Live and Learn: Creating a Learning Log

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Creating a Learning Log

My jack russell is feeling it and so am I....the dog days of summer!
You know those hot, steamy days when your energy is zapped and all you want to do is lay by the pool sipping something cold, dozing off or doing some mindless (noneducational) reading.
The joy of it all!!

Typically I would just now be settling into this glorious routine.
BUT, the truth is, I have been out of school since Memorial Day.
And I will be reporting back for duty on August 1 this year.
Yes, my days of rest and relaxation will soon come to an end.
YIKES!

Needless to say, part of my mind is beginning to switch over to school mode.
Walking into Target and Walmart does not help as I see
big boxes of school supplies are getting unloaded and shelved.

So this scene got me thinking about what journals, notebooks or folders I want my kids using this year.
I know from experience that keeping my kids organized is key to a successful year.
I may change it up some, but what I know I will continue with is how I've been recording our social studies and science learning.
My students are using what I call the "Learning Log".

At the beginning of the year, I print out labels for students' journals.
Here are the ones that I am using this year.

You can grab these labels from Amazon:

Avery Labels

They use one of their marble composition books as a learning log.

It contains all our social studies and science learning in one book.
Each unit begins with a tabbed divider that students glue in.
They glue it so that the tab peeks out just a bit.

In my county, we alternate social studies and then science learning.
So this works great for us.
One section is science and the next social studies.
I loved how it all was in one notebook.

After the tab, the students glue down "fill in the blank" pages to record that we have learned about the topic. We do this together so that I can monitor and guide, making sure that everyone is getting the correct information down. This will then serve as one of their main study tools before a test.

By the end of the year, their journal was just about completely full.
I love that their whole year's worth of learning was available for them to take home.

On some pages, students glued down envelopes that housed vocabulary cards.
Most pages were what we called, "slice and stick" pages.
Students cut the pages into two parts and glued them down and then we filled them out.
Super simple so that most of our time was spent doing hands on investigations or researching for information.

If students were successful in completing a unit, they would get a brag tag.

You can read more about how I use these brag tags here:

Brag Tags

Let me know if you would like the editable divider pages or Learning Log labels.
I'd be glad to share them with you!

I've since added the Learning Log labels and editable dividers to my TPT store.
You can click here to download your free copy:

Back to School: Organizing a Learning Log