Start of the day.

How about having them listen to a story in listening center and respond through art with captions. This could take up more than just “journal time.”

If you have computers in your classroom, how about using some time to have the students work with special software that helps them practice on the special reading instruction you are providing which is developmentally appropriate for them?

I wouldn’t start right off with journal writing. Writing can come very hard to some children with learning differences and you want the day to start on a positive note with an activity not so taxing.

There are ‘thought for the day’ sites and ‘quote for the day’. I’ve sometimes read a quote or a thought and invited some thoughtful discussion of it for a few minutes. Students started to bring in their own quote or thought which was great. Other years I’ve done a quick and easy ‘news of the day’.

I like the first activity of the day to be encouraging of a sense of shared community.

Even though I agree with your thought, I still see a short time, as students arrive, that most teachers use what I used to call “Bell Work” or “Board work”—something to do while roll is taken, papers turned in, and lunch counts sent forward. Lots of teachers nowdays put up a journal prompt for that time. (Students for whom writing is difficult could draw something during that 5-10 minute time.)

You might have another good idea for that time.

“Find a fact” — to start my content area classes I have a couple of questions to be answered — so for Geography they’d “find 5 capes in South America” or “Whta are the 7 continents?” I’d encourage them to commit things like those continents to memory. For math Joyce Steeves recommends a “number of the day” and the students write problems with that answer; she says “1 point for every plus sign, 2 for every minus sign, 3 for times, 4 for division” (though starting just with plus and minus if that’s more appropriate to the skill level).
I’d also use bell-work time for helping kids understand test question vocabulary and learn “question-answering” language. WOrds like “example,” “definition,” and “reason for” can slow language impaired kids down. So “What is an example of an insect?” “What is a definition of an insect?” What is one way insects are different from mammals?” (after they know what mammals are — and I’d probably have a picture of one handy even if it were my own apalling scrawl).

Bell work was a mandate one year, and my students decided they wanted to learn all the presidents. So the first 5=6 minutes of class were spent with 3 minutes studying, then 3 minutes going ‘round the room and seeing how many prezzes they could name, in order, thank you. Since it was their total that counted, the kiddo that only got a few of ‘em still knew he was making a contribution and was encouraged (and it just wasn’t a competitive group).