I teach in a class with k- grade 9 students. I give my little ones some visual prompts and they need to answer by drawing pictures that show more or less, bigger or smaller. We do a lot of talking ahead of time about what numbers look like, hands on work making numbers with manipulatives, ways to count, including tally marks and sets, so when they move into Math Writing they have an idea how to represent numbers. I have also had them cut pictures out of advertisements to use creating number stories.

I have been using math journals with my kindergartners for the first time this year. Most of the time I have been pleased, but there are days when the prompt is too difficult so it flops. So here is what I do…hope it helps. I started simply by teaching the children the routines. In the beginning everyone worked on their math journals at the same time. The children learned to place the label (I print the prompt on address labels) on the top of the page, to write the date and answer the prompt to the best of their abilities. I gave suggestions and LOTS of encouragement during these first few days. The first few prompts were simply to demonstrate a number, such as 3, in many ways. The children wrote the number, used tally marks, drew 3 objects, a few even surprised me and attempted to write the word three. Once the children knew the routines I began having them rotate through journals as part of Math 3. Initially I kept the journal prompts rather simple and increased difficulty gradually. The key to good journal prompts is leaving them open-ended. I accomplish this by allowing children options to choose the number, shape, addition problem they are working on or give them cards to draw from. At this time we have worked up to some simple word problems with many different solutions. For example, “If there are 5 children on the playground how many of them are boys and how many are girls? How many ways can you think of?” The key to Math Journals with young children is to start simple and step by step, move slowly, and expect lots of bumps along the way. I model frequently so the children have an idea of how to proceed. Remember it is always a work in progress! I got some prompts from
k-5mathteachingresorces.com Good luck!