Math & Science Journals Part IV

math journal recap.

In an effort for growth and improvement in the open-ended portion of the ASK...

One strategy I decided to implement in an effort to improve math scores was a math journal.  

math journal update.

I use this as my daily warm-up activity for math.  It provides a nice daily routine for the students to get settled in (especially important in the middle school setting where students relocate every period).

I require the students to answer each open ended question with:a number sentence, a real sentence, and a picture.As seen below, I started the year with easy questions to get the students accustomed to expressing math concepts in the journal format.

So far so good!

Math & Science Journals Part III

Since making journaling part of my daily routine, I needed to come up with a system to organize the commonly used materials on the students' desks. 

SO, I was very proud of myself this morning when I hot glued a little dollar store bin into a bigger dollar store bin to create the masterpiece you see above.  I made 6, one for each table.

Here are some clips from my students' 7th grade Science Journal so far. We are starting with the easy stuff....lab safety and scientific method last week through tomorrow...


Tomorrow we will be adding two more foldables (Surface Tension: Pre-Lab & Drops On A Penny Lab Report) to our notebook as we complete the Penny Lab!

I'm having fun getting creative with all the types of foldables that can be used in the interactive notebooks... stay tuned as I make my own!

Math & Science Journals Part II

Began the math journals with my middle school resource center math class today by decorating the cover with a "Math About Us" theme.... 

I am requiring the students to make a cover that has pictures, math problems, and numbers that represent them.  

As you can see, my sample includes #'s related to: family members, age, height, number of letters in my name, favorite number, sports, instruments, pets, traveling

Math & Science Journals Part I

science interactive notebook pictures from Middle School Science

math & vocab interactive notebook pictures from Frogs and Cupcakes 

This year I am looking to use interactive notebooks this year in math and science.

Middle School Science has some great resources for using SCIENCE NOTEBOOKS here and here and here.

Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes has some great resources for using MATH NOTEBOOKS here available for purchase.

• I plan to organize the composition notebooks in two of the "organization stations" seen below.  This will allow the students a place to keep their notebooks in the classroom permanently & easy access to the notebooks as they enter the classroom. I like it because at a glance I can see whose notebook isn't there before they leave (who forgot to put it away).  Bought them here on amazon for about $30 each.

• I plan to keep materials for creating the notebooks accessible at all times.  These are the fancy-smancy lakeshore brand, mine are just the dolla' store brand.  Nonetheless, I will fill these with glue sticks and scissors for notebook creating. 

•  I am thinking I will limit the decoration of the notebooks, but theres always the art corner...