How-To's and Thick vs. Thin Questions

In February we began our nonfiction writing unit with how-to writing. This is always one of the their favorite writing units because they get to write about thing that they are good at. We began with a guided writing piece together but then they were off to write their own how-to based on their expert list. So of course we had many book involving Minecraft and Skylanders, and it was wonderful to see them become authors of their own passions. 

In reading we really worked on our busy reading brains. We discussed the difference between thick and thin questions. A thin question provides the reader with a simple yes or no answer.. But a thick question provides the reader with a meaty answer that allows us to grow our schema. We had so much fun playing Head Banz as we practiced the difference between these two types of questions. We learned quickly that if we wanted to identify the secret item on our heads- we HAD to ask THICKER questions! They kids were so awesome at this, and made me so proud!