Science Notebooking

One of the best ideas I integrated into my science classroom is having students keep a science notebook.  All the science teachers in my district decided to adopt this concept a few years back.  The district now purchases a composition notebook for each science student.  Because they are set up the same, a student could leave one school in the district and take their science notebook to the next school.  It works very well. 
I will briefly describe how we set up our notebooks.  This is by no means the only way!  It is just the way we determined we would all set them up.  We start with an "About the Author" page.  Student my draw, doodle, write, paste pictures, etc.  It should be a page that describes them.  I think it creates ownership of the notebook.

We then set up a table of contents.  Every new assignment goes in the table.  A note here, I don't have students number all the pages.  I did that the first year and had students with larger handwriting on a completely different page.  Any assignment or notes, etc. that is new gets a page number. 

We then count five to seven pages from the end of the notebook and make a glossary.  There are so many words in science that it is great to have a place to put them.  We usually draw pictures to go with our definitions.

What can go in your notebook?  Well basically everything.  We of course put notes in ours.  Some are just regular old notes taken from one of my fabulous lectures, but some are fill-in-the-blank notes, or notes with diagrams and pictures.  Generally, if I give a paper for my students to take notes on they must somehow fit in the notebook.  We do this by folding pages in half and making little tabs to hold them closed or just folding them in half and gluing them in.  I also try to have them cut doors and flaps.  Here are some examples:

We also do activities in our notebooks.  Everyday I start with bellwork that I call a "journal".  It is entered by week in the notebook and continues everyday on the same page:

We researched an astronomer this year and made a cute little foldable to write our facts and draw a picture of them.

We also did a rewrite of a children's book Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me and made is scientifically correct using appropriate moon phases.  We constructed an accordion foldable to display our story.  Of course, it went in our notebook!

Thinking maps are also great to put into a notebook:

We also did a topographic map of mars and folded it in half and glued it in there.

Last but not least, flash cards can be stored in a notebook with the help of half of an envelope.

On a final note, I always have my students use liquid glue for their notebooks.  It just holds much better than a glue stick.  They have gotten very good at "a little dab will do ya!"  and "dot, dot, not a lot!"  Hope you can use some of these ideas in your own classroom.  I find it is an excellent learning tool, as well as, a great record for what I have taught throughout the year!  Some final pictures:

Reflection (self/peer)

Foldable glued sideways

 

 

 

Super Sunday Sale

We are throwing a huge Super Sunday Sale to coincide with Super Bowl Sunday February 3rd over at Teachers Pay Teachers. 

Many, many sellers will have their stores on sale that day.  On top of that, there is another discount that can be given at checkout.  Just put in the promo code: Super when you check out and you could get up to 28% off the regular price.  I for one have a huge wishlist and will be definitely shopping on Sunday!  See you there!

Valentine Clip Art

Well I made it through the holidays!  Our district went back to school January, 3rd, boy was that hard!  I have never gone back on a Thursday before and quite frankly I didn't know if I would wake up!  When I got to school today the heat wasn't turned on and it was freezing in our rooms.  I guess the people controlling the heat didn't know we were back supposed to be back either.  Now I know what you are saying out there.... who needs heat in Phoenix!  To be honest, Phoenix can get quite chilly in the winter....really!

Now on to bigger and better things... I have some cute little heart clip art for Valentine's Day that you might be interested in.  The images posted here can be snatched for personal or commercial use but please do not resell them in their original state without creating something with them.  The rest can be found here at my store:     Heart Clip Art
Here are some of the clips found in this product.  Make sure you snatch them right up:

7-12 Grade Holiday E-book

Last year I was a little slow on the draw and missed being able to contribute to the holiday e-book.  Fortunately, I did not miss it this year.  The books were divided this year into three volumes; primary, middle, and high school.  The 7-12 E-book was the one I contributed to and it is wonderful.  There are free products from all subjects on beautiful holiday pages.  All these products are just a click away.  You can download the great item by clicking on the cover page below!  Happy holidays!

Holiday Rhyme Scheme Practice

I created this little holiday practice and then decided to make it free.  This is a practice for rhyme scheme using The Night Before Christmas as the final challenge.  There are also some easier practice poems to start with before going to the ultimate holiday challenge.  Just click on the picture below to download yours.  Feedback is always welcome!

Cyber Monday and Bonus Tuesday Sale

Well it is that time of year again!  I can't believe the Cyber Monday sale is right around the corner.  Many of us sellers will be putting our store on sale.  Mine will be on a 20% reduction starting Monday.  In addition, you can use the promo code CMT12 and get addition money off! This sale will run through Tuesday.  Stock up on all of your Christmas lessons and fun stuff to start the new year off right.  See you Cyber Monday!

Fall in New Mexico

Every fall I look forward to a week off in October when I can drive to New Mexico and take in the fall colors and the land of enchantment.  My travels usually end up in Las Cruces but this year Cloudcroft was my destination.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera in Phoenix.  I blame that on being sick the week before break and functioning and packing in a brain fog.  All the pictures you will see here were actually taken on my phone and look decent enough I think.

Cloudcroft sits on a mountain which overlooks the Tularosa basin.  This picture shows the view.  The white area is actually White Sands National Monument, one of the largest gypsum dune field in the world.

My husband and I stayed at the Lodge in Cloudcroft, a historic lodge which used to house lumberjacks instead of tourists.  It is a nice old lodge with a great restaurant and it is said a friendly ghost as well.

Cloudcroft had a railroad which transported people and lumber in historic times.  Some of the old tracks and trestles from the railroad can still be seen outside of town.

There are some great hiking trails in and around Cloudcroft.  One that isn't too long is called Osha Trail.  This hiking trail can be accessed from inside the town or from a parking area right outside of town.   It is about 2.6 miles long and a gorgeous hike in the fall.  This is how the hike began at the trail head.

There are many beautiful aspens and maples along the trail that are really breathtaking in the autumn.  Here are a few pictures from along this wonderful hike.

The interesting thing from a geology perspective is that Cloudcroft, New Mexico sits on Permian aged rocks.  If you know anything about geologic time, the end of the Permian ends the Paleozoic era with a mass extinction much bigger than the Mesozoic extinction event that did in the dinosaurs.  The Permian extinction basically killed of mostly everything.  The rocks on the Osha trail are Permian and they also have many fossils that are easily spotted on this trail.  Here is a Permian cephalopod I spied in the middle of the trail.

Cloudcroft is not far from a solar observatory in Sunspot, NM.  If you are ever in the area a visit to Sunspot is a must.  The road to Sunspot is a scenic byway and the telescopes are very interesting as well.  Here is a big solar telescope at the observatory.

White Sands is another must if you are near the Tularosa basin. The sand is gypsum and extremely white and soft.  I was messing around on the dune field when I took this picture.

It generally looks like you are driving on snow in White Sands National Monument.  This is a very odd sensation because it isn't cold at all in October.

Most of the animals, through natural selection, are white on the dune field.  However, I was about a mile into the field and I saw this black beetle.  Who knows where he came from but he left some cool tracks as well.

If you are every in the southwest, do stop in to see New Mexico.  It is truly the land of enchantment.