Inside my Social Studies Interactive Notebook

Some had mentioned they would like to see inside my social studies interactive notebook so I finally remembered to bring it home and snap some pictures.  It is not as creative as my language arts one!  I used some foldables from Dinah Zike, some I found online, and some great units from InspirEd Educators. 

This is my first year teaching social studies (in middle school, in my career, and in 6th grade).  I teach in NC and our state will be implementing the Common Core starting next school (2012-2013).  In addition, all of our other curriculums have changed to what they call Essential  Standards.  I was put on the Social Studies Essential Standards training team for our county. 

Needless to say, I was panicked and lost at the beginning of the school year.  I started out with the five themes of geography and landforms and then moved to South America which was found in our old textbook while we read The Cay in language arts class.  Since being put on the training team, the team was told after the first nine weeks that we were allowed encouraged to convert to the new essential standards curriculum.  With that came a complete loss for me.  I had no social studies materials to start with, but the change meant I had absolutely nothing, not even the old textbook.  I headed to the Internet to search for materials, lessons, actually anything I could get my hands on and discovered InspirED Educators. 

InspirEd Educators was like this amazing find for me (and in no way am I affiliated or paid to promote their products)!  They have several thematic units on ancient world history which is what our new essential standards is for 6th grade.  These lessons contain a variety of hands on activities, primary and secondary sources, whole group/small group lessons, research projects, and collaborative projects just to name a few. 

So...long story short:  my social studies notebooks started out more interactive but then became a place to glue all the lesson from InspirEd Educators as act as a textbook for social studies.  Here are a few pictures to get started.

The table of contents for my social studies interactive notebook.

Five Themes of Geography flip book foldable.  We took notes on each tab for that theme.  Notice the capital/bold letters spell MR. HELP...this was our acronym to help remember the five themes (found on the Internet somewhere).

One of the tabs from our Five Themes of Geography flip book foldable.

Longitude and latitude foldable using a paper plate and then glued into our notebooks.

Here is the paper plate foldable unfolded in our notebook.

Interactive Notebooks in Language Arts

I went in to school today for a couple of hours and took several pictures of my teacher interactive notebook that I use in my language arts classes.  I have not found a specific website to use interactive notebooks in language arts.  I read any and all information that I could find online before I started using them in my own classroom.  I have modified them from their original setup to fit my own style of teaching. 

I guess I should start at the beginning.  Much debate has been done about what type of notebook to use.  I prefer a one subject spiral bound notebook with a poly cover, 100 sheets, college ruled, with a pocket in the front.  Other people prefer to use a composition notebook or a binder.  I have found with a binder that pages tend to get lost no matter how careful you are about putting items in the notebook.  With a composition notebook, the pages do not fall out, but space is limited.  I have only had one or two pages fall out over the years and we just tape to the next page - problem solved. 

My notebook of choice is from Staples.  It is the Accel brand.  They can be found on sale during the school year and especially during the summer for $2.00 each.  The Mead Five Star ones work and are similarily priced.  I like the Staples ones better because it has a clear poly folder in the front and a thicker spiral that does not get snagged on stuff.

Here is a picture of my choice notebook and a link to them at Staples.  But...make sure they ARE on sale!  Click on the notebook to find them at your local Staples.

Here is part of the table of contents page in our interactive notebook.