Exploring Creation With Zoology 3 - Junior Notebooking Journal

Newest in the Young Explorer series of products is the Junior Zoology 3 Notebooking Journal. This notebooking journal is much like the original Zoology 3 Notebooking Journal, but is designed for younger students or those with limited writing skills. All the lines are primary writing lines (a dashed line between two solid lines), and there are far fewer than in the original journal. This junior journal is perfect for:

• Younger students that have not yet mastered handwriting
• Older students that are delayed in handwriting mastery
• Older students with learning disabilities
• Students that are new to written narration

Each lesson in the junior journal begins with two fun coloring pages for the student to color while he listens to the reading of the text. These pages provide opportunities for active learning while reinforcing the lesson's content. Following are pages with templates designed to encourage creative expression. The children can illustrate what they have learned and write a sentence or two about the topic.

Next, the student is given the opportunity to work with and learn the key vocabulary words presented in the text. Included are puzzle piece cut-out and match vocabulary activities, lift the flap vocabulary activities, partially filled-in crosswords (only two crosswords in the junior journal compared with one for each lesson in the other notebooking journals), and many more. These learning activities give the student another opportunity to see and think about the most important vocabulary words found in the lesson, increasing his retention of both the important terms and the subject matter of the text.

As well as vocabulary work, the student has a choice between print copywork, cursive, or both. The Scriptures used for copywork are shorter than in the original notebooking journal, and the font is larger.

Templates to complete all the notebooking assignments, project record keeping, Scientific Speculation Sheets and, of course, the same beautiful, full-colored miniature books found in the original notebooking journal are included in the junior journal. Unique to the Zoology 3 course are the Map It! activities found throughout the text. As in the regular Zoology 3 Notebooking Journal, brightly colored animal stickers are provided for completing the Map It! activities.

There are some higher level activities missing from the junior journal, but they are replaced with cut and paste activities that bring the subject to life. What's missing?

• The lengthy and technical Vocabulary Crosswords
• The What Do You Remember? written review questions
• The Final Review

These junior journals will be perfect for the beginning writer or the child who is not yet writing well. Every child writes at a different age, so age is not the best factor when determining whether to purchase a regular notebooking journal or the junior journal. The best determining factor is whether or not the child feels comfortable writing paragraphs. If not, the junior journal is a great tool to help the child begin incorporating writing into his learning.