contributed by Ms. Doreen Farrugia, Year 3.1
Writing is universally considered as a means to externalize one’s own feelings and emotions, providing a means for the individual to examine their state of mind and response to their individual lives. The use of journal writing at year 3 level gives children the opportunity to undertake this in the safe and intimate space of a blank page in an unsupervised manner. This allows them to write freely, without the anxiety of having to heed a narratively and grammatically correct order. They can expose their private thoughts and emotions in a safe space which only they would review, granting an ideal platform from which they can question and weigh their state of being, allowing them a safe space for personal growth. The exercise takes place with only a starting point in the form of an idea, topic or art form such as a piece of music or image, used to stimulate an emotional or ideological response to which they can relate their own experiences.
