KWL Chart Carousel Style-Thursday Throw Down

Happy Thursday everyone! This week is flying by...I am way behind in my blogging, but I am excited to quickly link up with Erin at I'm Lovin Lit for her Thursday Throw Down.

This week we started science...finally! My school alternates science and social studies each marking period. My kiddos have anxiously been awaiting all of the exciting science activities, and to be honest I've been waiting for it too.

Our first unit is electricity. There are a ton of fun hands-on experiments that my students are able to do in this unit, but that is after I spend the first lesson laying the groundwork.

To make the first lesson a little more interactive I have my kiddos complete the KW of a KWL chart in a carousel activity. To do this, I write "What I know about electricity" and "What I want to know about electricity" on pieces of chart paper. I hang the chart paper around my room. (I write each question twice, so I hang the chart paper in the four corners of my room.)

The students are each given a marker and they rotate with their group to each chart paper. This means they hit the "what I know" and "want to know" twice.

As they rotate they add to the chart. Each person takes a turn adding their thoughts to the chart.

If someone already wrote their idea/question they put a tally mark by it. They can add more than one.

After every group has had a turn at each chart the students come back and jot down two things they know and two things they want to know about electricity into their notebook to keep as a record of the activity. It's a fun and easy way for me to preassess them. It lets me see what they know, as well as any misconceptions they have about electricity (like Ben Franklin "made" it.)

What do you do to make your lessons more interactive? Have any of you done a "carousel" before in your classroom?