English activity- diary writing.

Hi everyone, 

I have a writing activity for you, I would like you to write a diary.  Before you start writing, you need to spend some time thinking and planning how you will lay out your diary, how many days will it cover, what events you will write about and whether you will include illustrations etc.

•  What is a diary? A diary is a where an individual keeps a record of their events, feelings and experiences.
•  Why do people write diaries? To tell the story of what is happening in their lives, so they can remember what happened, to share their feelings.
•  Can you think of any famous diaries? Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a fictional book series that journals the life of school boy Gregg Heffley, written by Jeff Kinney.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys (pronounced Peeps) was written in the 1660s. As well as recording public and historical events, Pepys paints a vivid picture of his personal life.

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank is one of the most famous diary ever written, Anne’s diary is an inspiring and tragic account of her family’s flight during the Second World War.

Each diary entry should include the following things:

• Name, age and school – shows who has written the diary
• Date – shows when the diary was written 
• First person – write about yourself. A diary tells the story of an episode in the writer’s life
• Past tense – write about what has already happened (although you can include sections about what their plans are for the future).
•  Self-reflection - write about your feelings, thoughts, hopes and fears

• Paragraphs – use a new paragraph when a new time, place, person or topic is written about
•  Personal pronouns – use words such as ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘we’ and ‘our’
•  Time conjunctions – use words such as ‘first’, ‘next’, ‘then’, ‘yesterday’.

I have attached an example from 'The diary of a wimpy kid.'

Hope you have lots of fun with your writing xx