Bright Ideas: No prep interactive notebook activities

I don't know about you, but sometimes my best lesson activity ideas come to me right in the middle of the lesson. There is no time to run to the office to make copies, so I've got to raid the closet to make it happen. This has happened several times when I wanted my students to add an interactive component to their notebooks. Luckily, most interactive notebook activities don't require a fancy template, you can whip them up with just a plain sheet of paper, some scissors, and glue!

Even if you have time to prep, there is often no need to copy a template for students. I love teaching them how to fold and cut the paper because it allows them to practice listening skills, work on following directions, and gives them experience with manipulating paper in different ways. Plus it makes them even more INTERACTIVE!

There are so many that I could share, but I narrowed it down to three...the shutter fold, the petal book, and an easy pocket.

 To create the shutter fold...
1. Fold the paper in half and open it up.
2. Fold the sides in to match the center.
4. Cut the shutters. I choose to make six, but you can easily make two to eight.
5. Label the outside and write definitions, examples, draw pictures, etc. on the inside.

 To create the petal book...
1. Fold the paper to make a square and cut off the excess.
2. Open it up and fold the corners in about an inch.
3. Cut off the corners (you can save these and make little flaps for another interactive notebook page!).
4. Fold the "petals" in towards the center.
5. Add the details!

To create the pocket...
1. Fold the paper to make a square and cut off the excess.
2. Keep the paper folded so that it is a triangle. Keep the base of the triangle facing down and the right angle pointing up.
3. Take one of the other points and fold it across the triangle meeting about halfway along the opposite edge.
4. Do the same with the opposite point, lining up the edges.
5. Fold the top point of the top layer of the triangle down over the folded pieces.
6. Flip the pocket over and fold the other layer of the top point.
7. Glue the pocket in, label, and place things inside.

For more bright ideas from other bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that interests you. Thanks for visiting!

An InLinkz Link-up

Simple Machines and Rube Goldberg Inventions

I love science. I love teaching science. But sometimes it takes a lot of extra time and planning to make great science lessons. We are currently working on our Force and Motion unit and we just learned about simple machines. I introduced them with this shutterfold foldable.

Together we took notes on each of the simple machines and coming up with examples of each. Then, I showed them these Rube Goldberg inspired videos:

Honda's "The Cog" video - a Rube Goldberg invention made entirely of (CGI) car parts. 

"The Page Turner"

Ok Go's "This Too Shall Pass" music video. 

And just released this week...

"Girls" from GoldiBlox

I explained to the class about Rube Goldberg and his inventions and showed them his Pencil Sharpener. Warning: some of his inventions are not quite school appropriate (i.e. smoking/alcohol), so preview them before showing kiddos. 

We were inspired to design our own inventions. I encouraged them to use at least three simple machines in their inventions. Here just a few of the creative ideas from my class. 

I was out for two days last week at a district training and my kids finished these up with the (amazing) substitute. I was very impressed with their thoughtful and creative inventions, and they were all excited about them as well. I added the Simple Machines Shutterfold to my TpT store for anyone interested in adding these to their Interactive Science Notebooks.

Interactive Notebooks - Social Studies

You know when you get in the habit of doing something, like going to the gym on a regular basis, and then something throws you off and it's difficult to get back into the habit. You might have good intentions and tell yourself that you will get to the gym and then it doesn't materialize, well, I was getting like that with blogging. For two weeks we were on fall break. I had a list of things to work on for school and had many blog posts that I wanted to write. But I couldn't get in the right mood to write them. Here I am forcing myself to post in hopes that it becomes more regular again.

Monday and Tuesday were workdays, which are great because you can ease back into waking up early and having a routine. The students headed back on Wednesday and we have been busy ever since. I have tons of things from first quarter that I didn't get to share. We'll see how much gets posted.

One of the new things I have been testing out this year is interactive-style notebooks. Last year I started getting into lapbooking and then found that interactive notebooks had a lot of the same elements. I even discovered that many of the foldables/mini books/etc. aren't that novel either. We set up all of our notebooks with a table of contents and most of the pages include graphic organizers, foldables, mini books, and more meaningful (and colorful) activities).

Today I wanted to highlight just a few from our social studies notebooks.

At the end of each quarter I ask my students to write me a letter telling me how their quarter went. I had several students comment on the notebooks and that they enjoyed the activities that we completed in them. I love that it forces students to read deeper (and not just skim and scan - like they might for a worksheet) and that they get to be creative. It's definitely more meaningful and, to throw out a buzz word, has built in differentiation!

And now, I am also getting back in the habit of going to the gym regularly and my yoga class starts in 25 minutes!