Caedmyn, I think that those topics are lovely ones, for notebooking or, even lapbooking. The important thing to remember is, there are no rules about lapbooks or notebooks 😉 You can really do your own thing.
If you’re wanting a large amount of writing, I would rather first establish the habit of narration, before expecting a younger child to create a notebook on the topic, on their own. Unless you’re actually teaching the child written narration as you cover the topics. ( Hope I am making sense here) I do that with my youngest.
If you just want your child to write down snippets of info,which is not really CM style for this age ( I think she’d prefer oral narration and you be the scribe and write something longer, but I am open to correction) then lapbooking may be more your style.
I think it depends a lot on the age and ability of the 4th grader. Also consider what your goal is: Is it to complete the note book, or to cover the CM skill of written narration, and in the process create a book.
If you’ve never seen notebooking before, you may like to google “notebooking ” and see the image examples that come up. Then you may initially like to use a printable template or two, which are available free. Then you’d just search “free notebooking pages”. You can even search more specifically, for the topics you want to cover. But you do not have to use premade pages. You can make you own, or just use a blank notebook.
There are many sites that cover notebooking. I was so overwhelmed when we started, and I wasn’t sure if I could do it, as I am not creative. The children have enjoyed it and I feel we may break away from ready made templates to doing our own thing pretty soon.
We use notebooking at the moment for Bible, Zoology and our Social studies. I do not always expect a written narration, I do not use it for every book and every piece in the Bible that we read. Some things lend themselves better to oral narration.
When we started notebooking, the older two just wrote their narration instead of saying it to me, and they really transitioned well. I had not realised until then what a powerful tool oral narration was. They were able to organize their thought perfectly on paper without ever being told this silly modern “writing process” stuff.
With my youngest, age 9, I allow her to write, but sometimes I write what she dictates to me. She is not always keen to write, it depends on the topic. On bad days I will then allow her to write fewer sentences. Sometimes we run out of space though!
I hope this answers some of your questions.
Lindy
