Unicorn Opinion Writing

Would you want to own a unicorn? What is YOUR opinion? Students form their opinion and create reasons to support their opinion. Students use a graphic organizer to brainstorm their ideas, write their first draft, edit their writing, peer edit, and meet with the teacher for a writing conference. Students will write their final draft and publish their writing with an adorable unicorn craft, which makes a colorful and creative display of your students’ writing! This is an authentic, engaging, and motivating way for students to write an opinion paragraph. These writing resources can be used as a book companion to the adorable book, You Don’t Want a Unicorn, by Ame Dyckman.

Below is a list of what is included in this resource:

1. The Great Unicorn Debate: A one-page reading passage showing both sides of the “owning a unicorn” debate.

2. Slides to Display on Your SmartBoard: These slides are in color so that they display nicely with your technology. One slide poses the debate question and the other slide provides sentence stems for your writers who need more support.

3.Success Criteria for Opinion Writing: A list of statements students can read to determine their success on this writing project. In addition, I provided two writing samples that meet all the criteria.

4. Graphic Organizers for Prewriting and Planning Opinion: These graphic organizers help students to clearly state their opinion with an introduction, three supporting reasons, and a strong conclusion.

5. Peer Editing Checklist: With guidance from their peers, students develop and strengthen their writing as needed by editing, using this helpful checklist.

6. Writing Checklists: Two different writing checklists are included. One generic checklist can be used for a variety of different writing genres, while the other checklist is specifically for an opinion writing piece.

7. Opinion Writing Rubric: This one-page rubric is a powerful way for students to self-assess their writing. The teacher can also use the rubric to assess writing.

8. Writing Conference Templates: As the students complete their writing, you can conference with them using this template. Provide one compliment (heart image) and one wish (a suggestion, rainbow image) to improve their writing.

9. Final Copy Paper: There are different versions of lined pages for students to choose from as they write their final copy- primary and intermediate lines, horizontal and vertical pages.

10. Unicorn Templates for Bulletin Board: There are three pages of templates for the body of the unicorn. There is a black/white and color option. There are four pages to print and display as the title of your bulletin board. You can print these on colorful card stock paper. There are also colorful printables to create an anchor chart.

11. Unicorn Inspirational Printables: Print these quotes (5 pages total) on colorful paper for a great looking bulletin board display!

Want to see how I used this resource in my classroom?

Click here: Unicorn Opinion Writing