I am a HUGE fan of using interactive notebooks in the classroom for a variety of reasons. It’s no secret if you know me personally. My students have a science/social studies, math and writing interactive notebook. They are a great way to organize work, fit in some creativity, practice fine motor skills and create a fun keepsake at the end of the school year. My students love seeing how far they have come from August to May and I do too! I have even had families say they will be hanging on to some of their notebooks for memory boxes. However, with my love of interactive notebooks I know how overwhelming they can seem. So today, I want to break down how using interactive notebooks in the classroom doesn’t have to be overwhelming!
Start by Using 1 Interactive Notebook
My first piece of advice is to start with implementing just one interactive notebook. Whether you choose to do one for writing or math. Just stick with 1 for one whole year so you don’t overwhelm yourself. This will also give you a good feel for if you like them or not. If you do like them and want to stick with it, starting with 1 will also give you a good idea at what your expectations and procedures need to be. Personally, I started with a writing interactive notebook because it felt less stressful. If all else failed, I knew all I needed was a writing prompt and I could just let my students respond to the prompt for their entry that day. This was a great way for me to get my feet wet and turn interactive notebooks into what I wanted.
Fit Interactive Notebook into your Established Routine
My next piece of advice is instead of adding an interactive notebook to your day, include it into a routine you already have. Let me explain. For me, like I said I started with a writing interactive notebook, so what I did was replace our writing warm up with the interactive notebook. I was required to do a 5-10 minute writing warm up. At the time, it looked very “old school.” Each week I would create a document that said Monday and had some sort of writing warm up, then Tuesday and so on. It was still something I was having to prep each week. So, I nixed the old school option and instead prepped an interactive notebook activity each day that became our writing warm up. You could do the same thing for math or reading. If you have an independent work center instead of it being a worksheet, it could be a journal entry. Or instead of a science worksheet, you could do a science notebook entry. Essentially, instead of adding to your plate just switch out something you don’t love with an interactive notebook.
Start Small
Next up is starting small with the actual notebook entries. You have probably seen the elaborate notebooks with flaps, flipbooks, spinning wheels and more. Don’t start there but if that’s your goal you can certainly work toward it. Again, with my writing notebook I started SMALL. Sometimes the entry was literally a “worksheet” that I made smaller, students cut it out, glued it into their notebook and then completed the work. Although it was essentially a worksheet, it was 10x more engaging for my students and it gave me a good run at finding a routine. From there, I moved to writing prompts. Each day I would have a half sheet of paper with clipart on it and a writing prompt. For example, inside of a basketball it may ask “Write about your favorite sport, including why you love it.” Students would cut out the basketball, glue it into their notebook, respond to the prompt then work on illustrations. I started super simple and it was great because it helped me find what was feasible for first graders and figure out how I wanted to run interactive notebooks. From there, I spruced things up.
Buy a Product to Help
The beautiful thing about the teacher community nowadays is you are not alone. You don’t have to create something if you don’t want to because I guarantee someone else did. If you are interested in using interactive notebooks in the classroom but you don’t want to create it yourself, don’t! There are plenty of great options listed on Teachers Pay Teachers. You can get what you want while supporting other teachers, it is a win-win. When I first dove into interactive notebooks I did a combination of creating my own and purchasing some. It depended on the subject. For writing, I did create my own because like I said it replaced our daily warm ups. You can check out my writing interactive notebook here. But, for science and social studies I purchased interactive notebook sets and just used what worked for me. Then eventually, for math I created my own because it was easier for me to align it with my units and curriculum if I designed it. Do what works for you!
I hope this blog post can help you find ways to use interactive notebooks in your classroom without causing overwhelm! If you like this post, you may want to check out this post on Writing Craftivities that can bring creating into writing as well!
