Teaching minutes are precious, so being able to teach real content while still engaging our students’ creativity is key! Check out this book review project that reinforces opinion writing, reading, revising and editing–and creates a beautiful winter bulletin board as well! I asked my students to think hard about one of the BEST books they have ever read (or heard)–because I wanted them to be ready to write about it. I gave them a few days to think and talk about it so they all had an idea ready.
Reviewing Opinion Writing
As a class, we talked about what we remembered about OPINION writing–and how good opinion has a clearly stated thesis statement, so students worked to craft quality first sentences that would state their opinion about their book. We did our drafting in our writer’s notebooks and then did some peer revising and teacher editing. I had asked students to only write 3-5 sentences which kept them on topic AND made it easy for me to get to everyone for editing!
After they finished writing, self-revising, and peer revision, they put their names on the “teacher time” list on the whiteboard and got ready to “build” their snowman! I had a variety of circle tracers set out as well as colored paper. I explained that they could create their snowman while they waited for their edits–and then they could do their final copy to add to their project. It was fun to see so many students design their snowman to “match” the book they chose!
When their snowman was built and their final copy done, it was time to finish the project!
How stinkin’ cute is this one? She worked SO hard and was so proud of it!
