Hello, Roxanne,
Notebooking is no longer the boring science notebooks I used when I was in school. It was full of vocabulary words and definitions, misconceptions in my drawings, and cookie-cutter experiments. They are produced by the student and guided by the teacher using rubrics etc. I highly recommend that you look at many of the NSTA Press Books on science notebooks. Here are a few of my favorite:
Science Notebooks, Second Edition: Writing About Inquiry by Lori Folton and Brian Campbell
Teaching Science With Interactive Notebooks by Kellie Marcarelli
Notable Notebooks: Scientists and Their Writings by Jessica Fries-Gaither
There are many more that you will want to investigate!
The NSTA publication, Science and Children, also has many wonderful articles. And, there are many wonderful sessions on notebooking at the regionals and national NSTA conferences!
If you can get other elementary teachers in your school to use science notebooks, I recommend that you pass the notebooks onto the grade level teacher your student will be with the following year. These notebooks belong to your students and they are very proud of them. It is their collection of their science learning.
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