Making Predictions

Each morning when my students come in the Wonder of the day is projected up on the board.  The question and picture is the only thing posted.  Each morning the students write in their "wonder" journals what they think the answer is and what they know about the topic.  Last week, I pointed out that the picture often gives us clues and helps us to build background knowledge to help us make a better prediction.  I talked about using the picture with last week's Wonder #500 What is a Smokejumper?. 

The next day we did Wonder #497 What is a Red Tide? (we don't always go in order).  When I first put up the Wonder, I wasn't showing the picture, just the question.  Several students quickly set me straight and informed me they needed the pictrue to help "build their background knowledge" to make a better prediction. 

Yesterday's Wonder #506 What are Mukluks? provided another opportunity to use the picture to help make a more reasonable prediction.  Below is the comment that we left for Wonderopolis before reading and finding out what mukluks really are.