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I am looking for examples of creative setups for science notebooks and how to incorporate the CCSS into science notebooks.

In my kindergarten class the students have what they call a science journal. It is a small composition book where they glue any worksheet or recording sheet they do for science. They also use this journal to make drawings of their observation when I do a demonstration in class.

Here are some ideas: http://sciencenotebooking.blogspot.com/search?q=seasons

Interactive journals would be a great way to incorporate journals in your classroom. Interactive notebooks are used in many schools. They allow students to be creative by personalizing their own notes.

My suggestions for set-up would be to record and/or post any content on the left side of the opened notebook, and write related reflections on the right hand side of the opened notebook. I tape long ribbons inside the back cover of my students' notebooks, and they use this ribbon to fold over and mark the page they are currently working on. It's often hard hard for little ones to retrieve their most recent page in a longer notebook, and this helps.

I think just simply implementing an interactive notebook would suffice for science. It doesn't have to be an extreme notebook, just something where the students can keep their own thoughts, observations, experiments, and anything you want them to hold on to.

I like the idea of using interactive notebooks with little regulation, but I know for students who are less motivated these regulations can ensure their use of these notebooks.

I love the idea of students having a science journal. This can start at a young age with simple ideas, such as writing a title and drawing what happened in an activity. As students grow, they journal can become more specific. The students can separate their journals into notes, activities, and questions. I think it is important for students to write questions they have down and teachers can see these questions to see the train of thought students are having. 

I think a composition notebook would be best to use because the pages don't fall out easily insuring that all if your students work will stay in that notebook and wont get lost. Also, you can use post-its to mark off different sections you may want to divide in that composition notebook. (that's what they use now in the field schools I'm working in ) -Stephanie L.

I am venturing into interactive notebooks in my high school courses. I have the idea for implementation. Any tips on how to get students to continuously use these throughout the course?

Hi Claire! I am a preservice teacher at the University of Arkansas. My Science Methods professor has taught us a great way to use Science Notebooking. We each bought composition books to class. Composition books are very economical and can be easily stacked and carried for you to collect from your students. On the first page inside the composition book we have made a Table of Contents. It is really easy because you just fill it out as you go based on what activity the students will be writing about each day and what page they can find it on. It makes a great way for students to return to old ideas and reflect on what they've learned. In our Science notebooks we write the notes and for the experiments we are doing, and throughout the activity we get a few minutes of a break to sort of reflect on what we are thinking in the experiment at the moment. This reflection leaves for a great way for the teacher to come back and read about how the students' thinking has evolved throughout the activity, and if they have mastered the lesson. It's also important to stress to the students that they can write about anything they are thinking because there's no judgement on what they are writing! It's also useful for the student to go back to the beginning of the activity at the end and reflect on how their thinking has changed and what they've learned. I hope this will be useful to you and your class! Good luck :)

Hi! I currently work at a school and the teachers are using a composition book as their interactive book and the students love it! They use it to write definitions and to paste in pictures and graphs that the students can refer back to! They make the students use lots of markers and highlighters to make the pages more exciting. When they do experiments they write the results in the interactive journal and are able to share it with their classmates :)

I love how your teacher would have the students share their books with the class. I feel like when the kids are able to share their work as a class. They learn so much from one another, not to mention the confidence it gives them in their work. Thanks for sharing!

Hello, I think a great tool to incorporate in the notebook are foldable, circle maps, and treemaps. in addition to pictures and cause and effect graphic organizer for students to be able to write down what they learned and how it connects to them in the real world.