Organizing Journals with Tabs

I’m linking up with Ladybug’s Teacher Files and Fun in Room 4B for their Optimum Organization linky.  It’s pretty ironic that I would have an organization tip because I really try to be organized but it doesn’t come easily to me. 

For years I’ve used interactive math journals in my classroom.  I’m hooked and I’m sure I’ll use them forever more.  My students are encouraged to use their journals as a reference.  I mean, that’s why we put all the effort into them, right?? But the kids sometimes have trouble finding what they need when they need it.  We put so much into our journals that the table of contents gets overwhelming even for me!  The picture below shows just part of last year’s table of contents.  See what I mean?


For this next school year, I’m going to try something a little different.  I decided I would divide my math journal into sections with a separate table of contents for each section.  I’ve done something similar with our writing journals in the past.  Here’s the prototype I’ve been working on.


The table of contents is less overwhelming.  Kids shouldn’t have a problem skimming and finding what they need.


One problem I think I’m going to run into is that many kids aren’t going to know which section to look in.  I added details to the section headers to help out.  Underneath “Measurement” I included all the topics we cover.  I also plan to reinforce which category each skill falls into as I teach the skill.


So far I’m happy with my prototype and I’m looking forward to trying this out.  Have any of you ever sectioned off a math journal?  How did it work out?

For those of you who are interested in using tabs, I’m offering a FLASH FREEBIE for this set from my TpT store.  This is a zip file that includes an editable pdf file and a Word doc.  Hurry over before time runs out.

Have a great weekend!

2 comments journaling, math, notebooks, organization