Narrowing Down Our Ideas

Now that we've webbed our large over-arching topic of "travel," it was time to see which of these were actual things we (as 2nd graders in Pike Road, AL) could actually study.
I introduced the 5 questions all topic ideas must be "vetted" through in order to make the "cut."

The five questions

I typed up all of the ideas the students came up with on their web. I cut them up and put them into baggies. The students were put into groups and were asked to sort all the different ideas from their web into "yes" and "no" columns. They did a terrific job and so much wonderful conversation was going on in the room about the different topic ideas.

When they were done, they had such a good grasp on what made a good topic and what did not. They enjoyed the process and and I enjoyed listening in on their conversations!