1st Graders Describe Buttons with WeMap

After reading Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel students examined and sorted a large pile of buttons. Each took a handful and worked with a partner to make a mind map of what they found as far as similarities, differences, and ways to describe. I left it very open-ended as far as how to create the mind map and got back several different types of answers from straight adjectives to students creating stories or uses for the buttons and relating those to each other.