Hey hey there! I know that many of you are enjoying long and lazy summer days. I also know that many of you are still trucking away in your classrooms and my thoughts are with you! I wanted to give you some extra insight into Rooted in Reading and especially give you an idea of how I set up my interactive notebooks with my students. If you have NO idea what I am talking about when I say "Rooted in Reading" read THIS POST here to see all about the 2nd grade version. You can also look at the Bundle or the August unit by itself. Amy did an amazing job on the previews so we hope that answers a lot of your questions! If this is your first time using interactive notebooks, having them organized from the beginning can help you avoid a lot of headaches down the line. Most 8 and 9 yr olds need the extra help with organization (goodness my 34 yr old husband needs a lot of help with organization), and I think these notebooks will be a great way to scaffold this skill! Step 1: Clearly mark the covers of your notebooks. We always had several notebooks for different subjects so this helped lessen confusions. I have included a color and black and white cover that you can print on bright paper if you would like! Step 2: Print out tab dividers on Astrobright paper AND laminate. I promise the laminating step is key to having these bad boys last! Step 3: After cutting dividers out use clear packing tape to put your dividers into your notebooks. The order I chose was Anchor Charts, Comprehension Activities, Vocabulary Words, Daily Deep Dive, and Grammar. Before doing this you will want to think about how long you want to use the notebooks. I personally liked a notebook per semester so I would put enough pages between each divider to get me through the semester! I also suggest lining up the tabs so only the bold words stick out the side- cover up the cursive word with the clear tape. If you are using a standard size composition notebook AND all five tabs, you will also need to overlap them a little! Step 4: Glue in the book list to the inside of the notebook on the first page. Either one or two copies depending on how many books you plan on covering using this book. I LOVE this addition because I think students will love looking back over the list of books that they have so lovingly studied this year. I also think the genre column is a key component for test-taking skills! You can find all the materials I used in a freebie found in my store Here! If you have other great ideas for setting up notebooks, we would love to hear them! If you are on instagram use our hashtag "RootedinReading3rd" and Amy and I will definitely check you out! Phew now that we have those kids all set up, we can talk about YOU- the teacher! My personal favorite way to store my units is in binders. I spent a couple hours one morning and printed all four weeks of August out. I went a head and laminated my anchor charts and prepped the nonfiction mini-readers so the students can see an example. Don't they look pretty?!?! We even have binder spines for each books so you can feel extra organized! You can find everything you need for organizing your teacher binders in the freebie below from Amy! Other Blog posts you may want to check out to learn more about Rooted in Reading: 2nd Grade Complete Book List and Overview 3rd Grade Complete Book List Establishing a Kind Classroom with Picture Books September Rooted in Reading October Rooted in Reading Bats! The Rough Face Girl