Opinion letters & FREEBIE!

Last week, we had a professional development day.... we accomplished a lot, but the most interesting part was getting a new unit that is aligned with the Common Core for writing.  We are transition in over as our county develops and pilots new units for us.  We use units of study based on Lucy Calkins' books (as well as Kathy Collins).  They needed to be more focused to meet our changing needs, so local intermediate school districts and teachers are working on them over the next year.

The unit we were given is "Writers Write Opinion Letters for Social Action".  I love this unit!  It gives our young writers to care about the world around them and use their literacy skills to create positive change.  Another awesome part is that the unit is front-loaded with mentor texts that will support the idea of an opinion and letter-writing, understanding that not all children have experience with letters (reading or writing them).  This unit will also tie in nicely with our social studies curriculum in a few areas.

Here are some mentor texts I will be using:
      

     


Since I was creating a few things for this week, I thought I should share.... it's been a while :)  I'd love to hear how your county/district is rolling out the CCSS.  Enjoy!

                2-sided (2nd page has just bulleted lines)
         Letter paper                                                  Idea page