Mind Mapping Project

Link to my mind mapping project: http://www.gliffy.com/pubdoc/1279935/L.jpg

1. Introduction
My theme for this month is Colors of Life and my unit will focus on Families. I will be doing this at the beginning of the year so that students will understand that in the classroom and around school we are all part of a family. Families come in many different ways with many factors affecting them. In this unit, students will discover that all types of families love and care for each other. It will let them realize that each and every one of them is a unique and special part of their family. It will also let the kids see that there are a lot of similarities and differences between individuals and that they’ll learn about different family histories, backgrounds, traditions and values of themselves and their peers. These activities will help children be more respectful and accepting of others.

Objectives: Students will be able to:
-learn that there are different kinds of families and no one structure is better than another.
-build a strong and confident self-identity as well as an informed and proud group identity.
-become familiar with the family diversity of their peers and others in the world.

Focus Questions:
-Who is a part of a family?
-What makes a family important?
-What are the similarities and differences in families around the world?

Culminating Event:
- Students will celebrate “Family Day” at school. Student will brainstorm how are they going to do it and what will they be showcasing for this day. They will also bring a special family dish to share with other families. Students will be displaying al the work that they have done throughout the month long of activities.

Unit Hook:
- The unit hook is to do a family puppet show that would give them the idea of who is in a family and what families do together.

2. I've learned alot especially in using the program, it has so many different tools that you can use to create mind maps, like making it really colorful, they come in different shapes, and how you can publish your work on the blog, on the net, or collaborate it with people you want, etc. I've also learned how to transfer it to jpeg format, getting the html code for the doc. and the URL's for different sizes of publication that you want.

3. I like the Gliffy Online tool that I used. It has so many different tools that makes your finished work a great work of art. The only thing is that for the free trial you can only do five publishes. You have to pay a fee to get all the advantages of the program.

4. The only thing that I would do differently next time is to explore more of the other tools and features that it has to offer to create other mind maps for visuals in the classroom