End of Year Opinion Writing Prompts for Reflection

End of Year Opinion Writing Prompts and Ideas for 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade

The end of the year offers opportunities for some engaging opinion writing! Have 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students reflect on the school year while practicing their writing skills. Use the EOY opinion writing prompts below as inspiration.

If your students are still struggling with opinion writing, then these opinion writing tips and paragraph frames can help provide scaffolding.

1. FAVORITE MEMORY

Have upper elementary students reflect on the school year and think about their favorite memory. Then, they can share their opinion on it, explaining why it was their favorite.

Combine this with a fun countdown to the end of the school year activity, having one student share their favorite memory each day.

2. MOST IMPORTANT THING THEY LEARNED

As a class, brainstorm different skills that students have learned throughout the school year. Then, have each student choose the one they believe is most important and explain why.

3. ONE THING THE TEACHER SHOULD CHANGE NEXT YEAR

Students are often more perceptive than we give them credit for. Have them think about the past school year and write about one thing that they wish the teacher had done differently, explaining their reasons why. 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students will enjoy this activity, and teachers might get some valuable insight!

Help your students be successful with their opinion writing with these no prep opinion writing templates. They walk students through the entire writing process and include paragraph frames for additional support.

No prep opinion writing template for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade

4. BEST BOOK

Have students think about all the books they read during the school year and share their opinion on the best one.

5. BOOK AWARDS

This fun EOY writing idea came from teacher Carrie Jones. It's similar to the "best book" prompt, but has a little more nuance. Have students write opinion pieces explaining why they would give an award to a certain book or character. For example, students get give an award for the book with the:

best illustrations
best villain
kindest character
best author
funniest character
best chapter book series
character who learned the most

If you give awards to students at the end of year year, giving awards to books might be a fun addition to your end of year party.

6. HOW I CHANGED FOR THE BETTER

Encourage a growth mindset in students by asking them to reflect on how they have changed over the past school year. Have them write an opinion piece explaining how they changed and how that change was for the better.

Students can reflect on how they grew academically or how they improved their character.

7. KINDEST THING SOMEONE DID

People of all ages would benefit by spending more time celebrating the kindness they see in others. Have your upper elementary students think about all the kind things people did during the school year and explain which action was the kindest and why. Reflecting on the kind actions of others will hopefully spur them on to more kindness themselves.

8. BEST PLACE TO TRAVEL FOR THE SUMMER

Have students share where they would most like to travel this summer and explain why.

Note: You know your students. If you have students who might be hurt by hearing about the fun travel plans of others, knowing that they will not go anywhere fun this summer, this might not be the best option.

You might also like these other end of year writing ideas and activities.

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