Mindmapping is my new favorite way to review for science and social studies tests! This tool can also easily be used for math and language arts. These graphic organizers connect and organize concepts, so the kids see how their learning fits into a “bigger picture.”

The mindmaps in this post are all about our Civics unit. Look at the one below. There are pictures, symbols, and descriptions of the different information that will be on the test. It helps connect the terms so that students can visually see that all these ideas and concepts fall under a bigger blanket term.

 It is easy to differentiate with mindmapping. I pretype up a list of vocab words that the kids need to know. This is a difficult activity for some of the kids, and the pretyped list is all that they will include. It is a great way to see what your kids do and do not know. Your high-flyers will have some really awesome mindmaps.

Mindmapping can also be done on Kidspiration, or Bubbl.us. I have used these with great success with my my students.

Have you used mindmapping before? How do you do it similarly or differently? If you haven’t, try it as a review to wrap up your next unit!