I incorporate thinking maps into my students everyday learning. For this project the students worked in pairs to think of the various qualities, characteristics or activities that could be done in the snow. The circle map is a use to jot down any idea that comes to mind and then the information from the map can be used in a variety of ways.

Then as a class we read "Sled Dog's Run" from the students anthology and "The Snowy Nap" by Jan Brett. After reading the books the students had a chance to revise their thinking or come up with more qualities, characteristics or activities that could be done in the snow. For this activity the circle map was used as a pre-assessment of students knowledge and then gave them the opportunity to learn how to revise their thinking.
Once the students added more to the circle map we analyzed the responses and created a tree map.