Notebooking is a great activity for children from grades K-12. Notebooking is essentially a collection of written and visual work throughout the course of a semester or school year. When you notebook you are recording your educational experience and not simply a collection of worksheets, tests and notes. Your student can get as creative as he wants or simple if he prefers. Unlike lapbooking, this method can span throughout a year and can be personalized with narrations, essays, student taken or drawn pictures and journal entries. Lapbooking is a visual representation of a subject or unit study while Notebooking is based on experiencing or recording the education process. There is no competition between the two as both have merit and may fit different families better.
What do you need to start your notebook:
Three ring binder
Plastic sheet covers or three ring hole puncher
Premade notebooking pages or blank pages
What Subjects Can You Use When Notebooking?
Notebooking can be used for any subject since you are the creator of the project. You can use a broad subject like math or a specialized project like Thomas Edison. Your notebooking adventure can span a whole year or a specified amount of time.
Nature Notebooking: Use this format to record your daily observations and things you find and collect outside. Include drawings, narrations, poems and anything pertaining to your nature study.
Science Notebooking: Science is a visual subject as well as written so it is perfect for Notebooking. Divide your notebook by subject and include charts, diagrams, lab notes and results, illustrations of your labs, cells, animals, space and more! Make one notebook per science subject such as physical, general, biology, etc. or have your notebook span the whole year. This format also makes it easy for kids to review and retain their work.
Math Notebooking: While some may not initially think of math as a good subject for Notebooking you will be surprised well math works. Math is just as visual as written. Include homemade flash cards, charts, tanagram work, graphs, vocabulary, number line, fractions and more. You can make a fractions pizza illustration for your notebook or a number line that spans pages of your notebook.
History Notebooking: This type of notebooking is the most popular. Include a timeline, pictures of historical characters, narrations, field trip memories, journaling, maps and more!
The more you work on Notebooking the more ideas will come to you! Happy Notebooking!
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