Thanksgiving Opinion Writing Prompt for Kids

November is a time of year that provides us with so many Thanksgiving opinion writing prompts.

I always enjoy talking with students about the different traditions that different families have around holidays. I have found over the years, than many of my students do not even eat turkey on Thanksgiving!

This is a fun Thanksgiving Opinion Writing Activity that you could complete after reading different Thanksgiving books!

We read the story Turk and Runt and then discuss what other foods we would choose to eat besides turkey! I suggest telling students that they should try and come up with their own idea, not the one we model together as a class.

Of course, I picked ice cream! Who wouldn’t want to eat ice cream for dinner on Thanksgiving? I model the opinion writing graphic organizer with the class and give students a quiet moment to decide on their food choice. I then have students tell me their choice and send them back to their seats to write theirs before we move on. This helps students to get started right away when they sit down.

After most students complete the first step, I model the outline process. One strategy I use for writing with students is to have them verbally tell a partner what they will write before they go back to their seats. This helps avoid the “I don’t know what to write” attitude when they head back to work!

The last step is to turn their outline into a writing piece. Before I model, I focus on teaching the skill that students need most. For example if it’s adding varied transitions, I model the correct way to use transitions and I make mistakes to see if they catch them.

We usually work on this over the course of a week in 2nd grade and I try to always incorporate speaking and listening BEFORE they ever put their pencil to paper. I have found it really helps them to generate more ideas!