form of writing when we were reading about a character in a story who loved to write in her diary. The idea was new to my class but we started simple i.e. by brainstorming ideas on writing a diary. 

We looked at a few samples of diary writing and made a note of following points:

• writing the date
• addressing it to the diary
• feeling free to write about anything we would like to
• keeping the diary a secret if we want to
• it can be written whenever we want to write
• we can also illustrate to express

In the beginning it was a little challenging for 7-8 year olds to decide on a topic. So, we decided to write about what they did last Sunday. This got them thinking and it was easier to narrow down ideas and thoughts. 

For any creative piece, I always like to begin with the whole class and then move on to them writing individually. We chose to write about our field trip to the museum since it was common to us all. In this process, I write on the board while students help me with sentences and ideas. They are guided and corrected as well. Once the class diary was ready, we read it out together. 

After this, we move on to writing in smaller groups with our group teachers. Here the students reach out to teachers when stuck and it can be better monitored if they are on the right track. Once they are done, if they choose to, they can read out their piece to their teachers and friends. 

This activity worked well for my class and helped my children in developing better writing skills. Some of them had even started writing in a diary at their homes. It is great exercise that you should also try with your class.