I am still pursuing my love affair with pinterest. I love browsing the pins that I find on my update and frequently find new ideas or inspiration. A lot of the people that I follow on pinterest are American teachers and that gives me a whole different look at how some things are done.
One of the things that crops up frequently is the idea of maths notebooks or journals. I think that these are used a lot in North America but seem to be used in very different ways. One of the ways that I am interested in pursuing is the idea of a sort of revision file for the children. I have been thinking about this for a while and I am seriously thinking of adopting this idea next year for my year 6 maths group.
My main inspiration for this comes from the blog http://www.rundesroom.com/. She is a teacher working in Canada with grades 5 and 6 and has some fantastic ideas about maths and using notebooks as a record of their learning. Below you can see a recent example of a journal page from one of her pupils.
I like the idea of the pupils having a separate book where they can record things that are important that they need to remember. It could then be used as a reference tool in preparation for Sats next May. I also like the idea of the children having the freedom to record in their own way, maybe using felt pens and pictures so that it is more individual.
Another blog that I found today that seems to use Maths notebooks in this way is http://mathfoldables.blogspot.co.uk/ which I only discovered this morning.
I haven’t sorted out in my head how I will do this next year. It may be something the class do on a Friday to record what they need to remember from the weeks work but it is definitely something that I want to try and I think it will help my pupils to have a resource that they can use in revision that means something to them.
Does anyone use maths notebooks or journals in this way? If so, how successful have you found them? I would love to hear any comments or views on this.