Binding Up My Year

At the beginning of the school year, I try to do as much copying and binding as I possibly can. This saves time and energy later on when the school year gets crazy hectic. Plus now I am thinking clearly about what I want for my students, so if I print quality stuff. Whereas if I wait, while I might have grand plans in my head, I may not have time to find them. So, here are a few of the things I bind together for my students at the beginning of the year:

  Self Selected Novel Study Packets – My kids are each doing three novel studies this year, with novels that they have chosen themselves. So I bound together three copies of this generic novel study. They now have a full “workbook” for guided reading this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Problem Solving Path – Instead of printing these monthly journals at the beginning of each month, I print the entire year’s worth and bind them together. This also helps me to see how my students are growing throughout the year. It’s kind of like a little mini problem solving portfolio.

 

 

 

 

 

  Writing Journals – I have done these two different ways. I have bound each separate genre and I have bound all 4 genres together. Personally, I prefer to have all 4 genres together because then I have all of their writing in one place. However, the kids liked having the genres separately because they could bring the completed genres home four times, which made them feel like there was more to celebrate.

 

 

Reading Response Journal – This is one of the smaller packets I bind. Originally I hole punched them and put them in a binder, but the kids kept losing response sheets, so I decided to bind them. This was a major win and made a great reading comprehension center all year long!

 

 

 

Country Study Research & Project Sheets – Because of the interconnectedness of the units in my year long country study project, it is very helpful to the kids if they have all of their research together in one place. It lets them refer back and forth and make connections between the different units of study. For example my kids looked back at their Maps and Globes unit during their Plants and Animals unit and their History unit.

 

 

 Now when I worked at a school with a binding machine, this binding was easy and free. This year however, I spent a lot of money printing and binding for my own children who I homeschool. So my husband and I have just ordered this binder which we will be using next year.

What notebooks do you bind together for your students?