Today is National Notebook Day! This holiday is made for me. Unfortunately, we can't celebrate in class tomorrow as we are testing, so I began the celebration today.
The past couple of weeks I've noticed students complaining about notebooks and forgetting notebooks. I thought about it and realized that we aren't using them enough. Wednesday, I posted this on the board...
In each class we spent some time reacquainting ourselves to our notebooks. It took some time. We perused our pages. We picked out special entries. We started to write and play in our notebooks again. Two students said, "Ms. Haseltine, I get it! I wrote better today than I have in a long time." These same two students stumbled on an idea for a book and started drafting and planning. Oh, the magic of notebooks!
During the next blocks, we continued our journey back to notebooks. We wrote about ordinary objects that are around our classroom every single day. Some students wrote descriptions, some wrote poems, some began stories...they all wrote. They felt powerful and energized. As we ended, I heard the noise every teacher loves to hear, "Awwww! Can we have moooooorrrrreee time!!! Plleeeeaaassseeee?!?!"
Here are some pictures of my students working and their writing...
The past couple of weeks I've noticed students complaining about notebooks and forgetting notebooks. I thought about it and realized that we aren't using them enough. Wednesday, I posted this on the board...
In each class we spent some time reacquainting ourselves to our notebooks. It took some time. We perused our pages. We picked out special entries. We started to write and play in our notebooks again. Two students said, "Ms. Haseltine, I get it! I wrote better today than I have in a long time." These same two students stumbled on an idea for a book and started drafting and planning. Oh, the magic of notebooks!
During the next blocks, we continued our journey back to notebooks. We wrote about ordinary objects that are around our classroom every single day. Some students wrote descriptions, some wrote poems, some began stories...they all wrote. They felt powerful and energized. As we ended, I heard the noise every teacher loves to hear, "Awwww! Can we have moooooorrrrreee time!!! Plleeeeaaassseeee?!?!"
Here are some pictures of my students working and their writing...
I did not know about this holiday. But I know about your amazing notebooks and am so happy to see how you are nurturing that habit and love for notebook keeping in your students. Love the photos. What is the app you use to do that?
ReplyDeleteSuch a refreshing post! I'm glad you shared that yes, sometimes we get in a "writing funk" and it doesn't take much to move, change, and enjoy writing once again. Cheers to you, your students, and National Notebook Day! ~Amy
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