Today, we officially started our first unit, The Journey of an Idea. We attempted to define what an idea is. The students started with a pre-assessment of creating a circle map about what they think an idea is. Many students found this challenging, which always makes my GATE teacher heart flutter. Challenge is a GOOD thing! We compiled some of the students' favorite ideas into a giant circle map, which was added to their Book Creator portfolios. The students also added a page to their books where they answered the questions "How does an idea start?" and "What is one of the best ideas you've ever had?" 

During snack, we read the book What do you do with an Idea? and talked about how ideas can change the world. The students rotated to 4 different giant circle maps with widely-accepted world-changing inventions on them (airplanes, cellphones, vaccines, and light bulbs) and jotted down notes and pictures about how they think those inventions changed the world. We will start next week's lesson by analyzing these notes and talking about how inventions often start by someone noticing a problem or wanting to help someone.