Interactive Notebook Hack

Hey everyone! It's Angela from Hippo Hooray for Second Grade popping in. Interactive Notebooks are all the rage these days, and today I want to share a tip for implementing them with ease!

First Things First: What are Interactive Notebooks?

An interactive notebook is a place where students can take information supplied from the teacher and merge it with their own thinking. Interactive notebooks differ from traditional note taking, in that they allow students to stop and interact with the new information and receive feedback from the teacher and classmates about their understanding of the new information, instead of just copying down notes from a book or the board and having no clue what they're writing.

Want to know a way to make your interactive notebooking easier? 
Here's what you do! 

Buy sticky notes! And LOTS of them!!

Oh my goodness, sticky notes have saved my interactive notebooking life! These little gems can be used in so many ways, giving you and your students back the time the need to actually learn (not cut out a bunch of little pieces of paper!). Here are a few ways I use sticky notes:

1. Sticky notes as flip flaps

Don't have time to create a cute foldable? Or maybe the task of cutting is just too time consuming for your students. No worries! Just give your kids sticky notes. They label what's underneath right on top of the sticky note, which will help to increase student ownership of the notebooks. I do like to come around with clear tape while the students are working and put a small piece at the top, just to make sure the sticky notes don't fall out of the notebooks.

2. Sticky notes for tabbing sections

Again, another way for students to take ownership of the creation of their notebooks is for them to make the tabs for the sections of their notebooks. They write the heading on the opposite end of the sticky side, and put it on their table of contents page for the section. I like to use a different color for each section. Then I cover the whole sticky note with clear packaging tape so that they are durable.

3. Sticky notes for labeling the left side/right side

My students use the left side of their notebooks as the "Thinking Side" (the output/interacting side), and the right side of the notebook as the "Information Side" (the input/note taking side). So I use red/pink and green sticky notes to label the sides. Red for the Thinking Side: STOP and think! Green for the Information Side: GO ahead and learn! Again, I cover these with clear packaging tape.

If you want to learn more about how I use interactive notebooks in my class, click HERE! I also have a Pinterest board dedicated to all the interactive notebook gems I find online:

Follow Hippo Hooray for Second Grade's board Interactive Notebooks on Pinterest.

What else do you use sticky notes for? Leave me a comment below!

Thanks for stopping by today!