If you're new to notebooking, you'll discover that science is a great topic to begin with. Because science is so broad and lends itself to a variety of methods of expression such as charts, diagrams, paragraphs, and photos, it's perfect for notebooking. Read on for more ways to jump into science notebooking.
If you've already been using notebooking as a learning tool for science, you may find here some new printables to use or discover some ways to hone your notebooking to gain the greatest educational impact. The last thing we want is busy work for our children. Make your notebooking count by implementing sound instructional practices.
Science Notebooks are a tool for the student to organize thoughts, consider possibilities, and record observations. For the teacher or parent, the science notebook is a way to assess understanding and to create a portfolio that can serve you well in homeschool evaluations.
In this photo, my daughter is drawing a diagram of the lever she just constructed. You can see her living book open in front of her. There is a lot of learning going on!
Recording Scientific Learning in a Written Record
- pre-investigation -- predicting, planning, and identifying existing ideas
- investigation -- recording observations and reflecting on them
- post-investigation -- organizing data and evaluating predictions
Read what Eve Heaton, a public elementary school teacher, says about science notebooking. She lists many positive qualities of using notebooking along with your science curriculum. Her blog is a wealth of resources for science notebooking. I love how she makes it very, very practical and includes lots of photos.
Notebooking is extremely versatile. Anything that can physically be put into a notebook and deals with your topic is a possibility.
Here is a list of potential things to include in a science notebook:
- biographies of famous scientists
- interviews of adults who use science in their jobs
- diagrams of scientific processes
- vocabulary words with drawings or definitions
- graphic organizers showing a scientific concept
- sketches from field trips
- narrations of what was read in a science book
- lab reports of experiments
- reviews or summaries of living science books
- songs or poems
- minibooks
- charts and graphs
- magazine or newspaper articles that relate to science
- photographs a science experiment or other hands-on activity (then you can throw away the actual creation)
If something isn't a standard size of paper or is hard to hole punch, you can still add it to your notebook. You can affix it to a sheet of paper or cardstock. Or you can put it into a sheet protector.
Sheet Protectors
We use alot of these in our notebooking either because the item we want to put into the notebook is of an odd shape or because it's too precious to hole punch.
C-Line Clear Top-Loading Non-Glare Standard Weight Poly 8 1/2 x 11 Inch Sheet Protectors 100 Count (62048)
Amazon Price: $14.86 (as of 11/04/2009)
Examples of Pages from a Science Notebook
Sometimes showing someone is more effective than telling. So here, let me pull my daughter's science notebook down and flip through a few representative pages so you can get a better idea of what a science notebook can look like.
Here is a freebie from Jeannie Fulbright's Exploring Creation Free Notebooking Pages. On the back of the previous page, I taped a clear plastic envelope to hold a hands-on manipulative we used to demonstrate the orbit and the rotation of the earth.
I found this graphic organizer at JFeliciano's Page at Homeschool Launch.
This chart is from Eclectic Education's Page at Homeschool Launch. (It's called Planets Worksheet.)
This example shows how we incorporate minibooks into notebooking. During our study of Michael Faraday and electricity, Sprite made a shutterfold vocabulary book. We simply placed it into a sheet protector.
And here are more minibooks about levers, also stored in a sheet protector.
Here is an example of a biography page of a famous scientist. I made this notebooking page about Galileo myself. You can download the PDF at by clicking here.
This is sketch made during a field trip to a science museum.
This is the actual notebooking page my daughter "Sprite" is working on in the top photo. It's the standard notebooking page provided free at Noeo curriculum.
This is a sketch that Sprite did on her own. I liked it so much that I encouraged her to add it to the space section in her notebook.
More Photos of Science Notebooking Pages
hosted at Flickr
I love to use Flickr for our homeschool documentation. Here are more photo examples.
Einstein
levers
field trip
field trip
field trip
flight
Sun
Mars
earth
moons
Uranus
Mercury
Marie Curie
Dinosaurs
Printable Graphic Organizers for Science
Graphic organizers are simply ways to arrange information so that relationships among ideas are represented visually. Words are used but often with the addition of lines, arrows, circles, or other images that indicate sequence, cause and effect, etc.
Try using some of these free printables to add structure to your noteboooking assignment. Often, they are less intimidating than an empty sheet of paper.
- Science Class Graphic Organizers
- Attractive freebies divided by science categories.
- General Graphic Organizers from EduPlace
- All the standbys (story map, timeline, five W's, flow chart, etc.) and some new ones -- tree chart, ladder, idea wheel, etc.
- Houghton Mifflin Science Graphic Organizers
- Graphic organizers in PDF format that accompany Houghton Mifflin Science textbooks for grades 1-6. This list is very well organized so that the printables are easy to locate and use even without the textbook.
Hint -- use Cttl F to bring up the find function in your browser. Then enter the key words you're looking for.
Graphic Organizers for Science
Reproducible Book
Science Graphic Organizers & Mini-Lessons (Best Practices in Action)
Amazon Price: $9.89 (as of 11/04/2009)
Drawings in a Science Notebook
When sketching actual specimens, encourage the child to draw technically and with realism rather than drawing representationally. For example, don't draw a stereotypical ladybug but draw what you actually see.
Free Notebooking Pages for Science
- Inventors Pages from Homeschool Share
- Inventors include Alexander Graham Bell, Eli Whitney, Edward Jenner, Wright Brothers, George and Robert Stephenson, Johann Gutenberg, Louis Braille, James Watt, Mary Anderson, Thomas Edison, James Naismith, Samuel Morse, Montgolfiers, Guglielmo Marconi, Benjamin Franklin, Mary Anderson, and Archimedes.
- Freebies from Notebook Learning
- Melanie makes pretty pages and is so generous to share them. Here are her science freebies.
- Notebooking Pages
Click on freebies a the top of the page and then browse the science & general notebooking options.- Notebooking Nook's Free Science & Nature Pages
- Homeschool Helper Online
- Browse the topical list, and you'll find printables for nature, weather, space, seasons, habitats, anatomy, and animals.
- Jeannie Fulbright's Exploring Creation Free Notebooking Pages
- Astronomy, botany, and zoology templates with space for your child to write and illustrate information they learn while working through the course. These pages are general enough that you can use them without using this particular curriculum.
More Science Topics
There is some overlap between lapbooking and notebooking, so often the same resources can be adapted for either application. Although these pages are geared toward lapbooking, there are also notebooking printables found there.-
Physics Lapbook
-
Think physics is only for college geeks? Think again! Physics is a fascinating facet of science that is especially relevant to children -- pushing and pulling, falling and leaping are all components of this science. Even elementary students can benef...
-
Chemistry Lapbook
-
Finally we are studying chemistry for homeschool science! This year is going to be really fun! We will study the elements, learn about subatomic particles, read biographies of famous chemists, and the best part -- make lots of messy experiments! Besi...
More Teacher Helps
for Science Notebooking
Using Science Notebooks in Elementary Classrooms (PB209X)
Amazon Price: $19.46 (as of 11/04/2009)
Used Price: $14.11
Science Notebooks: Writing About Inquiry
Amazon Price: $14.98 (as of 11/04/2009)
Used Price: $13.37
Scientific Method & Lab Report Printables
- Scientific Method Notebooking & Lapbooking Templates
- Choose your format -- notebooking pages or minibook templates. These templates are great not only for studying the scientific process itself but for filling in the steps taken during an actual science experiment.
- Science Experiment Simple Fold Minibook
- A freebie from Homeschool Share with a color illustration.
- Notebooking Pages Free Science Experiment Notebooking Pages
- These are beautiful! And there are twelve options to choose from!
- We are Scientists Minibook
- This is a really cute single fold minibook with primary handwriting lines. It has headings for the stages in the scientific method and room to write. For an intermediate level version click here. For a middle school one page version, click here.
Science Writing Prompts
- Writing Resources
- For each science topic, there is a PDF with two full writing prompts and a set of "quick-writes" for each lesson - these are 5-minute warm-ups students can do at the beginning of class.
- Notebooking Questions
- This is a list of general questions that can be used for a variety of science topics. Great journal starters!
Books of Writing Prompts
Write to Know: Nonfiction Writing Prompts for Middle School Science
Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 11/04/2009)
Write to Know: Nonfiction Writing Prompts for Upper Elementary Science
Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 11/04/2009)
Professional Articles
for going deeper
If you'd like to know more about the research behind notebooking or the cognitive functions, be sure to read these articles.
- Science Notebook Essentials by Dr. Mike Klentschy
- A guide to effective notebook components.
Guestbook
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JaguarJulie wrote...
Jimmie -- just simply remarkable -- hubby was a Science teacher way back in a local high school. He'd surely get a kick out of your lens! Won't this be something if you save all the notebooks to look at them some time in the future?
Posted April 30, 2009
by Jimmie
Hello! I am a homeschooling, stay at home mom who loves to teach and learn. I enjoy cooking from scratch, blogging, photography, and traveling, but I...
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