Hello everyone!

Thanks for stopping by at the promise of an exciting new resource.

I’ve been posting stuff over on Instagram about resources that I use regularly and people are very keen to see them and download them, so here I am with another one!

I’ve been sharing more of my resources recently, and it’s lovely to know and see that my resources are being used and loved by people.

So… what’s this?

Well… this is what I’m calling a ‘Reflective Journal’ in my classroom.

Right… how do you use it? Why do you need it?

Honestly, my class don’t get along with each other very well sometimes. I’m a Y6 teacher, and my class this year find it hard to be kind to each other; find it a struggle to be respectful… so we get a lot of falling out; we get a lot of ‘tale-telling’ (we talked a lot about the difference between things that NEED to be shared and the things that can be written in their journal).

I was getting to a point where it was getting a bit much hearing their tales, PARTICULARLY at the end of break time and lunch time. So from that, this idea was born.

We spend 5 minutes just before home time reflecting:

• how they felt that day
• something they enjoyed that day
• the best thing about the day
• something that went wrong/something that wasn’t easy that day

The 5th prompt is different every day.

So… what do you get?

You get a word document with a cover and an editable template of this (above: some reflections of my children; below: examples of the front covers). I have some more examples over on my Instagram (@thisgeordieteaches) if you want to see them.

So what impact has it had?

Honestly, it’s helping to look for patterns, it helps show who is struggling, it’s bringing me smiles! If a child has written something that I want to speak to them about, I try and grab a few minutes the following day and speak to them about it. It’s not arduous – I spend 5 mins on a night time once the children have gone looking over them; I might spend 5 minutes checking in with a few children the following day; we spend 5 mins max filling in our journals just before home time (usually after story time and before Newsround!)

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If this sounds like your kind of jam or a resource you’d be interested in, then please feel free to click the download button below:

If you like this resource, you might want to check out my Teaching Resources page – there’s a whole load of stuff on there that will might be helpful!

If you find this resource useful and would like to support me, I have started a ko-fi page! Click this link if you’d like to support me – totally not compulsory! I will always share my resources for free… but some people have asked how they can support me!

As always, I’d love to know if this is any use to you! If you have any questions about them, that I’ve not answered here, you can leave me a comment, you can get in touch via the Contact tab at the top or you can tweet/DM me (if you follow me on social media!).

Please don’t put this on any websites claiming them as your own – a little credit (either of my blog, my twitter @eenalol or my Instagram @thisgeordieteaches) goes a long long way! A few people claimed my resources as their own in the past and it makes me a bit upset. I don’t charge for these; I’m not making any money from them; I’m sharing because the other ones were so popular and these may be useful to someone! If you do download and talk about them on your social media (which I really do appreciate), please please just give credit (don’t go selling them on TES for a fiver… yes, it has happened before). Please spread the love and share this as far and as wide as you wish!

S x