American Symbols Opinion Writing...

... On A Flag Template:

After introducing several national symbols, my students illustrate their favorite one with a pencil in the square (where the stars usually go) and they fill in the background by using the side of a broken blue crayon.

Students illustrate & write about their favorite national symbol.  

They dictate to me which national symbol they like and why they like it.  This is great for opinion writing.  I write it for them on a blank flag template and they copy it.  I do this in a small group setting so I can take dictation while the students are illustrating and I can monitor that they are copying correctly, leaving spaces between their words, and including the correct capital letters and a period at the end of each sentence.  

When they are done, they use the side of a broken red crayon to shade in the blank lines.  The smaller the crayons, the better.  For some children, I make a small red mark in the space where they should color red.  

When this is done, it makes an amazing bulletin board because the blue background of the star box and the red stripes on the blank lines make each page look like an American flag, but when you get closer to it, you see the writing and the illustrations.  This also makes a great addition to their memory books.

Here are some of our flag writing pages displayed at the So CA Kindergarten Conference.  Those are our Lincoln's too. 

Here is the link to the download.  Just click HERE .

You might also like our Month-to-Month Writing.  

This set integrates writing with science, social studies, and a variety of other curricular areas.  

It includes a cute page that asked their opinion:

Would you rather have a beard like Lincoln or a wig like Washington.  

The link for the writing templates is HERE.

See you all tomorrow!

Palma :)