It’s easy for most young students to verbalize their own opinions to anyone who will listen! Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students have opinions about most things! They love to talk about “the best” and “their favorite” things quite often! You probably hear students talking about:

• the best ice cream flavor
• why they deserve extra recess time
• their favorite subject in school

So if they can talk about their opinions, what are some ways to get them to write about different opinion topics?

Opinion writing is a powerful tool that helps young learners express their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Introducing this concept to K-2 students lays the foundation for critical thinking and effective communication.

In this blog post, I’m going to walk you through opinion writing lessons for K-2.

Everything you’ll see in the blog is from a resource I have – “Free Opinion Writing Lessons.” CLICK HERE to access the lessons.

Types of Writing

Before we dive into opinion writing specifically, let’s take a step back and look at different types of writing. For Kindergarten students, first graders, and second graders, I cover the following genres:

• Narrative Writing
• Opinion Writing
• Informational Writing 

In order to cover these genres with young writers, I rotate between a couple of options for each type of writing:

1. The first option is through a writing workshop model. Students are taught how to brainstorm ideas, pick a topic, plan, and write about it. Among the genres listed above, examples could be a personal narrative, a persuasive letter, or a how-to book. This is not an unstructured writing time – it follows the gradual release model and includes plenty of practice time.
2. Another option is to have students respond to writing prompts. In this case, there is a specific question given to students. 

In this particular blog post, I’m going to focus more on teaching opinion writing through a writing workshop approach. (If you want to read more about prompt writing, check out this blog “Writing Prompts for First Graders: Topics & Tips for Success.”) 

Process for Teaching Opinion Writing

Sometimes it can be hard work to get students going on an opinion piece! Often I’ve found that students will just write a sentence or a couple of sentences and say, “I’m done!”

In general, I have students go through the following process when writing opinion pieces:

• Planning
• Drafting
• Revising
• Editing
• Publishing

For much more detail on the process of teaching opinion writing, take a look at “How To Teach Opinion Writing in K-2.” For now, let’s continue on to see some example opinion writing lesson ideas!

Example Opinion Writing Lessons for K-2

In the freebie I have available, you get 30 lessons for K-2! Here is an example of a lesson you receive with that resource!

Picking a Favorite Animal

I divide up this lesson into two parts. In the first part, I want to get students thinking about their favorite animal and the reasons why it’s their favorite. Here’s what that looks/sounds like:

• Have students go around and say, “My favorite animal is _____.”
• Then, introduce the graphic organizer. “Today when you write about your favorite animal, you’re going to use this graphic organizer. Here at the top, there’s a spot to write what your favorite animal is. At the bottom, there are two ovals where you will write WHY you like that animal.”

• Next, model how to fill in the graphic organizer, thinking aloud at the same time. It should sound something like this: “My favorite animal is a cat. I’m writing ‘cat’ in the top oval. I like cats because they are soft, and because they are fun to play with. Here it says ‘Reason #1.” My first reason is because they are soft. I’m going to write ‘because they are soft’ here in this oval. The second reason I like cats is because they are fun to play with. I’m going to write ‘because they are fun to play with’ here in this oval.”
• Before you give students their own graphic organizers to work on, ask them to tell their partner what their favorite animal is and give two reasons why.
• Give children the graphic organizer and have them complete it independently, providing support as needed.

Then, in the second part of the lesson (usually done on another day), do the following:

• Say to students, “Writers, yesterday you picked your favorite animal. You also gave two reasons why that animal is your favorite. Then, you filled in the graphic organizer to plan out what you will write. Today you’re going to take that graphic organizer and turn it into complete sentences on a page.”
• Take out your graphic organizer and re-read it to the students. Also, take out a blank sheet of writing paper. Think aloud as you turn the information on the graphic organizer into a short paragraph, writing on the blank sheet of paper. Here’s what this might sound like: “Here at the top I wrote ‘cat,’ so I’ll write on my new sheet of paper, ‘My favorite animal is a cat.’ For Reason #1, I said that they are soft. So I’ll write, ‘I like cats because they are soft.’ For Reason #2, I said that cats are fun to play with. So I’ll write, ‘I also like cats because they are fun to play with.’”
• After you’ve modeled this for them, have each child take out his/her graphic organizer and read it to a partner. Then, give students the blank writing paper and have them work individually to write short paragraphs about their favorite animals.
• After writing time, have 2-3 students share their writing with the entire class.

Additional Opinion Lessons

In addition to the “Picking a Favorite Animal,” here are a few of the other lessons you receive in the free resource:

• What Is Opinion Writing?
• Picking a Favorite Book
• All About Me
• Writing a Strong Introduction
• Writing a Strong Conclusion
• Using Transition Words
• Using Proper & Common Nouns
• Writing a Complete Paragraph
• Planning Debate Writing
• Writing Counterarguments

The “Free Opinion Writing Lessons“ resource includes lesson plans, graphic organizers, and posters to help support students!

Conclusion

Teaching opinion writing in Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade isn’t easy! Especially when you don’t have the right resources. By downloading this free resource, “Opinion Writing Lessons for K-2,” you won’t have to spend ANY time searching for materials to teach opinion writing!

You’ll get 10 opinion writing lessons for each grade level, K-2. This freebie is packed with lesson plans, posters, visual aids, graphic organizers, and independent student activities.

If you want to save this post for later, here’s an image you can pin to your Pinterest account:

Happy teaching!