I think of all the creative things I get to do as a nanny, planning Active Learning Journals has to be one of my favorites. I wish this was something I thought to create in my classroom teaching days!
If you’re not familiar with Active Learning Journals (ALJ) I have a few other posts you can look search for in the Active Learning Journal tab. Basically an ALJ is whatever you want or need it to be! I love the fact that it’s a tangible indicator of growth I can show to my nanny parents.
With this themed journal, you’ll need a few things(in fact, these are the items that you’ll always want to always have around if you plan to implement ALJ!):
Markers or Crayons in Primary Rainbow Colors
Scissors
Primary Rainbow Colored Construction Paper
Glue
Wiki Sticks, Yarn or Playdough
Small Rainbow Colored Math Counters or Fruit Loops
Do a Dot Markers or Dot Stickers
Alphabet Magnets and Stickers
Dice
Mini Cars or Small Stampers
I went full wild this time around and filled an entire small notebook with ideas. Once I get started, it’s hard to find a stopping point. A few of these ideas are repetitive, which is part of the brilliance of an ALJ, I’ll be able to track E’s (3.5 yo) growth over time. Keep in mind that dating each page your child completes is essential for tracking growth! Remember that these are just suggestions for ideas. You know your child best and know what skills he is working on!
First off are the pages that only require a marker or crayon.
This is a pretty basic theme you’ll see over and over in this journal. Tracing. E has really started to master her pencil grip and is interested in writing “notes”, I’m all about giving her opportunities to work on those skills in a fun way! With this tracing page she will be working her color matching skills along with tracing on a large curve.
Another tracing page with multiple straight lines. I’ll encourage E to work from left to right, a fundamental pre-writing and pre-reading skill.
Now that I’m looking at this page, I’m wondering if E will be overwhelmed by it. The goal is to trace each circle using the correct color. If she becomes frustrated, I’ll gladly have her just trace circles to practice that motion needed to strengthen her shoulder muscles. When I present this to her, I’ll have her trace each circle with her finger so she is able to see each hidden circle. You could also just put multiple circles on the page, they don’t need to overlap!
E loves zig zag lines of any kind! We might even use this as a fine motor page and fill with math counters or fruit loops.
Now that we’ve worked all the muscles needed in pre-writing, we’re ready to introduce a super important letter! I know I’ve mentioned before that E is highly interested in the letter E, for obvious reasons! She has not shown any interest in any other letters so we’re going the Montessori route and just sticking to something personal for her. Later on in the journal, I do have a page dedicated to her name which might spark some interest because it’s been a while since we’ve talked about all the letters in her name. I’ve always said that kids will learn letters when they are ready and starting with the letters in their name is the perfect place to start!
I have two pages to use with Do a Dot Markers or Circle Stickers!
First up is this simple color match rainbow. We’re going to use Do a Dot markers, you could also use colored circle stickers instead.
Going off our E theme, E will stamp the capital E’s she can see. You could make this however you want. Pick any letter to isolate and have your child find it. This works awesome with numbers as well.
I found a bag of rainbow colored Wiki Sticks in the Target dollar spot a few months ago and instantly knew we needed them for our ALJ! E will form the sticks to cover the large E on the paper. I won’t worry about color matching right now. You could also use yarn or playdough for this page.
Using Wiki Sticks again, E will form an arch in the missing color to finish each rainbow. I know she’ll need some help with this one. I drew one complete rainbow in the top left corner to help with her frustration level.
Next up are the two pages you’ll need scissors and construction paper!
First up is the classic cutting in a straight line. E is highly motivated by her scissors, so she’ll love this!
My idea for this page will take a little more adult help. I’m going to cut the rectangles from construction paper and have E glue each one in it’s correct place. You could also have your child tear or cut small pieces to fill each rectangle! Before she glues, I might have her use our rainbow unifix cubes to fill each space as well.
These last few pages use a few more of the manipulatives I listed at the top of this post!
I love this page so much! We’ll use our dice to roll and color all the flowers following the code at the top of the page.
I have all sorts of colored math counters that we will use to fill each circle with. You could use fruit loops to color match which would be a fun multi sensory experience! After we’re done I’ll probably have E color in each circle to practice more fine motor skills.
E’s name happens to have 6 letters which worked great for this theme. I’m not showing you the complete page for privacy reasons! In the end I made four rainbow sets like this, I wrote her name in two rainbows and kept two blank. I have small letters that she will use to cover her name in the first two rainbows. In the second set, she’ll use stickers.
During Valentine’s I had found some mini car stampers that the kids fell in love with! We are going to use those again on this page, which is why it’s called On Your Mark! Get Set! Go! You could use small cars to practice fine motor control. Stampers would be a fun way to fill each line. If you want something simple, this could be another tracing page. I think circle stickers would be great here as well!
Alright, I hope you could find at least ONE activity page you can try with your child! I’d love to connect with you on Instagram @rachrunstx or theteachingnannyblog@gmail.com
The Teaching Nanny 