Sunday, April 14, 2013

Hey, Little Ant

Hey, Little Ant, by Phillip and Hannah Hoose, lends itself perfectly for opinion writing!! We have been very focused on opinion writing this year in the new common core writing standards and have done a ton of work learning how to write an opinion paper. I used Hey, Little Ant to see if the kids could pull together everything that we have learned and write a true opinion piece using a hook, controlling idea, reasons to back up their opinion, linking words to connect their reasons and finally, end with a conclusion restating their opinion. Boy, did they impress me!!! First, we read the story which is about a boy and an ant going back and forth on reasons the boy should or should not step on the ant. At the end of the book, it leaves the reader hanging and lets the reader decide if the boy will step on the ant. We then brainstormed all of the reasons why he should or not step on the ant. Next, I sent the kids on their way to write their opinions. They did a great job thinking of reasons and including all of the required components of an opinion piece. To top it all off, we did this cute little project from Cara Carroll's blog.

 

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