The Structure of Opinion Writing for 3rd Grade Using ... Fingerpaints!!

 My 3rd Grade student and I had a little fun this week with FINGERPAINT!!!
We've been talking about how an Opinion Writing Piece is organized. I wanted to use her senses of touch and sight to make a connection about what that structure really was all about.
So we started with a large piece of bulletin board paper, some fingerpaints, and some graphic images .  

First step:  Get ready to tell the reader of your Opinion Writing Piece your opinion.  Grab their attention so they really want to listen to your opinion about a subject.  Then state your opinion clearly...I believe that

Second Step:  State your opinion and support and defend your thoughts with 2 or 3 details or facts/personal experiences/evidence.

Third Step: End with a strong concluding statement that restates your opinion....but don't just relist those details or facts. Mix them all together and come up with your own summary.  Restate it with a strong VOICE. 
 

Then we took an opinion piece, that we had written together previously, and cut it into sentences and or paragraphs.  We glued those parts on the top of our finger-painted structure to see if we had really written a strong writing piece about our opinion about what's the best summer fruit of all. 
Lastly, we stepped back and asked ourselves:
Did  it flow...did I use my own voice...was my concluding sentence written in a way that summarized my thoughts and pulled my writing all together so it ended strong?

"In my opinion using sensory experiences in your concept instruction, assists children and adults in learning and retaining information. First, we know that stimulating the senses sends signals to children’s brains that help to strengthen neural pathways important for all types of learning."     (Now you finish this opinion writing piece and think about what your opinion is.)

 Smiles,
Deborah