Give me something to write about!

We have really been enjoying our big books in the class recently and have been finding so many rich curriculum links with them.  They have provided us with some exciting experiences that have helped us share ideas or create purpose for our writing.  


A few weeks ago we read the story:

 

We put on our scientist hats and started asking questions and making predictions.  Many people thought certain things would sink because they were too big. But then others said, well, cruise ships are big and they don't sink.  So then we started to think about what would make something sink.  We all agreed that something with holes in it usually sinks. 

When we read the book, we uncovered that the weight of something relative to its size effects whether it sinks or floats.  This was a slightly confusing concept, so we decided we better test it out. 

 We chose an object each and made a prediction about whether we thought that thing would float or sink and why.

Then we spent some time testing our hypotheses.  

Most of the Metal things sank straight away.  Some of the cardboard things floated for a little while and then sank.  The feather floated. The button sank.  The stick floated.  

We came back to our writing and explained what happened.  

This experience had us buzzing. We were thinking like scientists and trialing things.  We had a purpose for writing.  We were sharing our scientific data!  

Here are some of the other Big Books we have been exploring.  Stay tuned for some of the awesome learning that's come out of these!