Welcome to The Science Penguin! I’m thrilled to be part of this blog hop where upper elementary teachers are offering Back to School Survival Tips and hosting giveaways! We are giving away over $1000 in TpT gift certificates to kick off your year!
Are you a 3-6 teacher using Interactive Notebooks this year? Here are some tips for the first week of school!
1. Cover Decoration
Give students time to decorate a cover page for each notebook. Brainstorm ideas together, model, then let them work! There is so much happening that first week, it’s nice to have a little down time to allow students to work on setting up their notebooks. This is something they can always go back to if they finish organizing other parts early.
What do I like for them to do on that very first page?
Writing: Family Photos and Memories
Math: Math About Me
Science: Favorite Topics
History: A Map of the US
Reading: Recreate Covers of their Favorite Books
2. The Pesky Table of Contents
Pick up basically any book and show students the Table of Contents. Discuss the purpose of the TOC and why we include one in our notebooks. I use 3 pages for the Table of Contents in my composition books, so I model creating it on each of those 3 pages as students follow along to create theirs.
3. Number Those Pages
This is a real pain in the rear for me and since my students have an attention span that is roughly half of my measly one. Model, model, model. I like to get all the numbering (through at least page 100) done the first week, but it doesn’t have to be all at one time. Break it up into 25 at a time or 50 at a time. Allow students to work on their covers for a few minutes and take a break from numbering pages. Have pairs check each other and walk around to make sure the numbers look correct. Make a contest out of it. Let them see how quickly they can accurately number all of the pages.
4. Extra, Extra
A superstar will likely reveal herself to you the first day. This student can make a perfect notebook in her sleep and is ready to go. Why not ask her to make an extra for any students who transfer in? Just a Table of Contents and numbered pages will do!
Interested in Learning More about Science Notebooks?
I have lots of posts to help upper elementary teachers begin implementing interactive science notebooks.
You can browse photos of my notebook by topic, look at photos of my notebook for the first 2 weeks, make your lessons more interactive, and view a video of how I model quality work.
Giveaway
Want to get your hands on some fab TpT resources for the new school year? I am giving away two $25 TpT gift certificates. There are two opportunities to win and the contest ends August 2 at 11:45 pm. Enter using the Rafflecopter below.
More Tips and Giveaways
Do you want MORE survival tips and more opportunities to win TpT gift certificates? Visit my friends’ blogs below. In all, we are giving away over $1,000 in TpT gift certificates!
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