Journaling in Physical Education and Wellness (PE&W)
Written by Chesa Peter
In alignment with the new Alberta K-6 PE&W curriculum, Ever Active has released the PE&W Student Journal resource in both English and French. This resource includes over 50 journaling prompts and pages per grade, and is currently available for at no cost!
Why Journaling Fits in Physical Education and Wellness
Journaling is a well-documented practice for supporting:
- Self-reflection and personal growth
- Stress management and emotional regulation
- Creativity and expression
- Tracking progress and celebrating achievements
These benefits are just as relevant in a physical education and wellness context as they are in the classroom. When students take a few moments to reflect, sketch, or write, they are not just recording their experiences, they are making sense of them.
Physical education and wellness spaces are uniquely positioned to help students link movement and health concepts to their everyday lives. Journaling provides the bridge: from the gymnasium to the homeroom, from practice to personal meaning.
5 Tips for Making Journaling Work in PE&W
Here are five practical tips for integrating journaling in your PE&W Program:
Set the tone: Emphasize that journaling is personal and creative. While some responses may be assessed, spelling and grammar aren’t the focus. Encourage authentic reflection over “perfect” writing.
Make time and be consistent: Journaling works best as a routine. Collaborate with colleagues to carve out dedicated time, perhaps right after a block in the gym, so students can reflect before the learning fades.
Encourage creativity and personalization: Give students ownership of their journals. Let them design covers, decorate pages, and personalize entries. This sense of connection makes journals meaningful and easier to manage.
Conference and share: Use journaling as a conversation starter. Circulate while students write, check in individually, and invite sharing.
Stay organized: To avoid journals being misplaced, create a system using storage bins, crates, or a designated shelf. When multiple teachers share PE&W, journals can travel between classrooms, reinforcing the subject’s holistic nature.
How the Resource Supports Teachers
The PE&W Student Journal is not meant to be a stand-alone workbook. Instead, it acts as a flexible companion, adaptable to the rhythms of the program.
- Curricular alignment: Each journaling activity connects directly to Knowledge, Understanding, Skills, and Procedures (KUSPs) in the Alberta Physical Education and Wellness curriculum.
- Flexible formats: Pages are available as slides that can be projected, printed, or used digitally. Students can respond in a scribbler, duotang, or binder, depending on what works best.
- Extension opportunities: The appendix offers curricular connections and extension activities, helping teachers plan holistically across a school year.
- Assessment support: Journals provide rich evidence of learning—especially in the affective and cognitive domains. Students can set goals, monitor growth, and demonstrate understanding in multiple ways, while teachers gain authentic insight into their progress.
Journaling as Assessment
Assessment in PE&W often raises questions: How do we capture more than physical performance? How do we recognize the thinking, feeling, and reflecting that is just as important as skill development?
The Physical Education and Wellness Student Journal can:
- Support formative assessment by checking for understanding.
- Act as evidence for summative assessment, when paired with co-created criteria.
- Develop self-assessment skills as students set goals and track growth.
- Enable triangulation of evidence across observation, conversation, and product.
- Foster feedback loops between teachers and students, even when PE&W is taught by multiple educators.
Journals, in this sense, are not just a tool for students. They are a tool for teachers, providing windows into the often-invisible aspects of physical education and wellness learning.
Bringing It All Together
At its heart, journaling in PE&W is about giving students a voice. It allows them to reflect on challenges, celebrate successes, and connect their physical learning to broader wellness concepts. It also helps teachers capture meaningful evidence of learning that goes beyond the stopwatch or scorecard.
The Physical Education and Wellness Student Journal makes this practice accessible, flexible, and adaptable to your unique context. Whether you’re a homeroom teacher weaving wellness into daily routines or a PE specialist managing transitions between spaces, this resource supports you in making journaling a consistent and impactful part of your program.
Want to try it?
The Physical Education and Wellness Student Journal is available in English and French.
Do you want to try journaling this year with your students? We are looking for five K-6 teachers to implement this resource for the 25/26 school year, please reach out to chesa@everactive.org if you are interested in being a part of this field testing cohort!
