Science Notebooks Are Valuable

I've been away for a while for a variety of reasons.....but with this fresh look, I am going to make time to get on here and blog more often.  A HUGE shout out to Jolene from Paisley n' Polkadots Blog Designs for working with me to create this fun blog design.  She was amazing to work with!

My topic for today is science notebooks.  Science notebooks are such a terrific way to organize your students' learning as well as provide resources and tools to help them practice science as scientists as well as review for tests.  Letting students take ownership of their science notebooks can be a huge source of pride and motivation for students.

Benefits for teachers include accountability and grading, not having to give students the same information over and over (Go look in your science notebook!), as well as having motivated and engaged students.

There really are no rules for science notebooks.  Many traditional interactive notebook gurus have very systematic ways of keeping the notebooks such as odd pages are for vocabulary, even are for things you glue in, a table of contents in the front etc.  I prefer to leave the notebook a little more open ended and creative.  I provide papers and resources to be included in the notebook, but I allow students to be creative on how they set the notebook up.  It's up to you!!!

Click here for a freebie to help you get science notebooks started in your classroom.  Print off different colored covers for different groups if you like, or let your students choose.  Included in this freebie are covers, science safety pages (you never can stress safety enough!), and scientific process guides and templates.  These can be copied and used over and over.  Students can glue pages into a regular sized notebook, or shrink them down to 80% if you prefer the composition book.  So get going on preparing notebooks for your students to get ready for the next school year!  You won't regret it!

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