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Journal Sentence Starter Cards
2 3 4 Pre & Primary Essentials Games & Activities Resources English Creating Texts 12 Pages

Journal Sentence Starter Cards

The Journal Sentence Starter Cards provide 45 engaging and imaginative prompts designed to help students get started with daily or weekly journal writing. Prompts include open-ended sentence stems like:

   • “If I could live in any book or movie…”
   • “One rule I would make for the world…”
   • “My favourite family tradition is…”

These cards encourage creative thinking, personal reflection, and consistent writing practice. Print, laminate, and store as a rotation or warm-up tool in your writing corner or literacy block.

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Learning goals

  • We are learning to create short imaginative, informative and persuasive multimodal texts using text structures, language and grammatical features appropriate to the audience and purpose.
  • We are learning to plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using text structures and language features appropriate to the audience and purpose.
  • We are learning to plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts with correct text structure, language features and grammatical features and incorporating research from a range of sources.
  • We are learning to create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using text structures and language features appropriate to the audience and purpose.
  • We are learning to re-read and edit text for spelling, sentence punctuation and text structure.
  • We are learning to use software, e.g. MS Word or PowerPoint to construct texts which include visual and audio elements.
  • We are learning to plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using text structures and language features appropriate to the audience and purpose.
  • We are learning to re-read and edit texts for appropriate meaning, structure, grammatical choices and punctuation.
  • We are learning to use software, e.g. MS Word or PowerPoint to plan, sequence, compose and edit multimodal texts featuring visual, print and audio elements.
  • We are learning to plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts with correct text structure, language features and grammatical features, and incorporate research from a range of sources.
  • We are learning to re-read and revise written texts and to edit texts for clarity, structure, grammatical and spelling accuracy.

Curriculum alignment

AC9E3LY06 9 Plan, create, edit and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive written and multimodal texts, using visual features, appropriate form and layout, with ideas grouped in simple paragraphs, mostly correct tense, topic-specific vocabulary and correct spelling of most high-frequency and phonetically regular words AC9E4LY06 9 Plan, create, edit and publish written and multimodal imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, using visual features, relevant linked ideas, complex sentences, appropriate tense, synonyms and antonyms, correct spelling of multisyllabic words and simple punctuation AC9E2LY06 9 Create and edit short imaginative, informative and persuasive written and/or multimodal texts for familiar audiences, using text structure appropriate to purpose, simple and compound sentences, noun groups and verb groups, topic-specific vocabulary, simple punctuation and common 2-syllable words ACELY1674 8.4 Construct texts featuring print, visual and audio elements using software, including word processing programs ACELY1672 8.4 Re-read and edit text for spelling, sentence-boundary punctuation and text structure ACELY1697 8.4 Use a range of software including word processing programs to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements ACELY1671 8.4 Create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using growing knowledge of text structures and language features for familiar and some less familiar audiences, selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose ACELY1682 8.4 Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features and selecting print,and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose ACELY1683 8.4 Re-read and edit texts for meaning, appropriate structure, grammatical choices and punctuation ACELY1695 8.4 Re-read and edit for meaning by adding, deleting or moving words or word groups to improve content and structure ACELY1685 8.4 Use software including word processing programs with growing speed and efficiency to construct and edit texts featuring visual, print and audio elements ACELY1694 8.4 Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features
EN2-3A old Uses effective handwriting and publishes texts using digital technologies EN1-3A old Composes texts using letters of consistent size and slope and uses digital technologies EN1-2A old Plans, composes and reviews a small range of simple texts for a variety of purposes on familiar topics for known readers and viewers EN2-2A old Plans, composes and reviews a range of texts that are more demanding in terms of topic, audience and language EN1-VOCAB-01 new Understands and effectively uses Tier 1, taught Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary to extend and elaborate ideas EN1-SPELL-01 new Applies phonological, orthographic and morphological generalisations and strategies when spelling words in a range of writing contexts EN1-PHOKW-01 new Uses initial and extended phonics, including vowel digraphs, trigraphs to decode and encode words when reading and creating texts EN1-CWT-01 new Plans, creates and revises texts written for different purposes, including paragraphs, using knowledge of vocabulary, text features and sentence structure EN1-HANDW-01 new Uses a legible, fluent and automatic handwriting style, and digital technology, including word-processing applications, when creating texts EN1-UARL-01 new Understands and responds to literature by creating texts using similar structures, intentional language choices and features appropriate to audience and purpose EN2-UARL-01 new Identifies and describes how ideas are represented in literature and strategically uses similar representations when creating texts EN2-HANDW-02 new Uses digital technologies to create texts EN2-SPELL-01 new Selects, applies and describes appropriate phonological, orthographic and morphological generalisations and strategies when spelling in a range of contexts EN2-CWT-03 new Plans, creates and revises written texts for persuasive purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience EN2-CWT-02 new Plans, creates and revises written texts for informative purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience EN2-CWT-01 new Plans, creates and revises written texts for imaginative purposes, using text features, sentence-level grammar, punctuation and word-level language for a target audience EN2-OLC-01 new Communicates with familiar audiences for social and learning purposes, by interacting, understanding and presenting EN2-VOCAB-01 new Builds knowledge and use of Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary through interacting, wide reading and writing, and by defining and analysing words
VCELY302 Use a range of software including word processing programs to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements VCELY233 Construct texts featuring print, visual and audio elements using software, including word processing programs VCELY300 Reread and edit for meaning by adding, deleting or moving words or word groups to improve content and structure VCELY299 Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features VCELY269 Use software including word processing programs with growing speed and efficiency to construct and edit texts featuring visual, print and audio elements VCELY267 Reread and edit texts for meaning, appropriate structure, grammatical choices and punctuation VCELY266 Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features and selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose VCELY230 Create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using growing knowledge of text structures and language features for familiar and some less familiar audiences, selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose VCELY231 Reread and edit text for spelling, sentence-boundary punctuation and text structure

Australian Curriculum covers QLD / SA / WA / NT / TAS / ACT.

Differentiation

Modifications

•    Allow oral journaling or scribing for emerging writers.
•    Group cards by theme (e.g. emotions, dreams, imagination) for focused lessons.
•    Provide visual aids for EAL/D or younger students to support comprehension.

Extensions

•    Pair with sketch journals for visual response entries.
•    Have students create their own sentence starters after modelling.
•    Use a random card each day as a class discussion or circle time prompt.

Teach it your way

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