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Notebooking is basically a collection of notes. Everyone should have ever done notebooking. A collection of recipe, journal, a clipping, taking a note are all notebooking. How different is notebooking we are doing than just taking a note in a lined book and draw on it?
- We treat our notebooking as something special to get the children used to the neatness. Before a writing put into a notebooking pages, children should have got the writing draft in their draft binder and I should have check the work.
- Kids use their notebooking to review what they've got in their lessons. I try hard to get them use colors so that they will be helped by the visual appearance in recalling the information.
- We use notebooking for:
- Narration
- Copyworking
- Writing Poem
- Writing prayers
- Summary
- Worksheets, dan lain – lain.
- We use a bound pieces of paper so that it would be easier for us to add and to insert additional materials or note if it is needed in the future.
Today I would like to share how we make this notebooking pages: 
This page is a part of our recent World History activity taken from Story of The World. I used Microsoft Words 2008 for Mac, but the basic things about it will be similar in most word processing software I divide the steps into 7 groups.
Step 1 – Open the software
Step 1 – Blank page of word processing software
Step 2 – Make the lines
Make the lines using table. Use as many rows as you need and just one column.
Here is the table with just one column
Format the table to get the proper width of rows. You also can make any other kinds of lines like primary lines or HWOT lines patterns.
To make a common set of notebook lines, arrange the row size into exact width
Erase the left and right border sides of the table in border and alignment session. Each word processing software has its own method.
Arrange the table position into “around” in table formatting option. This step is very important to prevent chaos in further element addition.
Drag the table or the lines down to give some space to the title of the notebooking page.
Step 3 – Make the title for the notebooking page
Make the title of the notebooking page using word art. You can also use text box.
Choose the appropriate fonts as you like.
Arrange the colors of fill and lines of the title. I choose black to get it printed in my black and white laser printer.
Arrange the position and the size of the title on the right place. You might drag here and there.
Step 4 – Make the frames and labels
We use square basic shape to make frames for pictures
Arrange the colors of the fill and lines of the square to suit our need. I use black for the lines and white for the fill.
Arrange the size and position of the single square picture frame.
Get the picture frames multiplied. First, click the picture frame. Next, press control – C (the windows version for copy) or command – C (the mac version for copy). Then, paste it as many copies as we need by pressing control – V (the windows version for paste) or command – V (the mac version for paste).
Put those frames on the desired places.
Make label frames underneath each picture frames using similar ways in making picture frames.
Get the label frames multiplied to put underneath each picture frame.
Here is the end of frame and label section
Step 5 – Make another set of lines
Let's make another set of lines underneath the picture section. Highlight the first rows of lines. Copy the table by pressing control – C (windows version for copy) or command – C (mac version of copy).
Paste the table by pressing control – v (windows version for paste) or command – v (mac version for paste). You will get double number of rows for the current lines.
Split the table. Go to the row where you want to get the table split. Press pull down menu “table” and choose “split table”
You will get another table separated from the long one. Drag the separated table and put it on the right position.
Step 6 – Check the whole notebooking pages
Check the whole notebooking pages. Make sure that all parts are put properly on the right place and there isn't any overlapping or separated parts. Change the zoom into whole page.
Step 7 – Convert the notebooking pages into pdf format
Print or save the document into pdf to make it more portable.
Some suggestions with notebooking page
- Printing the notebooking pages on colorful paper will make the pages more interesting so that kids are more enthusiastic in doing the notebooking. They are usually proud of their work.
- Printing the notebooking pages on white paper if there is picture frames or if you get kids drawing. Not every kids are confident enough drawing and coloring. It is good to meet their needs.
- Don't forget to give more space to the left margin than the right one to get the pages bind in the binder.
- When the objects in the notebooking pages don't want to “obey” you or getting chaos, don't forget to play around with the “arrange” by right clicking the object.
- A lot of practice making notebooking pages will get us used to the making process.
- Not all students' work should be made into notebooking and not all subject in one day made into notebooking activity. Sometimes I use worksheet arranged as clipping into notebooking pages.
- Make the notebooking activities into something special.
- It is good for you to upload your work into any clouding service such as 4shared, dropbox, box, etc so you can use them anywhere. You might also share them to others easily.
- Combining lapbooking and notebooking is also a great way to make the notebooking activities more alive.
- You might see these links to get more things about notebooking:
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Adelien Tan is a mother of three awesome boys and a wife of a great husband. They are a home education family who live in Surabaya, Indonesia, where home education is still very rare. English is her foreign language, but She tries to use it in blogging.
This is awesome! I love your tutorial. I also love that you can just by some when are you are in a hurry! That works for me!
I just learn how to make screenshot easily with my upgraded mac. I did it only in an hour.
Looks like an interesting way to organize information!
Very cool! I love the organization of this 🙂 I also like that you work on a Mac/Apple! Me too!
I have fallen in love with all Apple products. They are great in designing everything.
I love notebooks! And I love making my own pages. I have weird ways of taking notes and I doodle a lot so I love being able to customize my own pages. I never converted them to PDF format, though, I think that would make it easier in the end! Thanks for the tips.
Making our own notebooking pages is like a practice or exercise.
Wow, tons of useful info! I need to bookmark this page to reference for myself! Thanks so much 🙂
What you are calling Notebooking, is what we call Journaling. It is a great exercise for children on many different levels. Writeing is a great skill, and being able to express yourself can be a true blessing.
~Lorelai
Life With Lorelai
Excellent tutorial Adelien. We don’t use notebooking pages right now, but I think Sweet Pea would enjoy adding them to his curriculum.
It works for any age. It will help you control kids as well once they understand your expectation.
Well done tutorial. I’ll have to try this at some point!
Notebooking is a wonderful tool, isn’t it? I love creating my own pages too! Some people are intimidated by the idea of making their own, so your tutorial was a great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Making our own notebooking pages is like and arts, isn’t it? I was so nervous doing that, but after some practice it gets much easier. Thank you for stopping by.
makasih, ya lien. Langkah demi langkah demikian jelas. Ini benar2 membantu..dan satu lagi, membuat keinginan menggunakan apple semakin kuat, hahaha….marketing terselubung ini 😀
Thanks Lee, pertama kali pake apple aku gak tau cara shut down nya. Wah, ngisin-ngisini. Sudah liat posting sejenis untuk buat lapbook? Mungkin kamu tertarik juga.