We are in full holiday mode in my classroom. I am trying to get several "festive" bulletin boards complete because they will only be up for a couple of weeks. Spontaneously, I scrapped most of my language arts lessons today to tackle a writing assignment I had been wanting to complete. That is right my friends... no reading series lessons today... just pure holiday fun! GASP! Shhh... don't tell! And guess what? The kids loved it!
I read the kids two stories. The first was Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the second was Olive, the Other Reindeer.
We made charts about what they thought they already knew about Rudolph. We discussed "all of the other reindeer" and "Olive, the other reindeer". The kids were in awe once this was pointed out to them. Hilarious!
Next, we compared/contrasted the two stories. We listed reasons why reindeer would be great sleigh guides and why Olive, the dog would be a great guide. Then, I gave the kids the task of writing an opinion piece about which guide they thought would be the best to help Santa. As a class, we brainstormed the "perfect" main idea sentence for each. Then, it was the kids' job to give at least 3 reasons why they felt this way. They had to reference things from the story. They couldn't just say because they like dogs.
They did a FANTASTIC job writing their stories. We even did some peer editing too.
We also made our reindeer craft to display next to each of the stories.
The kids loved diverting from our "regular" routine. Although a few of them asked when we were going to do our workbook pages. Gotta love 'em! These writing ideas and craft can be found in my Baby, It's Cold Outside unit in my TpT store.
This Friday, I have a BIG surprise to share with all of you. Make sure to follow my Facebook page so you don't miss out!
Happy Hump Day!
This was a great writing project for your class!
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