I love notebooking with my kids. It is such a good way for them to have a hands on visual of their work. My 10yo is a kinesthetic learner, which means he learns by doing things with his hands, so notebooking is great for him, especially the foldables. My 12yo is a visual learner so his notebooking incorporates lots of pictures. My 17yo likes to write so she uses the notebooking pages that have lots of lines that she can just fill in. I plan on using notebooking with my 4yo as well, but it mostly be cut and paste kind of thing until he starts writing, then I will have him write one word descriptions under a picture.
(1) Table of Contents - If you know ahead of time what you will be studying, then a TOC is a good tool to add in your notebook. I usually plan out 6-8 weeks in advance and I will write down the things I have planned BUT I do not add page numbers until we are completely finished with our book. This keeps me erasing if we decide to add more to a topic he really gets into. And it makes the notebook nice and neat. Here are some examples from Science Notebooking & Caught in the Middle.
If you look closely at this picture, you can see that she sets up the notebook to use the left page and right page for specific placement of things. This is a good idea for older kids.
(2) Glossary - add a glossary at the back of your notebook and incorporate some science vocabulary words into your lessons. Science, Etc. has some really good ideas for notebooking. I especially like her idea for adding a science glossary at the back of the book. She suggests counting backwards 5 - 7 pages in the back of the book and starting the glossary.
(3) Foldables - foldables make everything more interesting. Here are some great examples from A Teacher's Treasure & Science Notebooking
(4) Flaps - You can get creative with flaps and do lots of different things from Science Notebooking & The Inspired Classroom
(5) Pull Outs and Layers from Science Notebooking & Interactive Notebooking
(6) Diagrams & illustrations - Interactive Student Notebook & Science, Etc. have great examples.
(7) Notes & Sketches - examples from Interactive Notebook
(8) Pockets for storing extras - Examples from Science Notebooking and Foldables.com
(9) Charts and Graphs - Examples from We Need More Scientists & Science Notebooks.org
(10) Resources & Ideas - these are places that have great ideas and some downloads for free.
great website for using science notebooks with kindergarten.
Hands-On Science Center - scroll down to "Foldables" for great examples.
Squidoo Lens by Jimmie - using mini lapbook templates in notebooking
Squidoo Lens by Jimmie - using minibooks in notebooking
A Teacher's Treasure has lots of ideas and great freebie's
The Science Penguin - has a lot of pictures and great ideas. She even makes science packets for notebooking, some are free, some she sells for a very low price :).
Science Notebooking - you will need to scroll all the way to the bottom to read newer/older posts using the arrows, but so worth it! This site has tons of really good ideas!
Where to find notebooking pages & templates - when using notebooking pages for narrations, these can be trimmed down and glued into your notebook.
Homeschool Helper - lots of great, free notebooking pages
How to Homeschool for free - this site has mostly lapbook resources, but those little templates can be used in notebooks as well.
Make Your Own Notebooking Pages
Notebooking with Younger Children
Notebooking Fairy - 50 Things to Put in a Notebook - explore her site, she has free printables and lots of ideas and pictures.
Dinah Zike's books - she has the best foldables.
Donna Young - my boys love the comic strips! Explore her site for tons of stuff.
Homeschool Share - I marked the page that has lapbook templates because these are great for adding to notebooks as well as lapbooks.
My Pinterest Notebooking Board - I have a lot of pins here!
So that's all I have for now. If you have any great resources to add, leave them in the comments! Be sure to subscribe to my blog so you don't miss out on any of my Notebooking Series post!
