We are wrapping up our unit on nutrition! A great way to incorporate writing with content area subjects is to give students the opportunity to write a letter from a different perspective.
For this lesson, students wrote letter to Junk Food, from the perspective of Healthy Food.
One passionate letter:
Dear Junk Food,
I wish you were healthy.I will not eat you ever again. You make me sick. I wish you didn’t exist. You are like garbage. I wish you didn’t have sugar. I wish you were an orange.
Love, Healthy Food
Another student writes:
Hi, I’m healthy food. I am the best for your kid and you’re not. So, I have a bone to pick with you! I make kids feel better! You rot their teeth. You taste good but I am better. You give people diabetes. Shame on you. Sincerely, Healthy Food
Doesn’t their voice come across LOUD AND CLEAR???
One way to help get them “into” their new character is by having them rewrite their name tag!!
In December, the students were Mrs. Clause and Santa, with new name tags to prove it!
Students had a great time writing from the perspective of Santa, versus the traditional way of having a child write a letter to Santa.
One student writes:
“Dear Children, Christmas is almost here. I hope you’ve been good this year. It makes me happy when you be nice to your siblings. But it makes me sad when you say I don’t exist. I hope you believe in me and Mrs. Clause too because she is nice. And my favorite part of my job is that I get to wrap up gifts for all the nice boys and girls. I like it when you give me really big smiles. The month of December is fun because I get to go to alot of homes.”
Dear Humans, Love Mother Earth is another writing lesson on voice that we do on Earth Day in April. Students act as if they are Mother Earth and write a letter to humans. Students get very passionate during this writing activity and write about how sad they are about how humans are disrespectful by polluting and being wasteful.
Here is a fun end of the year idea for your principal! Students put themselves in their principal’s shoes as they write a letter from their perspective. Our principal got a big laugh when he read these letters!
Such simple lessons…yet so effective when teaching point of view with writing!!!
Have a great night!!! :)
3 Responses
This is a great idea! It is simple and I know my kids would love it!! I have had them do perspectives before but I like how you incorporate it throughout the year.
Thanks for sharing!
Julie
Thoughts of a Third Grade Teacher
I love that you have them all write on a big piece of butcher paper! My kids will do anything to draw on butcher paper but I've never thought to display their writing this way. We've only written POV pieces as characters in the book {telling the Little Red Hen why they deserve cake, too or what they would do if they were Pinkalicious} because that gives my kinders more background to work with. This would make a great end of year challenge! :) Thanks for sharing!
http://LittleMissGlamourGoesToKindergarten.blogspot.com
I'm having an Earth Day Resources Linky Party and I'd love for this lesson to be on there! Check it out at:
Teaching Happily Ever After: Earth Day!