It’s time when I get to test out a product by our good friends over at Carson-Dellosa. This month, they sent me a grade level specific Interactive Science Notebook guide to test and report back.
When the package arrived at my door and I perused those pages for the first time, I liked what I saw. It is broken down by science strand – life, physical, and earth/space. The book also has a generic reproducibles section that caught my eye immediately. This contains everything from flap books and puzzle pieces to a KWL chart. CD must know that this teacher loves options . . . this additional element definitely won may heart over.
The Interactive Science Notebook guide provides a great introduction on starting, organizing, and managing this process in your classroom. In addition it contains a suggested grading rubric. This is such a cool element. Although you may not follow it to a T, it helps to have an outline to get you started.
The lessons and pages Carson-Dellosa has included are well thought out. Each lesson has an introduction, a sample page, and ideas on ways to have your students reflect on their learning.
**I need to come clean on something. Before I get to much deeper into my final thoughts on this book, I must admit that I do not use interactive notebooks in my classroom and I wasn’t about to start them up on a whim just to review a product. I know that you must be thinking I am crazy at this moment. I didn’t have a choice on the item I was sent this go around. I have always pondered starting up some sort of interactive notebook in my classroom and I even have a classroom set of composition books sitting in a pile on my office floor waiting for me to pull the trigger . . . such a Dolling move. Alright, so now that this disclaimer out of the way, I feel much better about this post – it’s all about transparency over here at THE FACTORY. Despite this lack of notebook use, I still feel like I can look at this product and give valid input on its overall classroom/teacher appeal.**
Science is definitely not something that you just plug into the mix at random (well, at least not in my planning process . . . it’s just not how I roll). Instead, it has been carefully folded into my long-range plan for the year. With this said, I would love to have seen this book in August. I think it would have enticed me to fold these lessons into my long-range calendar and get those comp books off of my floor and into the hands of my kids. Looking at the content of the book now, I can count at least 12-15 pages that I would have been interested in using with my kids. The habitat/animal and physical science pages are particularly useful and SO many of them align with lessons that I already have in place throughout the year.
So, in a nutshell, I feel comfortable stating that this is a good product and worth a little look-see. If you currently use Interactive Notebooks with your kids, various lessons within this book could easily slip in and supplement whatever you have cookin’. If you don’t use Interactive Notebooks for science at this time, but have thought about starting them up, take a look at this book for next year. It may be what you need to get the process rollin’ 🙂 To check out this resource a little closer, CLICK HERE.
Thanks for taking the time to visit me. I will be back again very soon with something timely and fun for your kids . . . it’s in the works as I type 🙂
*Review Disclaimer: I participate in the Brand Ambassador Program for Carson-Dellosa and have received this product for free to review.
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