3 Steps to Make Word Family Interactive Notebooks Successful

Teaching word families in your classroom doesn’t need to be a boring skill and drill activity. Don’t get me wrong – there are only so many ways to learn a topic and something like word families is going to get repetitive over time. One way to keep things interesting is to use word family interactive notebooks. 

Now, before you say “But, wait – you don’t like interactive notebooks!”, let me explain.

To me, the main benefit of these notebooks is having one place for students to return to time and time again to revisit their learning. This word family interactive notebook would serve the purpose much like a dictionary for students.

So let’s look at three quick ways we can make sure these interactive notebooks will be a success. 

Designate a space for materials and trash.

My biggest qualm with interactive notebooks is all the stuff. At the very least you need a notebook, pencils, crayons, glue, and scissors. And then after all that you have a big pile of trash.

The best thing to do if your students don’t have pencil boxes is to create interactive notebook caddies. Include the common materials your students will need to complete their books, as well as a small basket or bucket to collect their paper scraps. This way one student can empty the trash when they have completed the activity rather than taking seventeen (no that’s not an exaggeration!) trips to throw away their trash.

 

Focus on the content first.

This may seem silly and obvious, but it needs to be said.

An activity like interactive notebooks is bound to bring the creativity out of some of your students.

This is wonderful and will likely help them remember the materials better – or at least make them want to admire their own work (but we’ll get back to that).

Make sure your students are completing the actual work first. Then if they have extra time they can jazz up their pages with extra coloring and doodles.

If your students have trouble with focusing on the content, consider having them complete their work with only pencils first. If colors are necessary, ask them to only take out the specific ones they need to complete the activities. Once they have completed their work, then they can go back and make their notebooks more colorful.

Purposefully revisit the content often.

If your students are going to go the all that work, make sure you are putting the interactive notebooks to good use. With a topic like word families, remind students to pull out those notebooks when they are working on writing. 

While students might have access to these words in other places in your room – like dictionaries or the word wall, you may be surprised how often students want to flip back through their notebooks. When they spent their time and energy making those books, they are likely going to want to look at them again and again.

Word Family Interactive Notebooks In Your Classroom

If you’re ready to give interactive notebooks a try in your classroom, I highly suggest starting with a topic like word families. This is a skill that students need to master for their reading and writing, so it’s something students will need to revisit over time.