Right before Memorial Day weekend, our boys completed preschool. This August, they will attend kindergarten. Although we want them to relax and have fun this summer, we also want to keep them intellectually engaged. As an educator for the past ten years, I am familiar with notebooking, whether that is a reader's notebook, writer's notebook, science notebook, etc. We decided to have our boys keep a garden notebook. We wanted them to have the opportunity to continue to work on their writing skills without copying worksheets each day. At Office Depot, we purchased primary composition notebooks. These notebooks have a space for a picture at the top and the bottom has primary writing lines.
First, I had my boys save some pages at the beginning of the notebook for the table of contents. Our first entry table of content entry was May Strawberry Harvest Bar Graph. Next, our boys labeled the x-axis and y-axis of the chart. They labeled the x-axis, "Date" and the y-axis, "Number of Strawberries." Then, they filled in the five dates we picked strawberries during the month of May.
Afterwards, they colored in one box to represent each strawberry picked during each date. After completing the graph, they cut it out and glued it into their notebooks. Finally, we discussed our data.
Below are some highlights from our data conversations.
We grew more and more strawberries each time except for the last time.
It rained a lot and that is what made the strawberries grow.
There was an opening at the back of the strawberry net the last time we picked strawberries. Maybe a sneaky animal ate some of the strawberries during the last day of May.
Our boys are excited to have a garden notebook and they are excited to add more entries throughout the summer.
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