What are Thinking Maps Thinking Maps are an excellent tool for Kinders to organize their thinking and build a common language using visual patterns. I LOVE Thinking Maps and use them with my kinders all the time across the curriculum. Thinking Maps can be introduced in Kindergarten and used throughout the student's school career. My daughter used a thinking map as a study guide in high school to prepare for final exams! I don't have a special order for introducing Thinking Maps but usually begin with circle maps, tree maps, and brace maps. Later during the fall when we start to look at life cycles and story elements I introduce  bubble maps and flow maps. I always try to use concrete objects first and then create anchor charts so that I can refer to them throughout the year. In grade one your kiddos will begin to use them independently to help with both their creative and report writing. Circle Maps are used for showing knowledge about one concept such as...

Our Kindergarten  Plant Project  I rarely get to do a  plant study because the season occurs at the same time as student teacher practicum weeks and often the student teacher choses to teach it, but this year  Miss Virgin chose social studies, gym and  fine arts. Our week began with an introduction to plants beginning with seeds. Our study  included strands from literacy, math, science, drama and fine arts. Lots of fun! We sang Over In The Garden, read Jack In The Beanstalk, choral read a silly spring poem and practiced their new emergent book Seeds. They planted green bean seeds in their mini greenhouses and we talked about germination.      We read a non-fiction book on seeds and made a bubble map about what seeds need and decided to soak some leftover beans to see what happens on the inside of the bean. They drew their mini greenhousesin their science journals.   Later during guided writing, the Kinders worked with a small group and creat...