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Early Childhood

Interactive Journal

Author Post
Stephanie Dempsey Stephanie Dempsey 1100 Points

What are some ideas on how to organize a science journal? I want my students to really be able to utilize their journals and I think organization will be a big part of that.

Carolyn Mohr Carolyn Mohr 92596 Points

Hi Stephanie, I think journaling t is a great idea to encourage our little ones to make observations and begin recording "data". Making daily and/or weekly observations about specific things may be a great way to start. For example, having the children draw a picture of what the weather is like outside, or having them cut out a photo that describes the temperature, season of the year, etc. I would love to hear from pre-school teachers who use interactive journals! What is engaging our younger children to encourage journaling?

Aimee Perry Aimee Perry 270 Points

What will you be using for a journal? I think breaking it down to sections and then tabbing those off (older students doing their own or parent/volunteers) before using them. Have students number their pages and keep a running Table of Contents at the beginning of the journals.

Christine Bedwell Christine Bedwell 1605 Points

There are many different ways to do this. Google interactive learning logs and you will get a wealth of information. You have to find what works for you and your students. It can get overwhelming, so I would suggest start simple and add a little more as you get them going.

Stephanie Dempsey Stephanie Dempsey 1100 Points

Hi everyone, Thank you for your help. We have students bring spiral notebooks that we use as their journal. I like the idea of tabbing it off. For first graders, would you buy tabs and write the topic for them or have them do it. I'm trying to let go of some of the control but not too much.

Samantha Coyle Samantha Coyle 2245 Points

Since it is just for science, I don't think there is a great need to tab things off. I think a table of contents would suffice better, also allowing that ELA objective to be tied in. Items would be in the order taught, topics grouped together, and easily found by looking it up and going to the page. You might even have a TOC that they copy and follow, that way everyone had everything on the same page.

Cayla DiSalvo Cayla DiSalvo 660 Points

Stephanie, Journaling is a great way to extend a lesson. You could always use this to assess the understanding of your students or to analyze questions they may have. I would organize your journal day by day. Allow your students to respond to each lesson and ask them to leave their journals in class and evaluate their responses. I hope this helps! Wishing you a fabulous year!

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