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This has come up a few times in a lot of different places, so I am curious to see how people all over handle student notebooks. I am a HUGE Dinah Zikes fan (on more than one level. The woman is amazing.), so my notebooks take on an interactive life of their own. I don't believe in a worksheet being just a worksheet, to be tossed aside and ignored forever once it's been graded. It gets added to the notebook, and from there is reviewed and referenced a hundred times through various in class labs. My students keep "field journals" where they not only write down observations, they sketch them out or create models of them. They build graphs and examples of tools, then add them to their notebooks in pockets. We make graphic organizers out of layered construction paper, instead of just drawing a box on a piece of paper. It's been my experience that making these notebooks so full of "stuff" instead of full of handwriting samples has made them something that the students want to do in class. The results, for me, have been higher Science scores on standardized tests! As a teacher, I want to make my notebooks EVEN BETTER! So, I'm putting up this post as a collection place for ideas, links to cool pieces that you find online, and idea sharing point. Call it the Pinterest post of handy notebook things in Science, if you want. Share what you like, what works for you, and what you think is cool. Use this as a resource when you want to add something to your notebooks and are having a hard time finding ideas. Moreover... HAVE FUN WITH IT! Your students will notice the difference, trust me!

I found this one while I was looking for a cool way to add Chemical and Physical Changes to my 5th graders' notebooks.

Is Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall a Chemical Change or a Physical Change?

Which referenced a foldable she created for their notebooks, which I recreated (though I didn't print out her pdf, I just used white copy paper and the students wrote all over them). I LOVED HER PDF, though! Stop in and try it!

Hi Tiffany,

I, too, am a HUGE fan of using science notebooks! Working in an elementary science lab, I teach K-4 graders and I use the journals at each level. The younger students use their journals to draw pictures of experiments, record results, and record wonderings and ideas. For the upper grades, I use the notebooks as a lab notebook. I use composition notebooks for the journals. THe journals are divided into 3 sections: vocabulary & concepts, experiments, and I wonder...
Like you, I also use graphic organizers (especially for vocab) in the journals and include all worksheets, class notes, etc. into the book. I love that at the end of the year, my kids take home a book that is full of science investigations. It's also great to see how much they progress from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.
When I first implemented science journals into my classroom, I used the book Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms, by Michael Klentschy, as a reference for ideas and examples.
Right now, the experiments section of the notebooks are organized chronologically. Next year, in the upper grades, I'm considering organizing the notebooks by science area (i.e. biology, geology, physical science). Has anyone else tried doing this in an elementary classroom?

Maureen

I tried to implement science notebooks with foldables this year and it seemed to work for our first semester. How do you keep them going all year long? I think I need to use them everyday instead of once a week with our labs like before. What do you recommend?

Hello! I love the idea of keeping this thread a place for resources for science notebooks. I too think that science notebooks will help create a much richer learning experience for students. I am going to be student teaching this coming fall and plan on implementing interactive science notebooks in the classroom. I like the idea of using the same notebook throughout the school year for students to add to and continuously reference. In my search I found a resource that I think will be helpful in beginning a science notebook! http://mysciencespace.com/documents/InteractiveNotebook.pdf

Hi Thread Posters,

This is a great thread with tons of great ideas! I just found this thread about writing in elementary science that has ideas about using notebooks in science classrooms. Many of the posters talk about Dinah Zike's foldables. I hadn't heard of these resources, but I was interested in learning more about them so I found out more information on this website: Dinah Zike's website. Has anyone else used these foldables in your teaching?

Maureen

Foldables are great and there Dinah Zikes has several really good resources. One of my favorite 'foldables' is the book on one page - I didn't learn it from her but maybe she has an even better version - but here are some clear instructions - this makes an eight page book - enough for any report I want the kids to do - and they have so much fun - we call them pocket guides but there are so many ideas out there!(video too)

For those wondering how I use them all year, it's actually really easy. I start my notebook off by pinning up the first 10 pages. These pages become the table of contents, and the mobile word wall (I like to keep it with them at all times, not just words stuck on my own wall). My students cut each of the word wall pages into thirds and write vocabulary words on them as we add them to our notebooks. I have them add the date we added them, too, so that they can find it really easily (since we date every page we add). For each unit I do (in fourth grade, for example, in Georgia we do a unit on Ecosystems and adaptations), I have a standard set of pages to start the unit. The first page is the standard (I talk to them about unpacking it so they have a clear list of goals for this unit) and they add this to their notebooks. On the same page, I add essential questions for the unit (I have a daily focus question that is added at the beginning of the daily lesson, but these are unit-wide questions). In the book I posted above, there's a reference to building tabs for the notebooks out of sticky notes. All you have to do is line up the sticky note with the red line of the right margin, fold the sticky note so you have about a 1/4 to a 1/2 inch tab and then tape the edges to the book. They label the tab with the name of the unit (so, in this case, the tab read "ECOSYSTEMS"). The next page is a concept map. I'm still tinkering with how to do this effectively with them, so I'm open to suggestions there. It's sort of like a mind map, but I like it to be pretty fluid so they can make room where they need it. I currently use small sticky notes for the terms and just have them write in pencil so they can erase something when they want to move it. The point is for them to build it themselves, so I don't want to give them a graphic organizer with a set organizational pattern. Like I said, this part is a work in progress. The next page will be a front and back page where the front reads "Scientific Ideas" and the back reads "I still wonder...". These pages are part of the beginning of our science class every day. We go over the scientific ideas together, remembering what we did the last time we added things. Then we talk about any questions that the students may have added (they usually add questions after labs, for example, about another variable we could've tested). At the end of each lesson, they add to the Scientific Ideas and I Wonder pages, as well as add anything they've learned to the Concept Map. We go over these together and add them to the class digital notebook (which I build via my Promethean Board so that it matches their notebook page for page). After that, everything we do involving that unit goes in the notebook. The pages are color coded (red=introduction pages, green=notes, orange=classwork, purple=labs/projects, blue=reference pages) so as we add to the notebook, they grab a marker and code the page. When we switch gears and start another unit, we spend the time creating those pages again and adding a tab for the new unit that is lower on the page than the one before so we can find it easier. I will say, as I wrap this up, that I don't do a lot of copying, anymore. I go through quite a bit of construction paper, though...

Tiffany, I have also used foldables in my teaching. I am intrigued at your statement that you attribute higher test scores to the interactive notebooks---do you know of any research that supports this? I do know that graphic organizers have been linked to increased learning. Would foldables come under the category of graphic organizers?

I only have my experience to speak of, though I wouldn't be surprised if there were numbers out there to back it up. With one class, my in class test scores went up from a class average of 53 on the culminating test to an 89! I didn't do anything different, other than change the graphic organizers into foldables and glue them into their notebooks. I teach in a school where Science has never been a priority and their yearly state scores showed it. The year I introduced the foldables, the average state score went from a 776 the previous year to an 804 (800 is the benchmark score for passing). That was all I needed to not only keep using them, but LOUDLY encouraging others to do it, too! Out of curiosity, I did a quick search to see if anyone had the numbers I was missing and found that, while people referenced the same kind of results I saw, no one had numbers to go with them. Might be an interesting project for next year, though...

I have to agree with Tiffany. Using only my own experience, I have found that using notebooks definitely improves learning and test scores. Last year I was persistent with the interactive notebook and that class scored highest on the finals of my classes. For a variety of reasons I did not use them this year and this class has the lowest scores. Purely anecdotal evidence but enough to convince me that I will definitely be using them in the future.

Florence and Tiffany and others, I am not surprised by connection between writing in science ( science notebooks ) and test scores. I have believed this for a while. What grades do you teach? I would be interested in knowing what is done for literacy in both of your classrooms? Are you working in a self-contained classroom or using a science specialist model? Hwoften is science taught in your classroom a week? I have lots of questions. I am thinking about the Common Core in ELA and how it can contribute to our work in science. I am thinking about doing what you are doing but also adding a close read of complex text to units . I think this will also increase test scores. I would love to do some research on this next year. If anyone is game to consider an action research project let me know. I am going to do some work over the summer. Kathy

Here is an interesting website The site is organized by six main sections. Here's a brief overview of what's in each section. Introduction The introductory pages provide an overview of the site contents and a description of how the site was developed. Notebook Features This section describes one model for defining different ways students can enter information in their notebooks "entry types" and offers a rationale for why a teacher might select a given entry type. Student Work This section includes the beginning of a database of student work collected from science notebooks at all grade levels, from kindergarten through preservice. The student work is stored in a database and searchable by a variety of criteria. Classroom Tools This section offers tools teachers can use to introduce students to science notebooks. Teacher Resources The teacher resources section provides references to relevant research and teaching literature, information on where to purchase notebooks, and other information to further develop teachers' understanding of science notebooks. Frequently Asked Questions Here you'll find an every growing list of questions generated by practicing teachers as they began to use science notebooks in their classrooms and responses from experienced teachers and professional developers to offer guidance. http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/utc/main.asp?titleid=index

This is awesome! I just finished my first year of teaching and do indeed plan to spend some of my summer planning for next year! I want to do more with science, and the ideas posted in this thread are very helpful. Thank you!

Hi Leigh - Congratulations on finishing up your first year! What grade/area did you teach? Hope to see younaround the forums this summer - it is a great place to bounce ideas off one another as you get ready for the year ahead!

I love using science notebooks in my preservice teacher classroom (science methods). I like for the teacher candidates to experience it as a learner before they use them in the classroom. One site we use is http://www.sciencenotebooks.org/...not Dinah Zeke but does have the research to support use of notebooks (as if we needed it). My preservice teachers find taht they don't have difficulty integrating the Common Core ELA as they use notebooks on a regular basis in their classrooms. It's a perfect connection. I have may of Dinah Zekes books, and I try to find all the freebies that she has available online...however, most of my students love her so much that they buy her book!!! Here is quite a large collection that I have on science notebooks. I also conducted a PD on just that subject and that was the "text" for the course.

Journals Collection (26 items)

Evaluating_Students_Science_Notebooks_as_an_Assessment_Tool-Ruiz.pdf

- User Uploaded Resource

Helping_English_Learners_Increase_Achievement_thought_Inquiry-Based_Science_Inst.pdf

- User Uploaded Resource

Improving Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Writing in a Science Context

- Journal Article

View All 26 Items

I love using science notebooks in my preservice teacher classroom (science methods). I like for the teacher candidates to experience it as a learner before they use them in the classroom. One site we use is http://www.sciencenotebooks.org/...not Dinah Zeke but does have the research to support use of notebooks (as if we needed it). My preservice teachers find taht they don't have difficulty integrating the Common Core ELA as they use notebooks on a regular basis in their classrooms. It's a perfect connection. I have may of Dinah Zekes books, and I try to find all the freebies that she has available online...however, most of my students love her so much that they buy her book!!! Here is quite a large collection that I have on science notebooks. I also conducted a PD on just that subject and that was the "text" for the course.

Wendy,

I think you mean Dinah Zikes. yes, she is truly amazing. I have about 4 of her books. I use them all the time. She has some basic books and then she has them for elementary mathematics and one for elementary science.

Thanks Wendy for helping me remember all the subjects Dinah's foldables assist.Just about all of them. I am including link for Dina's Notebook Central. I think there is something for everyoneDinah Zikes here.PS notebooking Central didn't exist the last time I was here!! :-)

Kathy

Hey, Kathy! I teach mostly 4th and 5th grade. I got to be the Science guru for those grade levels this year, but usually I teach ELA along with Science. Next year, however, I'm teaching a self-contained 4th grade class (and I haven't taught math in 4 years! YIKES!). Zikes has a teach-the-teacher course at her home base in Texas that I want to attend SO BAD! Someday the money will work out, since it's not a cheap course and traveling there from Georgia wouldn't be cheap, either! I bet it's awesome, though! As for literacy... for me it's been mostly "do what makes you happy" and luckily, I have enough documentation for that to mean I gave away all of my reading basels last year (they are very outdated and the stories do not hold student interest. I could go on for a decade about my soapbox here, so I'll try to restrain myself!). My test scores went WAY up there, too. I read a book about 2 years ago called "The Book Whisperer" by a middle school teacher in Texas named Donalynn Miller (AWESOME BOOK, QUICK READ, WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU TEACH READING!!) who seemed to notice the same thing I did about everyone reading the same thing at the same time. So, she tossed out novel studies and let her students read whatever they wanted from her library and the school library. In my classroom, I did the same thing. Students could check out 2 books from the school library and 1 from the class library. So, at any time, they had 3 books on hand that THEY CHOSE. I had no problem getting the required 25 books in (with kids who claimed they hated to read, btw). I picked a skill I wanted to work on (based on the framework and curriculum in GA) and we read smaller passages to practice that skill in small group centers during the week. Then, when they did the bi-weekly project for their books, they had to reflect the skills we talked about those two weeks in their project. So, if we talked about inference, they could add something like "based on the lack of yellow appearing on Ron's rat while he was showing off for Hermione on the train, I inferred that Ron wasn't very talented with magical spells before he entered Hogwarts." I will add that I required a certain number of the things they read (not necessarily books) to be non-fiction. I also wanted them to read at least one of each type of fiction book, so they knew whether they liked that genre or not. I wasn't as successful there. :( Wendy, YOU ARE A ROCKSTAR!!! THANKS FOR ALL THSOE GOODIES! They have been added to my growing collection! Thanks, everyone for playing along with me! It's wonderful to know I'm not the only one who is having fun and being successful "playing" with notebooks to keep them from being boring collections of notes! My addition to the topic today is this: ANCHOR CHARTS! I was digging around on Pinterest (love that site) and found a blog to a teacher who makes copies of her anchor charts (the charts she makes in class to use as visual aids), shrinks them, and the students add them to their notebooks so they are easily available to them while they are working. I thought this was one of those "Oh, my goodnes, why didn't I think of that?" ideas, so I thought I'd share it! Hope you are having a wonderful end to your school year (or beginning of your summer?)! We have 8 days with the students here in South GA!

Hi Tiffany, From what I've read about your classroom on here...I'm sure you are going to do a fabulous job of teaching Math next year! :) Thanks to everyone for sharing so many ideas and links in this thread! Tiffany, can you give us some more information about the anchor charts? I'm not familiar with them. Thanks! Maureen

Thanks! :)

I found a blog that's got a pretty good collection of Anchor Charts going to give you an idea of what I mean. This blogger called on other bloggers to link their charts to her 'Anchor Chart Collection Party' which is a really great way to find LOTS of good stuff (in all subject areas) in one place!

Ladybugteacherfiles

Tiffany - thank you for sharing that link - what a creative group of teachers! Maureen - here is one definition of an anchor chart: "Anchor charts (posters reminding stu- dents of lessons or key ideas and facts they should remember) may change often to reflect current learning. Other anchor charts will stay up all year as reminders. Ideally, the boards and charts will be centrally located for easy student reference." I like to think of it this way - bulletin boards are where you put finished work on display - interactive or not. Anchor charts are what you can point a student toward when they need to review a concept, need reminders about how to do something, or where they can find information and resources - they can be class made or teacher made. Does anyone have any good middle school or specifically science examples?

I've looked through all of these suggestions and I'm definitely noting them down! I've seen some ideas for other journals and I noticed that some people mentioned it on here and another thread but: What do you think of interactive journals? I think this is something I would want to do when I'm a teacher along with students wearing their lab coats to feel like real scientists (!) but should students keep both an interactive/written journal to incorporate technology and practice notation or is that just overload?

I think it depends on what their access is like to the technology and the maturity of the students. In the school I presently teach in, most of my students don't have much in the way of technology away from school or the library. A totally technology-based notebook would be less than useless for them, since my goal is to make it something they want to take home and show their parents and not just a book that stays in their desk until I tell them to get it out so we can add something. However, if my students were older (and we had a little better access to the technology to make it work), I would absolutely have them build both a paper journal and a digital journal. I would make it a point to get them familiar with programs that will help them in other areas of their life and teach them some career skills while I was working on my little Science notebook. I would not, however, create duplicate notebooks this way. There would be some things they'd keep in a paper journal (data collection, illustrations, etc) and then there would be things they kept in a digital journal (photos of the experiment in progress, data charts and graphs, etc). So, I guess there's not really a single answer to that question for me. I think I would set up a routine to do both if I had access to the materials to make that a possibility. Get the most bang for your buck, if you want to look at it that way...

And Caryn, I've been looking for Science examples and haven't found much. :( Let's get that question in a bigger setting and see if anyone who isn't reading this thread has some input...

Hello all, I am in the process of implementing science notebooks along with some foldables into my inquiry based teaching of 5th grade science ... whew! What I have found works for me is basically start slowly, don't try to do it all. Some things I found out early: 1) I tried the right hand left hand approach and it didn't work well for me. My labs were usually longer than one page and the pages began to get confusing to the kids. So instead of right and left sides my students use simple color coding or symbols .. for example, when my students are sharing their thoughts or brainstorming in the beginning of a unit they put these ideas in thought bubbles. Later they go back to their bubbles and correct any misconceptions or inaccurate information. This helps when the students use the notebooks for studying. I still use the concept maps and the graphic organizers but I just don't right and left side them. 2) Since I teach 100 students science I can't grade them all at one time so I do random checks using a rubric...I'll pull all prime number students, all multiples of 3 students, all students sitting at table 4, all odd table students etc. 3) Foldables - I use them but this is the area that I am just starting ... I am not sure when they are beneficial or when they become busy work ... I'd love some ideas or suggestions related to 5th grade Georgia standards Thanks!

I actually have taught the 5th grade GA Standards for the last two years and done foldables in notebooks the whole time! The link I posted WAY up at the top of this thread was a great one that the kids LOVED and it wasn't busy work. I used it as the Explain/Extend part of my 5E lessons, so they're not just writing paragraphs (they're writing paragraphs in the right places <-- I call that cheating!). I LOVE THE THOUGHT BUBBLE IDEA and I'm totally stealing it this year! I don't use the left/right method, either. I color code my notebooks based on what we're doing. Red pages are introduction pages (we write the kid-friendly version of the standard we're working on, I can statements and Essential Question on these pages). Purple pages are projects, labs, and outside assignments. Green pages are note pages. Orange pages are for classwork. Blue pages are for reference sections (we have a mobile word wall at the front of the book that references back to the page we jot a quick kid-friendly definition in our notes). I keep a color coded list above my white board so they know what color to code the pages when we're working. Another thing I've used a foldable for is the layers of the earth. We use a simple half-page 4 flap foldable where we illustrate the top layer, then lift the flaps and write facts underneath. I also use it to illustrate the plate movements, which is a lot of fun. They have to demonstrate the three different boundaries with paper, so they create movable pieces in their notebook to illustrate the different boundaries. I build a book for the 6 kingdoms in the Life Science Unit and they cut and paste the animals onto the right page of the book, then have to tell me why that animal belongs in that kingdom (ie, they have to tell me that a lion is a mammal because it gives live birth, is covered in hair, is warm blooded, etc.). As I said, I use this as the explain or extend part of my lessons, so I don't consider it busy work. It's usually really easy to check to make sure they got it right or fix it if they don't. I also walk around while they are doing it so I don't have to check each one individually. I check it while they're building it to make sure they're catching on and understanding what we're talking about. I'll try to think of more things I throw in their notebooks to help them with material we're going over, because that's not even close to the notebook my classes built this year (and adding more is always fun!). I'm just happy that when I say the words "we're going to put this in our notebooks" they actually get excited about it! It's hard for me to say whether they enjoy those activities or the labs more! ;)

Hello, I think that the children keeping a journal is a great idea! This makes the students think about their observations and when reviewing the material see it from their own perspective! I am attaching a link that gives many different fun Science writing activities, that they could possibly use in their journals! Thanks for the great idea! Ali

Hello, I have used interactive journals in math and language arts and plan to add science this year. Based on my experience in the other subject areas I expect the students will be more engaged in their work. I appreciate all of the resources everyone has shared and look forward to studying each in more depth to find what will work with my fourth graders. I've been to several of Dinah Zikes' workshops and highly recommend everyone try to see her sometime. She is such an inspiration and has down-to-earth ideas that work!

Science notebooks are a valuable tool for every classroom. I use notebooks in many different ways. One way to begin is to ask students to draw their initial models of a concept

After soon have done this individually, have students talk and come up with a group model and bring their group model to a gathering ideas discussion. At this point students are sharing their ideas. We can hear misconceptions and what ideas students have as we begin our investigations.

I like the idea of science journals. I will try them in my classroom.

I have never used science notebooks in my classroom, but they definitely seem to be something that I would like to try. My school district is intensely focused on the Common Core Standards for ELA, which makes minimal time for science anymore. Having the notebooks and being able to assess students in the ELA area would be one way that I can work around the time issue and allow my students to focus on things they enjoy in the classroom. Thank you all for the collection of resources I will be able to look at to get these going in my classroom.

I have seen notebooks as you described in social studies but I never really thought to add it to science. I certainly agree that it is important to get students writing within other disciplines outside of language arts. Being able to articulate ideas and communicate effectively in science is a tremendous skill to develop in students, and it also helps when it is fun and interactive for them. I'll be sure to use this idea in the future.

Writing is part of science. Scientists communicate with each other in many different ways including writing articles, engaging in discourse and argumentation , email, social media.

In our classrooms we should help our students emulate science in the real world. Doing that would most definitely include a notebook. I worked with aa scientist for 6 weeks and I had opportunities to look at his notebook and notice what he was recording. He always made a quick note about date, sometimes weather if we were outside. The question we were researching was also noted. And then he/ I recorded what we did. We collected data. Often we did the same exact thing,multiple times. We were looking to see if our results held or were there variations that led us in a different direction.We recorded our data in a matter that was appropriate sometime a table, sometimes qualitative observations. We tried to make sense of the data. What does it mean? Are there patterns we can find?

Sometimes the question changed and we started again. We knew we were always trying to make sense of the phenomena. The notebook in this scenario which is real scenario was a tool.
We were using the information we had recorded in our notebooks to help us create an explanation for what was going on.

Although I totally appreciate all the ideas discussed above and I used many of those ideas, sometimes I think we forget the real purpose of the notebook, a place to keep important information that we need to answer the question. Helping our students make sense of the data is so critical.

So the bottom line is I think we need to not lose that purpose in all of of the wonderful formatting.

Those are my thoughts on this Monday in early August.

Kathy

I usually use composition books because they hold together. I do try to get the ones from Staples that are graph lined.Students can draw, make graphs, charts easily with them. As a 4th-6th grade teacher, I don't use many handouts. Students figure out how to represent their data.We talk together and usually come to consensus about the best representation for our purposes. They aren't allowed to erase but, they usually put a single line through a first attempt if it didn't work. That first attempt gave the students some knowledge to assist them in their next attempt. Sometimes I hand out pens. Children like the opportunities to use different writing utensils. Technology can also be used if children have tablets. I hope this helps. Kathy

Tiffany- I have seen notebooks work really well in Math. As a co-teacher, I have seen them implemented in Science, but haven't witnessed the level of success you have. So, thanks for the thread. I'll be on often to try to get some ideas about how to make the notebooks we use better. All the best, Naomi Beverly