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OT- Any elementary teachers out there?

Last-Wife's picture

It's time to start thinking about going back to work. Saw the supply list at the super center. Always have to pick up a copy so I can remember what I asked the students' bring. After doing this for 15 years, you'd think I could remember! LOL

Just wondering- how do you use spiral notebooks in your classroom? Especially in regards to reading or writing notebooks... Thanks for the tips!

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mystiery's picture

One thing you can do is to have them all start a story in the note book. One page a day they can add to their story and at the end of whenever the pages run out (normally 70) have them decorate the outside and add some drawings, they can turn it into a book to take home!!

Last-Wife's picture

Sorry to hear about your job situation. Things are tough where we are too. My husband was lucky to get a new position for the fall...

About the notebooks: Journaling- been there, done that bored by it.

A reading trainer came in my room last year, and did a neat thing with the kids for reading and writing. We started at the back of the notebook and counted off 15 pages and folded them in half. On each page, we wrote a/b, c/d, e/f, etc. (Get the idea?) and it was used as a spelling glossary to list their new words for the week. when they encountered spelling troubles, they were to look there first.

The first 3 pages of the notebook were left blank, as a table of contents. Each time something new was added to our book, we had to list the topic and page number it was found on. Then, we numbered the next 45 pages- fronts only. These pages were used for notetaking, writing topic lists, journal a note about your story/reading for today, vocab assignments, etc. Each page was titled at the top, and then added to the table of contents. Worked really well, and kids loved it...

I plan to modify this idea for this school year, but seperate and have a seperate notebook for reading, and a seperate one for writing.

We also spent one day just letting the kids decorate their books with magazine pictures and stuff, and then used mod podge to seal the covers.

Oh- the remaining "blank" pages in the middle were used for the kids' reading logs of completed books.

It worked so well, I did a similar ntoebook for math. The last 26 pages were labeled A-z and were practice pages for daily review problems. It also had a table of contents, and the pages were numbered. Students were required to take notes of vocab and sample problems. I allowed students to use notebooks on tests. (Problem solving in our school is a seperate quiz paper from vocab, so they couldn't use it for the vocab quizzes.) I always made sure 1 02 of the problems on the test was an example we did in class. This was to "test" to see if they were notetaking properly...

That notebook filled up quick and we did one for each quarter...

BTW, I teach 5th grade....

I also have 2-3 SpEd kids placed in my regular ed classroom, so there is an aide to help them. We have SMARTBoards in my building, so I was able to print out their notes. Their job was to neatly cut and glue the items into the book and add it to their table of contents.

Hope these ideas help you! If you think of anything else, let me know!

Crizzle's picture

I am not a teacher, but I am a parent that hates those cursed supply lists. They get longer and more ridiculous every year. I understand our children have to have certain things for the year, but some of it is overkill. They always ask for more pencils than my child could possibly use in a year or maybe two or three. 4-5 boxes of 24 count crayons + the twistable ones. A CERTAIN BRAND of scissors every year is even required. Funny that we have to buy these every year yet they aren't sent home at the end of the year. Where are all these damn Fiskar scissors disappearing to? These ridiculous supply lists really eat up a person's budget and patience!