Aloha,
In our kindergarten and first grade classrooms we have been doing some opinion writing. I thought that I had taken some pictures of the finished product, but I did not. The kindergarten writing is about something that all K's can identify with, food. The first grade writing is about forming an opinion based on protecting our oceans. I read some great non-fiction facts about the harms to our oceans from some of our books in our library. I did not share any of my opinions, just the facts. The Common Core Standards are listed small on the bottom and the restaurant writing could be a great intro to opinion writing for firsties as well.
Aside from writing, writing and more writing, the last two weeks have been super busy. We finished up our learning of the rain forest and started learning about our oceans. We did a great "sand lab" science experiment where students chose how they wanted to sort the sand and then went through the scientific process with their thinking.
Oh yes, and back to writing. Each week we have a thematic homework packet and this week they were asked to write an undersea adventure. To help them with organizing their thoughts we started our brainstorming in class. I made a generic brainstorming sheet for you below. In the middle is where students can put their main idea and they can surround it with their supporting ideas. This student was writing about sea turtles.
