Notebooking - First Days of School

I am helping a group of fourth and third grade teachers in the district get notebooking off the ground this year. School starts for students on Monday so one of the things we talked about was the first couple of weeks in notebooking (with the intent that that would get folks started and then we could meet again and talk about what they/we could do for the next couple of weeks).

I've had several teachers express interest in seeing what that two weeks looks like so I thought I would post the one for third grade and the one for fourth grade.

Please keep in mind while reading it that this is most likely how I would handle the first couple of weeks and I modify as I go based on the students, timing, etc. Your teaching style might be different from mine so feel free to adjust or abandon all together.

Third Grade - First Two Weeks Download

Fourth Grade - First Two Weeks Download (if there are any question look at the sample notebook posted here on line)

Comments

Anonymous said…

PLEASE PLEASE post the 4th grade download!!! I just found out that I'll be teaching 4th grade this year (I mean just TODAY; I have been laid off until now!), and school starts next week!!! Eeep!! I really want to use notebooking this year, but I am SO not prepared!!!

August 13, 2010 at 11:50 AM

Eve Heaton said…

I will try and get it uploaded today. Congratulations on the job!

Eve

August 15, 2010 at 4:52 AM

Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition Activity

I saw this activity at a science conference years ago and haven't had a chance to use it in a classroom until this week (mainly because I didn't teach weathering, erosion, and deposition). It is a great way to reinforce the definition of the weathering, erosion, and deposition in a highly kinesthetic manner. Basically you break the students up into groups of three. One group is "Weathering" another group is "Erosion" and the third group is "Deposition". Add tape to the back because you are going to stick them to the forehead of the children in each group. The "weathering" students get a sheet of paper that is their "rock" they will be breaking down. At the start of the activity the "weathering" students will start ripping tiny pieces of their "rock" and handing it to the "erosion" students. The "erosion" students will be running their tiny piece of "rock&

Picture of the Day - Activity

I attended a training class and a science coach shared an activity that he does with his students to help them differentiate between observations, inferences, and predictions. He puts a picture on the interactive white board as a warm up (he gets the pictures from a variety of sources but uses National Geographic's Picture of the Day a lot). The picture above is from the National Geographic site. He has the students make five observations. Then he makes the students make five inferences. Finally he has the students make five predictions. He does this every day and it really drives home the difference between those three key inquiry vocabulary terms. I've done this activity with both my sixth and fourth grade science classes and the students really got into it and became proficient at telling me the difference between those terms.

Rock Cycle Activity

Today I got to spend the day with a 3rd grade science teacher doing a rock cycle activity. She had asked for help a couple of weekends ago to find some engaging rock cycle activities for her students. I quickly did a Pinterest search and came up with a link to a middle school blog where they featured a fun looking rock cycle station activity. That website took me to the originating activity site - Illinois State Museum Geology Online and their Ride the Rock Cycle activity . I read through it and felt it was doable for third graders (although I was a little nervous about the cartooning). I offered my help and we put together the activity. The kids did it WONDERFULLY. It was one of those lesson you wish was observed (but of course never is :) They are on an alternating science schedule so she only had two of the four classes today but it was a good sampling of children. She had one class that had a high portion of struggling learners and the second class had a high

Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

Search This Blog