Firstieland - First Grade Teacher Blog

Where learning feels like play.

Interactive Notebooks

Interactive notebooks – are you wondering what they are and what all the hype's about?  I hear you!  About a year ago, I started seeing a lot of buzz about interactive notebooks and wondered if this was something I should try.

Well you know me…..I'm always willing to try something new if it's going to benefit my firsties! So of course, I gave them a try and LOVED them! And you know what?? My students loved them too!  So here's a few reasons why you should try them too!

1. Interactive Notebooks are FUN!


You know me….I'm all about capturing my firsties attention and keeping them engaged in learning.  And that's exactly what happened when we started using interactive notebooks.  They remind me of pop up books with lift the flaps and little hidden pictures behind doors.  And what kid doesn't love a pop up book??

Interactive notebooks have lift the flaps and windows and doors….but with lots of great educational content behind them.  They keep your kids engaged and learning at the same time.  Suddenly learning your sight word or spelling words becomes fun!

2. Interactive Notebooks are HANDS ON LEARNING!


Now we all know that kids learn best when they are manipulating things with their hands and really diving into a lesson, right? Interactive notebooks are perfect for hands on learning.  Your kids will be cutting, folding, lifting, moving objects, using spinners and building words.  When students are totally immersed in a lesson in this way, they link that skill in their mind to this fun activity and it helps them remember! BINGO!

3. Interactive Notebooks keep kids ORGANIZED.

How often do you do a work sheet with your students and then find it shoved into the bottom of their backpack, laying under a table somewhere, or smashed in the back of their seat sack? You know those students…..we all have them!  
With interactive notebooks, your students stay organized.  They always know where their work is and can use the notebooks as a REFERENCE TOOL.  Do they need to know how to spell a word?  Look in your interactive notebook.  Can't remember what a verb is? Look in your interactive notebook. Last year my kids would ASK if they could use their interactive notebook to help them with a page they were doing…….what??  You want to use a reference tool to help you with your work??…..um…..YES!!  
4. Interactive Notebooks can be used in A VARIETY OF WAYS.
Interactive notebooks are great for so many things!  I love to use them for independent work during guided reading.  My firsties do four things during our 60 minute guided reading block: Centers, Meet with Me, Read to Self and Independent Work. 
I found that the pages in our interactive notebook were perfect for that 15 minutes of independent work.  They were aligned to the standard we were working on that week, the kids were engaged and stayed on task and it took them just about exactly 15 minutes to do the page.  PERFECT! 
But Interactive Notebooks can be used for lots of other things too.  
       ~ Morning Seat Work
       ~ Homework
       ~ Independent Work
       ~ Small Group Lessons
5. Students aren't the only ones who LOVE INTERACTIVE NOTEBOOKS.

You and your students won't be the only ones who will love these notebooks. Parents really enjoy looking through these fun books and seeing all the hard work their kiddos have done over the year.  They are great to send home for practice or to study before a test.  
Your administration will love them too.  What a great tool to take to your evaluation meeting to show all of the skills you have been working on with your students all year!  It's an easy way for you to show the standards all in one place.  And they are perfect for differentiation and RTI. 
Now…..here's the really GREAT news.  I just completed a labor of love for you! My K-1 Phonics Mega Bundle is finally ready for you!  It is jam packed with goodies to keep your kids active and engaged all year.  
This bundle has six units…that's a total of 30 weekly lessons. (over 600 PAGES!)  Each lesson contains an interactive page for Monday -Thursday.  This resource can stand alone or be used as a supplement to the Journeys Reading Series. They are engaging and provide hands on learning. It's perfect to use at your word work center, independent seat work or even homework. 
The words in the program begin with simple short vowel CVC words and progress with harder skills including long vowels, silent e, vowel teams, blends, digraphs and compound words. 
Want to take a closer look?  Hop on over to my K-1 Phonics Activities Bundle to take a closer look. 

Would you like to dive a little deeper? Grab this FREEBIE to see how the phonics lessons are set up and check out the sample lessons. 

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