Facts and Opinions Lesson Plan: Letter to the Editor
Grade Levels: K-3
This lesson plan, adaptable for grades K-3, is built around the BrainPOP Jr. topic Facts and Opinions. Students will discover how to verify facts and how signal words can help them distinguish facts from opinions. Then they will write a letter to the editor expressing an opinion about something they care about, supporting their idea with facts.
Students will:
- Distinguish between facts and opinions
- Take a quiz to pre-assess what they know about facts and opinions.
- Watch a BrainPOP Jr. movie about fact and opinion.
- Use Make-a-Map to identify facts that support an opinion.
- Write a letter to the editor with facts to support their opinion.
Materials:
- Internet access for BrainPOP Jr.
- Interactive whiteboard
- Facts and Opinions Background
Vocabulary:
accurate, fact, opinion, prove, source, verify
Preparation:
- Preview the movie Facts and Opinions to plan for adaptations.
- Review Facts and Opinions Background.
- Extension Activity only: Bring in find photos of subjects students are interested in.
Lesson Procedure:
- Begin the lesson by stating an opinion and writing it on the whiteboard, such as “Kittens are adorable.” Then state a fact, such as “Kittens have four legs.” Ask students to describe in their own words the difference between a fact and opinion.
- Optional: For further assessment of students’ prior knowledge of fact and opinion, display the Easy Quiz on the whiteboard. Take the quiz as a whole class.
- Now read aloud the Facts and Opinions Background. After sharing, tell students they will now watch the BrainPOP Jr movie Facts and Opinions which features how to verify facts and how signal words can help them distinguish facts from opinions. Tell them they’ll also discover how to support an opinion with facts.
- Display the movie Facts and Opinions on the whiteboard. Watch the movie as a whole class, playing through without pausing.
- Now have students open Make-a-Map from the Facts and Opinion topic page and choose or create a spider map template (alternatively, students can make an offline spider map). In the center, have them write Grandpop’s opinion: “Save our garden”. As they hear the facts that support Grandpop’s opinion, have them pause the movie and type them in the spider map. Remind them that you can add text, images, or clips from the movie to the spider map.
- Circulate as students work together, helping as needed.
- Next, prompt students to think about an issue they care about. Examples may range from saving an endangered species to what foods they think should be served in the cafeteria. Have students write a Letter to the Editor expressing their opinion about the issue, using facts to support their idea. Have them organize their opinions and facts on a spider map just as they did for Grandpop’s opinion.
- Finally, have students share their Letters to the Editor with each other. Help them submit their letters for publication if possible to the school or a local newspaper.
Extension Activities:
Caption It! Bring photos to class or find ones online that feature your students’ interests or that they may enjoy. Going around the classroom, assigning each student either “fact” or “opinion”. One way to do this is for every other student to say fact or opinion. Then, display one of the photos you brought in. Have students write a caption that is either a fact or an opinion depending on what they’ve been assigned. Have them share their captions with the class.Fact and Opinion Scavenger Hunt In pairs, invite students to look for examples of facts and opinions in the classroom. They can look at posters, books, magazines, etc. Extend this activity by having them search for facts and opinions at home. Have them write down what they find and bring them to class to share.
