Notebooking Exhibit

What Does Notebooking Look Like?

You've heard about notebooking. You know it's a flexible tool that can be used with most any curriculum or homeschooling style. You've read a bit about it, but you're still not quite sure. What is notebooking? What does it actually look like, and how does it work?

You've landed on the right page. I've got lots of photos here to help you understand notebooking here on this Notebooking Exhibit.

Notebooking Exhibit #1

the standard notebooking page

This is what many people think of when they hear "notebooking page."

In fact, this is what I first think of as well: a black and white page with lots of lines and a graphic or two. The student writes what he learned on the lines and may color in the graphics or draw his own.

These kinds of notebooking pages are easy to find for free online. You can also buy sets of themed notebooking pages.

Free Online Notebooking Pages

Teacher Printables (look for writing paper, border paper, and background paper)

Coloring and Writing Worksheet Generator

Peakmore Academy has lots of great printable notebooking pages too!

Homeschool Launch is a place where homeschool parents can upload files they have created. This link will take you to all files tagged "notebooking."

Consumer Help Web Notebooking Pages

Notebooking2Learn Join this Yahoo group for lots of notebooking and lapbooking freebies by a very talented homeschooling mom.

The Magellan page below came from Hold That Thought notebooking pages CD. The map is from Knowledge Quest.

Commercial Notebooking Sites (that also offer freebies)

Notebooking Nook

Notebooking Pages
This site also has a great page showing different types of notebooking pages. Debra divides them into two types --templates and homemade.

Exhibit #2

a notebook page with drawings

Another type of notebooking page would have text already printed on the page. The student illustrates the page with his own drawings. The examples given are from Winter Promise American Story 1 curriculum. This style of notebooking is especially good for younger students for whom writing is a real chore.

Exhibit #3

a notebooking page with photographs

Another kind of notebooking page is one that documents a 3D craft. Most children love making paper crafts and other messy projects. But long-term storage is always an issue. A great solution is to photograph the product and put the pictures onto a notebooking page.

To the right you can see the original craft, a pueblo village, that we wanted to document.

Exhibit #4

a notebooking page with a minibook

Sometimes you may have some elements of lapbooking in a noteboook. Here is a minibook about Zuni pots. Instead of putting it into a lapbook, we mounted it onto a piece of cardstock for our Native American Indian notebook.

Zuni Pot Notebooking/Minibook

Any minibook can be mounted into a notebook in this way. In fact, the entire lapbook could be put into a notebook. Visit this homeschool mom's creative method of doing so using duct tape!

Exhibit #5

transform a 3D craft into a 2D notebooking page

Some 3D crafts can actually be reassembled to fit into a notebook. This diorama (pictured below) is a great example. After enjoying the project for a week or so, I give my daughter a piece of cardstock for mounting the craft. The now 2D images can be neatly filed away in the three ring binder.

Exhibit #6

one page printables -- maps and coloring pages

Other really easy things to add to a notebook are coloring pages and maps.

A really great coloring page site is EduPics. Most of the coloring pages there are high quality and of great educational value.

World Atlas is my favorite map site because it has almost any type of map you could want!

Exhibit #7

realia -- real things

You can use real things in your notebooks too; it will make your notebook more similar to an old fashioned scrapbook.

Examples include

postcards

artwork

brochures

feathers or hair from animals

pictures cut from magazines

photographs from field trips

Postcards of the Mayflower and Plymouth, MA.

For mounting these things in your notebooks, you need a method that will hold things in place without damaging them and allow them to be taken in and out.

We have used

page protectors

clear zipper top bags

photo corners

A "Wanted Poster" for Robin Hood.

A paragraph about Jamestown, VA.

Notebooking Learning Blog

This blogger offers a new FREE notebooking page almost daily! What a great resource! Search her archives for something you can use.

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Notebooking Themes

Visit these other pages for more about notebooking, lapbooking, and unit studies.

50 States Notebook

The Fifty States of America is a popular notebooking topic. It can be the basis of a unit study, or it can be a supplement to your American history curriculum. When you're finished, you have a wonderful, homemade reference book.

Make Your Own Notebooking Pages

So, you've done a bit of notebooking using the freebies online. Maybe you've even bought a kit or two. But now your creativity is kicking in and you want to do it yourself! Yes, you can make your own notebooking pages, even if you're not terribly co...

Lapbooking and Unit Study Themes

This page is guide to all my other pages of lapbooking, notebooking, or unit study themes. An entire list of all my pages here at Squidoo can be found on my profile page.

Blogging About Notebooking

Nature journaling is another type of notebooking. This image comes from my daughter's nature journal.

Lots of people are using notebooking in their homeschools. Read some of their experiences on these blogs.

Planning Homeschool 2008: We will continue to do copywork and notebooking with our science and Tapestry of Grace. And we will...
Heart of Wisdom Teaching Method: but I just wanted to mention that I've just read through Robin Sampson's the "Heart of Wisdom Teachi...
Less is More - school planning - logistics: There are also extra files for each child of notebooking paper, homeschool documents (notification c...
Notebooking On The Porch ~ What Is Notebooking?: One method I discovered and was impressed with is notebooking. Some of you may have heard about note...