Today I wanted to share an end-of-the-year activity that my class is working on called the Book of the Year Project. For this project, students get to nominate their favorite book that they read this year, draw the cover of the book, and write an opinion piece explaining why the book is their favorite.
Step 1: Design the Cover
Most of the kids in my class love to draw, so to make this project a little more fun for them, I start by having them draw the cover of the best book that they read all year. I usually ask them to draw it on plain white paper in pencil and then I copy their drawings onto cardstock and have them color the copy in. That way I can laminate them and use them to decorate the room!
Here are some of the covers that my kids have drawn in the past:
Step 2: Project Cover Sheet
Once they have finished drawing and coloring in the cover of their book, I ask students to fill out this cover sheet that they will staple to the front of their completed project.
Step 3: Planning The Essay
Once students get to this step, they have already come up with three reasons that the book they have nominated is their favorite, so I give them the graphic organizer below to start planning. I ask them to find at least three supports for each reason, just like we did in all of the opinion pieces that we wrote this year.
Step 4: Writing the Essay
For this step I have students use their completed graphic organizer and the guidelines for writing an opinion piece to write a first draft on loose leaf paper.
Once they have edited and revised, I give them the paper below to write their final piece, which they will publish for their classmates to read.
Step 5: Vote
Once everyone has completed this project, we have a day where students can read each others' essays and vote on the book of the year that they think is best using the ballot cards included in this product.
Step 6: Poster
I will place a drawing of the winning book on the poster template included in this product and hang it up in our classroom library.
If you would like to use this resource, you can find it in my TPT Store here.
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