
This blog post contains free labels for your math journals, poetry notebook, and your students’ thinking journals. Perfect for interactive kindergarten notebook as they are so much fun!
Preparing your kindergarten notebook
So I was always the crazy lady, sitting on the floor at Walmart thinking it was a good idea to get all of my composition books to match. Then when all of my notebooks were matchy-matchy, I would start the year off. This helped my students find their notebook quickly, ie, “Friends, grab your blue math journal and…” Then as the students moved in and out of the district, the notebooks would not match. GAH!
One day, I decided to add color duct tape to the spines, and WAH-LA… Notebook Nirvana for any grade level!
Not only did this create beautiful kindergarten notebook, it also helped the students find their notebooks QUICKLY! SCORE!
The students could quickly look into their desk (we had to have desks) and find their notebook without the hard work. The no longer had to pull each notebook out and look at the cover page.
NOTE: I bought the notebooks above at Target because the colors were a great way to make my OCD heart happy. But for a class set, I would just use the standard black and white covers because they are so much cheaper and easier to find.
More details on making the kindergarten notebook.
I simply printed the label on card stock. Then I added a piece of clear contact paper (in the kitchen section at Target). I have always made my notebooks in this way and the notebooks hold-up beautifully. I wait to add the students’ name until after Open House. I just used a Sharpie to write them on the kindergarten notebook.
What did I use this kindergarten notebook and journal for?
Math journal
Each day, we had a math journal prompt. This did not take very long (under 10 minutes a day) and students’ math skills were spirally reviewed throughout the entire year. Here are a few examples.
Here are a few related blog posts:
Poetry Kindergarten Notebook
Each week we have a new poem of the week. This is our shared reading. We use our kindergarten notebook to post the poem, but we also do related word work in our interactive notebooks. Here are a few examples of the new skills my students learned.
You can read more about our poetry work by clicking below:
- What Worked Last Year? Poetry Stations and FREE download
- Poetry for Kindergarten. Like FREE Books, but BETTER
Thinking journal
Our “Thinking Journal” is used for everything else notebook related. That includes our Engaging Readers literature responses.
And the small group writing we do during our Guided Reading skills time.
You can read more about these two activities in these related blog posts.
You can download the FREE covers at the bottom of this blog post.
FREE Kindergarten Notebook and Journal Covers
Simply add your email to the box below and these covers will be sent your way.
8 Responses
Thank you for the freebies!
You are welcome!
Thank you and Deanna for all your wonderful ideas and hard work making them to share some free and, of course, I’ve been happy to pay for many for your work. I’m71. Have been teaching K for 35 + years and still love it. There must be something wrong with me that I am retiring this year and still this summer am gathering some new ideas to try “one last time”. Just wanted to say thank you. You and Deanna’s products help us all. I’ve told many other teachers about you two. Smooth sailing into the new year. Jan Colby Blakely School, Bainbridge Island, WA
You are welcome!!!! I will send you an email with the labels in just a few minutes.
Thank you so much! This is very nice.
Thank you!
Okay, I found the math journal cover to print out, as I have downloaded your free math journal prompts. But, I still do not know how to find the all star punch card. How can I get that? sheriagers@gmail.com
Sorry about that! You will find the punch card in this blog post:
10 Tips for Starting Centers