Taking it off the map...

If you know me, you know I love, Love, LOVE Thinking Maps. The way they help my students organize their thinking is just magic! 
This student created a Bubble Map to describe tomatoes and then used that information to Take it Off the Map - using it to write.  Specifically, he was using the Bubble Map to help him revise a mentor sentence to make it more interesting with vivid word choice!
This is exactly what I've been guiding students to do, what we've been practicing together, and now to see him utilizing the skill independently makes my teacher heart soar!

Thinking Map Thursday

As we review for our Mid-Year Phonics exam, the students are using a lot of Thinking Maps to organize their thinking about word work.  Students used their favorite maps - which are the fun ones to draw - Brace and Bridge! 

Students used the Bridge Map to demonstrate an understanding of contractions and used the Related Factor (RF): -is a contraction for-...

Students used the Brace Map to organize their thinking about compound words...

Thinking Map Tuesday

Back from Spring Break and hitting the ground running. This week we are focusing on comparing and contrasting so the students did a little work using their knowledge of rabbits and hares from our recent Weekly Reader magazine. They used these Double Bubbles to have conversations using vocabulary specific to compare and contrast.  "Rabbits have short back legs while hares have long ones."

We are also getting ready to take our mid-year phonics assessment so my students worked with partners to organize their thinking about short vowel words in a Tree Map.

They continued to organize their thinking about long vowel words using a divided Circle Map.

Thinking 'Bout Regurgitation

As our unit on owls continued, my little scientists were excited to learn about a feature of birds that are predators - creating a pellet! They used new vocabulary - like 'regurgitation' - as they learned that owls hunt, eat and then digest their prey in two stomachs - regurgitating the pellet containing that which can't be digested (bones and fur). After learning about the process, my students organized their thinking by making a Flow Map.

Then, my scientists worked with their partners and did a little TPR to reinforce an understanding of the process needed to make a pellet. Individually, they made some scientific predictions about what owls eat, and got to the business of discovery. 

My scientists were outfitted with goggles, lab coats, magnifying glasses, tweezers and were given a packet with several bone diagrams to choose from as they did the work. 

First, they unwrapped the pellet, and carefully dissected it.  Then, they sorted bones and then tallied up the different kinds of bones they identified. After they'd tallied the bones, they created a graph to illustrate their findings.

After, they reassembled the bones and then wrote about what they found and how that related to their prediction. Finally, they will prove their understanding by creating an iMovie to teach other students how to dissect owl pellets.

They just loved LOVED working with owl pellets! Better than recess, they said! That's the highest 2nd grade honor, by the way. I loved it too - what a great way to integrate science, math, writing...

Thinking 'Bout Owl Features

My scientists were eager to continue their owl study by learning all about the physical and survival traits of owls.  

They used that knowledge as they organized their thinking into a Brace Map about survival traits and a Circle Map about owl behavior.  

Using their Thinking Maps, and their PK, they took it "Off the Map" and wrote about the features that help owls survive.

Finally, the scientists each referenced owl photographs and then created their own illustrations of owls and then labeled them.

I'm so proud of their learning and the ways they are proving what they know!

Thinking 'Bout Food Webs

I don't know about y'all but with the range of levels I have in my 2nd grade classroom, I'm all about small group instruction across content!

We are all enjoying our small group science time so much! As we continued our study of owls, my little scientists focused on learning all about food webs and food chains. After some brilliant instruction, sparking prior knowledge and reading Who Eats What? the real fun began...

The scientists completed a fun food chain sort as a small group and then independently proved their learning with a food chain flow map. 

Finally, these little scientists compared and contrasted predators and prey using a Double Bubble Thinking Map.

Thinking 'Bout Owls

My little scientists gathered together to discuss what they know and want to learn as we delve into our unit on owls.

My students came up with some great questions about owls and they are super excited to learn all about them. We read a lower level text and a higher level National Geographic magazine to learn more about these amazing birds.

The scientists worked together to create a Flow Thinking Map about the life cycle of an owl and a Double Bubble to organize their thinking about describing an owl.

gobble, gobble, Thinking Maps, gobble gobble

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Thinking Maps? 
Check out this adorable Brace Map to make a turkey puppet...

Jack

We just finished our Two Schools, One Book book, Jack.  My students loved it! We did our final Read, Sketch and Write today and then we followed it up with a quick Thinking Map about Jack. 

Using the Bubble Map we really got to see how Jack's character changes throughout the book. After all, can't we all be kind and a little unkind, too?

Thinking Maps

I love when the opportunity to use Thinking Maps pops up organically in my class. They really do help my students organize their thinking and they refer back to them so often as they write and discuss content!

Earth!

I guess we'd better know all about Earth before we start colonizing Mars! So, this week we are delving deep into our beautiful and fragile planet. 

I love Thinking Maps (I'm a Trainer of Trainers, after all) and I love using them across content to spark my students thinking and to organize their thoughts. 

Today we made diagrams of the earth and made a Circle Map of important words to know - Language of the Discipline. They came out great!