In my opinion, teaching opinion writing is the most difficult genre of writing for our little learners to grasp… see what I did there ??!

But, with the right mentor texts it doesn’t have to be.

“Red Is Best” and “The Day the Crayons Quit” are two of my favorite opinion writing mentor texts! I use both of these mentor texts over the course of two weeks, as we dive deep into opinion writing.

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Opinion Writing with “Red Is Best”

I begin our opinion writing unit with “Red Is Best.” Of course, we have to graph our favorite colors after reading the story.

I just use a simple pocket chart graph, and I have the kiddos color their name with their favorite color.

After we are finished with our color graph, I have the students work in pairs to share their opinion by completing the talking stem: I think ___ is the best color because ___.

On the next day, we create an anchor chart stating all of the reasons why the girl liked red best. As we read the opinion writing mentor text and encounter that reason in the story, we color it on our opinion writing anchor chart.

Then, the students state their opinion, provide one reason and restate their opinion using this graphic organizer.

Opinion Writing with “The Day the Crayons Quit”

During the second week of our opinion writing unit, we read the “The Day the Crayons Quit.” My kiddos are absolutely obsessed with this story! They love the structure and format of the text, as well as each crayon’s unique personality. Their favorite is always the peach crayon. I won’t ruin it if you haven’t read the story, but that peach crayon is sure a hoot!

Then, we each get to work creating a list of things we can draw with our favorite color.

We use this list to help us organize our opinion about whether our favorite crayon should or should not quit.

This little craft is also the perfect opportunity to review the five parts of a letter… heading, greeting, body, closing and signature.

The kiddos particularly enjoy lifting the flaps to reveal each part of the letter!

Our crayons always turn out so cute, and the kiddos do such a nice job stating their opinion, providing reason(s) for their opinion, and then restating their opinion!

Launch your opinion unit with 10 days of lessons already planned out for you!

More Writing Ideas for Little Learners

Discover 20 of the best opinion writing mentor texts for kindergarten here!

If you’re looking for more writing tips, head over to this post all about creating independent writers.

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