Commas, Commas, Commas

Earlier this week, we did a mini-inquiry into how commas are used.  On the first day, we found lots of sentences that used commas, and we theorized why and how those commas were used.  We developed many theories - "The Option Theory," "The See-Saw Theory,"  The Little More Information Theory."  It was fascinating.  On the second day, I gave the kids a list of sentences.  They worked with their partner to place all the sentences in five categories.  Our kids had to develop theories and revise those theories as they tried to classify these sentences.  After we placed them into categories, we did a "museum walk" around the room to find out how others had grouped their sentences.  We found that we had a lot of categories in common.  They may have been called different things, but they followed the same idea.  We also found that we disagreed about some of the classifications.  And that was good, too!  Here are a few pictures of our kids at work...