Carson Dellosa Interactive Science Notebook Review

I recently received a copy of Carson-Dellosa’s Kindergarten Interactive Science Notebook to review.  I am a member of their Brand Ambassador Program and the Interactive Science Notebook was the only real option to review this month, other than bulletin board materials.  Prior to this experience, I tried to incorporate interactive notebooking earlier in the school year with math, but I found it to be a little too much for Kindergarten at the time.  It was very time-consuming for children who had emerging cutting and gluing skills.  

Upon receiving Carson-Dellosa’s Kindergarten Interactive Science Notebook, I was eager to flip through and check out what they had to offer.  The beginning of the book offers a great outline and suggestion section for users new to interactive notebooks.  This section really covers it all – how to get started, notebooks to use, rubrics, setup guidelines, etc.  I think this is very helpful for anyone new to interactive notebooks and even those who are already familiar with them.

The book is divided up into different areas of science – Life, Physical, and Earth and Space, as well as a basic reproducible section that can be used for any topic.  Wile browsing this section, I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to implement this book into my classroom at the current moment.  I currently do not do interactive notebooks with my students (see my reason above), and most of the designed producibles are for topics I will be covering in the coming weeks and months.  Due to this, I decided to use the basic reproducibles that can work with any topic.  

This week I am beginning a unit on Dental Health.  I decided to use the KWL Chart interactive tab to pre-assess my students and see what they already knew about this topic, as well as what they want to know.  I found this very interesting.  My students had a difficult time articulating what they already knew about teeth.  I kind of had to guide them in activating their knowledge and coming up with questions they wonder about.  

To cut down on the time, I cut the tabs out myself so that all students would have to do is glue and write.  They then wrote something they knew about teeth and something they wanted to know.  I found what they knew basically boiled down to that they visit a dentist and brush their teeth.  Things they want to know are how many teeth they have, what cavities are, and how to become a dentist.  I’m definitely going to expand upon these topics during our study, as well as teach a lot more.  I’m anxious to see how their knowledge expands by the end of our unit.

I think Carson-Dellosa has created a great interactive notebook series for anyone interested in using them in their classroom.  I may pull some pages to use in our upcoming studies, but, for now, I do not plan to use interactive science notebooks in my classroom as I just do not have enough time in my science block.  If you are interested in learning more about this book or the interactive science notebook series, please visit this site.

*Review Disclaimer – I participate in Carson-Dellosa’s Brand Ambassador Program and received this product for free in exchange for a review.