As the old saying goes, “If you fail to plan (your interactive notebook gluing routines), you are planning to fail.”
More than any other point of frustration I hear from teachers when implementing interactive notebooks is how to deal with all of the glue. While glue may seem like an insignificant part of switching to interactive notebooks, it can really end up being a growing daily thorn if your classroom’s glue management hasn’t been given some intentional prior thought.
As another saying goes, you’ll find that “the devil’s in the details (of how you manage glue)” so let’s dive into your 5 must-do’s for managing glue and interactive notebooks in your classroom so it doesn’t become a headache.
#1 – Pick Your Type of Glue & Model Proper Use
The first thing you need to decide is the type of glue you want students to use. Do you want them to use a gluestick or a bottle of liquid glue? Some teachers have gotten very creative and made glue-soaked sponges that are sized perfectly to INB pages.
Do you not even want them to use glue? Tape & staples are also options!
I have seen teachers have very strong opinions about every possible choice, but I prefer glue sticks (specifically, the Elmer’s purple kind).
Let’s go over your options in more depth:
Glue Sticks:
Pros:
- Quick & Easy
- Limited Mess
- Purple glue sticks seem to limit overuse of the gluestick
- This is my favorite way to secure papers into interactive notebooks
Cons:
- They can run out faster than a bottle of liquid glue (I go through a class set of glue sticks each semester, for each of my classes I do interactive notebooks with)
- They can dry out if the students don’t put the caps back on
Things to Teach when Modeling Proper Usage:
- Make a single X of glue while gluing
- Push down on the cap until there’s an audible “snap” to know it’s really on
Glue Bottles:
Pros:
- Lasts forever
Cons:
- Messy
- Prone to over-gluing & making soggy/oozing pages
- Messy (it’s worth saying another time)
Things to Teach when Modeling Proper Usage:
- Make 4 dots of glue, one in each corner
- Twist the orange cap until it’s all the way closed & wipe the tip off so it doesn’t get gloopy. I recommend drawing a smiley face on each bottle (shown below) and using that to make sure they are closed all the way.
Glue Sponges:
- Honestly, I’ve never done this – it seems like way too much effort and messy. It’s a hard nope for me, but you do you.
Tape:
Pros:
- Super quick & easy
- This is my second favorite way to secure pages into interactive notebooks
Cons:
- Tape is expensive
Things to Teach when Modeling Proper Usage:
- Use a knuckle-length of tape on the top and bottom of each page
- Show them again what the appropriate amount of tape is – they will use WAY TOO MUCH and tape is expensive.
Staplers:
- With rare exceptions, I would not suggest using a stapler. You would need a lot of staplers which is expensive. The staples would also start making the interactive notebook very lumpy and bumpy and the foldables would be more prone to ripping out. Also, do you want to deal with un-jamming staplers all day? I don’t.
Mode, Model, Model
Once you decide what type you want to use, make sure to explicitly teach your students how they are expected to use it – or else expect them to use way too much of it.
#2 – Provide In-Class time to Glue (and a Storage Solution for When There’s Just No Time)
If having well-maintained interactive notebooks is important to you, then you need to be providing in-class time for students to do their gluing. Make it part of your daily routine at the end of your note-taking session.
It really doesn’t take much time at all – students just need to draw an X of glue on the back of their paper, stick their paper into their interactive notebook, and then close up their gluestick. It can easily be done within 30 seconds, and realistically the whole class should be done within 2 minutes.
There are days when things go longer than expected and there just isn’t time for gluing, so plan for incorporating a storage solution for in-progress notes into their interactive notebooks for when there just isn’t time to glue it in that day.
I have my students make a pocket at the front of their interactive notebooks, and that’s where we store any unglued notes. Make a mental note when this happens, and make sure to provide gluing time the next day once you wrap up those notes.
#3 – Provide a Class Set of Glue
Yes, I totally hear your hesitancy on this one. I get that this is annoying because it costs money, but trust me when I say it’s worth it.
If you want students to actually maintain their interactive notebooks, you need to make it easy for them to do it. Maybe your students are different than mine, but I know I cannot count on all of them (or even half of them) to bring a glue stick to class daily. It’s just not going to happen and it’s not worth my frustration even trying to make that happen.
To ensure that all students are able to maintain their interactive notebooks, I provide a class set of glue sticks. I buy the glue sticks in bulk over the summer in 30-packs when they are on super-sale and stock up for the year.
#4 – Plan How To Pass Out The Glue
You don’t want to waste any of your class time passing out glue.
I manage this by training my students to grab any of the supplies I leave on the table that’s next to the door when they walk in at the start of class every day. On days that we’ll be gluing pages into our interactive notebooks, I put a tub of glue sticks on the table and they just grab one out of the tub as they walk into the room.
I’ve seen other teachers have caddies of supplies at each of their table groups that have one of everything that they need.
However you want to do it in your classroom, ensure that it will take zero of your class time to pass out glue. Classes seem to keep getting shorter every year (I’ve gone from 90 to 75 to 55 to 45 to 42-minute periods over the years) so there truly is no time to waste on something like passing out supplies.
#5 – Plan How To Collect The Glue
If you invested in a class set of glue, you will want to make sure your students aren’t accidentally (or not so accidentally) wandering off with them. Supplies drain throughout the year is real if you don’t plan to avoid it.
I suggest writing your last name or school initials on the glue sticks in permanent marker, at the very least, to make it easy to see that they belong to you. Extra points if you want to use colorful ducktape around the body to make them easy to spot (I’ve never done this, but props to the teachers that do because it looks great).
I’ve never tried the caddy of supplies at each table group because I’m afraid too many supplies would wander off.
My personal preferred way to collect the glue sticks is to pick up the glue tub and go desk to desk and grab the glue sticks from students and make sure that they have their page glued in, and to check that their cap is securely on their glue stick. This ensures I get every single glue stick back, they don’t dry out, and I can redirect students who weren’t on-task.
To make it even easier, I normally give glue-collecting as a job to a student who is done. They know they need to check that all the caps are on tight, and it frees me up to go and check in with students 1-1 who need help. And students LOVE to be the glue helper (even high schoolers). No matter the age, they still get excited about and jump at the chance to take over a job.
Recap
Managing glue with your interactive notebooks can turn into a giant headache, but it doesn’t have to!
Have a game plan for managing how students will glue pages into their interactive notebooks from Day 1 by thinking about each of these 5 Must-Do’s of glue management.
5 Must-Do’s of Glue Management:
- Pick Your Type of Glue & Model Proper Use
- Provide In-Class time to Glue (and a Storage Solution for When There’s Just No Time)
- Provide a Class Set of Glue
- Plan How To Pass Out The Glue
- Plan How To Collect The Glue
Math by the Mountain 