Third Grade Science Notebook Freebie!

Earth Science Notebook

For my new followers, I teach four classes a day. Math to two different classes and Science to the same two groups. I ♥love "teaming." It has turned me into a better Math teacher AND it forces me to teach Science each and every single day! You know what I'm talking about, sometimes when you're self contained, you take just a little longer to finish a great Reading lesson, so Science or Social Studies suffers. But not with teaming, I have a set amount of time to get things done and then they go to my teaching partner for Reading and Social Studies.

Last year our district started using a new Science series and we were told we had to have a Science notebook. But that was about it, no training, just...have a notebook. So I made the following note page to put into our notebook.

* The SECTION TITLE teaches them to read the Bold Title daily and make a prediction about what we are going to read.

* The three INTERESTING FACTS allows them to reflect on their reading and build on previous knowledge. We also use this to explain that although it is a FACT, it is also their OPINION about it being interesting. Someone else might have three different FACTS.

* BEFORE YOU MOVE ON is where we answer the three higher level questions in our reading passage.

* Then, my favorite part is the box, ANYTHING ELSE I FOUND INTERESTING. This is where we have them differentiate. The low children can just draw a picture. Middle level can draw and label a diagram, and the higher students MUST draw, label and write a sentence or two using the chapter vocabulary.

Our textbook is broken down into three sections, Life Science, Earth Science and Physical Science. Since they are still young, it is hard for eight year olds to keep a notebook all year without pages ripping and falling out of the binder. So we take each section and place it into a folded piece of 11 x 18 construction paper.

TADA, their very own book!

I also use the cover as an informal assessment, they have to draw their favorite part about studying Life Science or Earth Science, etc. Then at the end of the year they get to take home all three books.