Journals are a fantastic way for students to share their progress, gather ideas and reflect on experience. Learn how to make your own digital mulitimedia journals with your students. 

Creating Journals with Book Creator: Activity Ideas for Every Classroom

Check out this series of Book Creator ebooks. These experienced educators share their tips, ideas and resources to help you supercharge your lessons!

Using Book Creator in the classroom

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Can teachers make journals? You bet! On the Book Creator blog, you can find a wonderful story from Jennifer Stack who worked with a student to help document his first year of secondary school. <a href="https://bookcreator.com/2020/06/documenting-my-first-year-at-secondary-school/">Use this link to read her story!</a>

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A Digital Diary of my first year at secondary school, CBS The Green Tralee, County Kerry.

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If you are teaching nutrition this year, a healthy eating journal is a great option for having kids reflect on their food choices! A journal doesn't have to be a log but a place for students to record their thoughts and ideas. Journals are great places for reflection and capturing ideas. A healthy eating journal can help students collect favorite recipes or recipes they'd like to try with their family. Encourage students to snap pictures, add links, and use the embed feature to include YouTube tutorials they find!

Prompts you might use: + Share a favorite healthy snack. + What healthy meals would you make for your friends? + Where do you learn about fruits and vegetables?

Learn more: <a href="https://bookcreator.com/2014/02/book-creator-student-designed-curriculum-itunes-u/">Healthy Eating Curriculum with Book Creator</a>

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Today we tried a new recipe. It was a healthy snack! I loved adding blueberries to our pancakes today. Everyone should try it.

Mrs. Addison made a book that is perfect for student journal entries. It includes pages students can fill in with ideas, and plenty of prompts you can customize for your students. <a href="https://app.bookcreator.com/books?importbook=Y5ShiSlIT7iFn8jAXB_ijw&amp;u=FI1jKsDURCdlFqjcModc0FUoN8U2&amp;a=Lisa%20Addison&amp;t=All%20About%20ME&amp;utm_content=bufferbf1cb&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer&amp;fbclid=IwAR2yU-QERUU__Ne0cTKLefTKG9kojZ7gGQkNzxphtwI5fb3S2iOB7DAxLCQ">Use this link to copy the book </a> <a href="https://app.bookcreator.com/books?importbook=Y5ShiSlIT7iFn8jAXB_ijw&amp;u=FI1jKsDURCdlFqjcModc0FUoN8U2&amp;a=Lisa%20Addison&amp;t=All%20About%20ME&amp;utm_content=bufferbf1cb&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer&amp;fbclid=IwAR2yU-QERUU__Ne0cTKLefTKG9kojZ7gGQkNzxphtwI5fb3S2iOB7DAxLCQ">to your Book Creator library.</a>

About the Author .................... Introduction ........................ Back-to-School Journals ............. Science Experiment Journals ......... Community Interview Journals ........ Summertime Journals ................. Healthy Eating Journals ............. Feelings Journals ................... Reading Journals .................... Brainstorming Journals .............. Inquiry Journals .................... Goal Setting Journals ............... Digital Portfolios .................. Teacher Spotlights ..................

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Dr. Monica Burns is a former classroom teacher, EdTech &amp; Curriculum Consultant, and Book Creator Ambassador. She is the author and co-author of numerous books, including Tasks Before Apps (ASCD) and lots of Book Creator resources!

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In this post on the Book Creator blog, you can learn about creating a yearbook with Book Creator. This is a fantastic way to sum up the year and could include entries from individual students with their favorite moments! Read the blog post and see examples from Arizona educators!

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Creating yearbooks with Book Creator - Book Creator app

A science experiment has lots of steps and a journal is a great way for students to keep track! Students can use a journal to keep track of the growth of their bean plant, chemical reactions in a petri dish, or any experiment. This type of journal lets students pause and reflect on experiences. It brings English Language Arts skills into the science classroom. Students can snap pictures, record their voice and give daily updates in their journal.

Prompts you might use: + Summarize the steps you took today. + Describe a challenge or something unexpected. + What extra support do you need to be successful?

Read more: <a href="https://read.bookcreator.com/library/-LCESe5qTaw-qLZCBqm3/book/GD9ER9doTAmhUpAf8Mxz1A">15 Science Class Projects for Book Creator</a>

Have your students capture their learning for the year! Students can keep track of their journey learning a new skill or share updates on a weekly or monthly basis throughout the year. With a digital portfolio, students can <a href="https://intercom.help/bookcreator/en/collections/1389505-creating-books#working-with-images-and-video">snap pictures</a>, <a href="https://intercom.help/bookcreator/en/collections/2400114-appsmashing">embed work</a> created in other places and <a href="https://intercom.help/bookcreator/en/articles/2398638-record-your-voice-onto-the-page">add reflections</a>. In addition to keeping everything in one place, is serves as an artifact of everything they have accomplished over the school year. You might ask students to include a goal or "next step" after updating their digital portfolio with new work.

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Prompts you might use: + What is one thing you are most proud of? + What surprised you the most this year? + How something you learned changed your thinking?

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Students can set goals anytime of year! You can set up a regular routine in your classroom and have students set short and long-term goals. A goal setting journal might include weekly check-ins on a Monday and Friday. You can ask students to record their goals on Monday in a "what" and "why" format and then revisit their goals on Friday to see what they can add for the upcoming week.

● FINISH BOOK ● LEARN A NEW SONG ON THE PIANO ● CLEAN MY ROOM

Prompts you might use: + What would you like to accomplish this week? + What help will you need to accomplish your goal? + How successful were you in reaching your goals?

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A feeling journal is a space for students to record their emotions. A multimedia space like an ebook gives them the option to share their feelings in video, audio, text, or even with emojis. This year, you might try out a feelings journal to have students record their thoughts and emotions at the beginning or the start of the day. Students can look back at how they tackled an issue in the past, or notice how it's okay to have "good" days and "bad" days as they review past entries.

Prompts you might use: + How are you feeling today? + What emojis show how you are feeling today? + How did today's activity make you feel?

Learn more: <a href="https://read.bookcreator.com/library/-LCESe5qTaw-qLZCBqm3/book/LOwCwk_4Qq-5QyejdUqQCg">Book Creator Projects for Social-Emotional Learning</a>

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Any time of year is great for journaling, but a summertime journal is a great activity for kids learning at home! Students can add a few entries each week to create a multimedia journal that captures their summer adventures. A summertime journal gives students lots of space to be creative. Teachers can give students a set of expectations or ideas to explore, but still provide lots of options for students to share the story of their summertime with daily or weekly entries.

Learn more: <a href="https://read.bookcreator.com/library/-LCESe5qTaw-qLZCBqm3/book/DmnE3sJwSn6nvM5GiKFWjw">The Big Book Creator Activity Book</a>

Zoom call with my best friend

Paint my brother's nails

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Prompts you might use: + What did you read, watch, or listen to today? + Describe a moment you used math this week. + Name one thing would you change about your day?

A great way for students to learn about their community is to conduct interviews! Over the course of the school year or semester, students can interview a different person from their community once a week. Students can interview a new person each week and reflect on that experience in a journal entry. This series of interviews will leave them with a journal capturing lots of details and fun facts about their community.

Prompts you might use: + Who did you interview and what did you learn? + After the interview finished, what lingering questions do you still have? + What new piece of information did you learn about our community?

Read more: <a href="https://read.bookcreator.com/library/-LCESe5qTaw-qLZCBqm3/book/fIoGbwKuTAmSA6Dp4vWxng">15 Social Studies Class Projects for Book Creator</a>

Name: Ms. Anderson Notes: Spoke with Ms. Anderson, our school nurse. She has worked here for 22 years. That's double my age!

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There are so many ways for students to journal their reading experiences! From summaries and lingering questions, to book lists and recommendations, you can use reading journals with students of all ages. Instead of a traditional reading log and accompanying summaries, ask students to record and reflect on their reading experiences with multimedia. Encourage students to try video responses, audio entries, and using shapes to organize their thoughts.

This year I have read lots of comics. I have learned to use dialogue to help tell the story.

Prompts you might use: + What did you read today? + What surprised you in your book today? + What topics would you like to know more about?

One genre I hope to try soon is historical fiction. My teacher said that we will read stories which are sort of true and could have happened a long time ago.

Learn more: <a href="https://read.bookcreator.com/library/-LCESe5qTaw-qLZCBqm3/book/BLYyvehmTnunA91hurtYzg">15 ways to use Book Creator for Reading Responses</a>

A great way to start off the school year is with a back-to-school journal! Students can chronicle their first few weeks starting a new school year and share a bit about themselves. This lets their teacher learn about them at the start of the term, and provides an opportunity for students to share their interests, excitement, or hesitations at the beginning of the school year.

Prompts you might use: + What is your favorite thing about school? + What topic do you hope to learn about this year? + How can I help you be your best?

Today is the very first day of school! Super excited to learn how to write my own stories!

Read more: <a href="https://read.bookcreator.com/library/-LCESe5qTaw-qLZCBqm3/book/AaZ8Pc7lSBeehE9TWxSlVg">Back to School with Book Creator</a>

A traditional writer's workshop journal asks students to record their thoughts and ideas throughout the school year. With a brainstorming journal, students can capture their ideas for future stories. Use this brainstorming journal to keep track of story ideas. For example, they can snap a picture of a space that would be a great setting for story. Students can also sketch pictures of characters they would like to use or list favorite character traits, the possibilities are endless!

Prompts you might use: + Note your ideas for the setting of a story. + What author's writing do you love to read? + Describe the type of character that would be fun to write a story about.

Learn more: <a href="https://bookcreator.com/2020/06/using-book-creator-for-writing-workshop/">Using Book Creator for Writing Workshop</a>

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My next story will be set in a forest. This image captures the feeling perfectly.

An inquiry journal can help students capture ideas for research projects. You might call it a curiosity journal or a question journal, depending on how you introduce it to students. If you use inquiry journals in your classroom, you might ask students to pause each day to write questions they have, things they wonder about, or something that piqued their curiosity. The purpose of an inquiry journal is to give students ideas they can use for research projects at a future time.

Prompts you might use: + What is something you're wondering about? + What questions did you Google today? + List questions about what we learned today.

Learn more: <a href="https://bookcreator.com/2015/05/penguin-research-gone-digital/">Penguin Research Gone Digital</a>

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or visit <a href="https://read.bookcreator.com/library/-LCESe5qTaw-qLZCBqm3">Using Book Creator in the Classroom</a>

Why journals? Journals are a fantastic way for students to share their progress, gather ideas, and reflect on their experiences. A multimedia journal lets students go beyond adding text to the page to include: + photographs + images + video + links + narration + and more! Journals might have a structure, but can still provide lots of space for students to be creative and decide on how to capture their thinking.

Give students a structure and share an exemplar

Introduce the different media options available 

Encourage students to try out different media on their page

Provide a series of prompts for students to choose from

Give students opportunities to share and ask for feedback

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