For 2015, I want to encourage my five year old to start a journal. However, I couldn't quite find the right journal prompts for his particular skill set and interests (i.e., a five year old that has been reading since before age two and does math at least three grade levels above his age). So, naturally, I created my own set of journal writing prompts, tailored to his skills and interests.
Here are 31 math inspired journal writing prompts that are perfect for kids who love numbers, clocks, money, and math in general.
When I first started searching for journal prompts for his age group, I noticed that they were either too abstract for him or too boring for him.
Since he is fascinated with numbers and math, I set out to find math based prompts for him. Yet, if I searched for math journal prompts, then I ended up with more math problems than a writing exercise. He certainly does not need extra practice answering math problems considering he's already too far ahead in that department.
He does, however, need practice writing complete sentences.
He also needs to practice answering "wh" questions appropriately. Due to his hyperlexia and hypernumeracy, answering "wh" questions orally usually results in a generic response of "I don't know" or "That's tricky." I am hoping that by practicing appropriate written responses to these "wh" questions that we can reinforce what he needs to work on in terms of speech.
About these Math Inspired Journal Prompts
These math inspired journal writing prompts are not math problems that ask for the child to answer addition questions, for example. Although you will find a few that do.
Instead, these prompts encourage creative, abstract thinking using numbers and math as the basis. I target my son's interest in money, clocks, fractions, and more to encourage him to think outside the box a bit. These writing prompts also encourage some drawing.
To encourage extra fine motor skills, my five year old picks a prompt, cuts it out, and then glues it onto a piece of paper. Then he reads the prompt out loud before writing his answer.
We've tried out a handful of these prompts so far with great success. I have found out that my five year old would like to be the fraction "10/5 or two wholes" or that if he were a shape, then he'd like to be a 23-sided red shape.
And apparently if he had $1,000,000, he would buy himself a giant trampoline and that he "would buy mommy a laser gun because she wants one." Ha!
For the record, I don't want a laser gun.
Download the Free Journal Writing Prompts
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