Hey guys and dolls, how’s it going?
I’ve officially been on summer vacation for 2 weeks, and I think that
I am ready to crawl out of my cocoon!!
I’ve been working on a project that is near and dear to my heart,
and I’m glad to say that I’m finally finished!!
My school is a Leader in Me School, and as part of that,
we have data notebooks for our kiddos!
Data notebooks are great ways for students
to learn responsibility and accountability.
As I have tried to get these going over the past few years, I kept running
into the same issue. A lot of what is available now include
tons and tons of graphs!!
Now I’m all about graphs, but it’s hard to teach and help students
to graph their data in, when they don’t know what a graph is, and they’re still
learning basics such as how to walk in line, how to behave during centers, etc.
I decided that I needed something a little simpler,
which involves a lot of something that they already like to do!
COLORING!!!!
Yup, you heard me right! We all know that primary kiddos
love to color, so I decided to create a data notebook that
is mostly just that!
At my school, their data notebook is in a binder, which
also contains their agenda.
Behind their agenda, there are three tabs:
My Data, My Goals, My Victories.
It can truly be done anyway that you see fit.
I always begin my data notebooks with the easiest data
that we have to do anyway, which is their behavior chart.
I have always used a color chart for behavior, but I’ve also
started to incorporate attendance in it as well.
My students color the side that is identical to our
classroom clip chart every month.
(I know, I know, everybody doesn’t like clip charts, but I do!)
In August, I give them one that’s already colored in,
but for the rest of the year they do it themselves.
At the end of each day, they color their chart.
If they were absent the day before, they put an ‘X’ over it.
So this pretty much stays the same, except that I’ve updated it a bit!
The rest of the pages are set up so that when students master a piece of the
content, then they can color it in.
Usually, I allow the students to choose colors, etc.,
as it makes it more authentic.
If you notice, the data sheets are in page protectors, which
helps it to last much longer than they would on their own.
I Can statements are also included at the bottom of each page,
or incorporated into the title.
Once students reach their goals, there are several of these pages
where they can color in their ribbon.
Portions of this data notebook are also editable, such as the behavior clip chart,
sight words and more, so that
you may personalize it for your class.
You do not have to be a Leader in Me School to use data notebooks!
Anyone can use them!! If you think that this is something that
you might be interested in, go ahead and give it a shot!
For a peek into how I do data notebooks
in my classroom, click here!
For more information, click on the picture below!
