Writing prompt Kindergarten English Language Arts
Should We Clean Up Miller Pond? A Kindergarten Opinion Prompt
A kindergarten opinion writing prompt where students decide whether a class should pick up litter at Miller Pond and dictate or write one reason for their answer.
Objectives
- Students will describe why litter at a pond can be a problem for the animals that live there.
- Students will state and dictate or write an opinion on whether a class should clean up litter at a pond.
- Students will give one reason that supports their opinion.
Vocabulary
Key words: litter, pond
Teacher overview
Miller Pond (a fictional pond used for this prompt) is a small pond where ducks and fish live, and it sometimes collects litter left behind by park visitors. This prompt asks kindergartners to decide whether their class should clean up that litter, giving them an early opinion-writing task grounded in a real kind of problem a shared outdoor space can have. Students state a clear opinion, give one reason, and support both with a drawing, the earliest form of the claim-and-reason structure that argument writing builds toward in later grades.
Prompt
Background: Miller Pond is a pond by a park. It is a fictional pond used for this prompt. Ducks and fish live there. Some days, litter sits by the pond. Cups, bags, and cans get left behind. Litter can hurt the animals. A duck can get stuck in a bag. A fish can eat a small piece of trash by mistake.
A class wants to help. They could walk to the pond. They could pick up the litter they see. Or they could do something else instead.
Writing task: Should our class clean up litter at Miller Pond? Draw a picture. Tell or write your opinion. Give one reason for your opinion.
Planning Organizer
Fill in your ideas before you draw and tell.
| Category | Your idea |
|---|---|
| My opinion, yes or no | |
| One reason | |
| A picture I will draw |
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Exemplar & Rubric
Exemplar response:
I think our class should clean up litter at Miller Pond. Ducks and fish live at the pond, and litter can hurt them. A duck could get stuck in a bag. If we pick up the cups and cans, the pond will be a safer home for the animals. I want to help keep Miller Pond clean.
Rubric:
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opinion | No clear opinion stated or drawn | States an opinion that shifts between yes and no | States one clear opinion, clean up or not | States one clear opinion and repeats it in a closing sentence |
| Reason | No reason given | Names litter or the pond without connecting it to the opinion | Gives one reason connected to the opinion, such as helping the animals | Gives one reason and names a specific animal or object from the background material |
| Picture & communication | Picture does not connect to the prompt | Picture shows the pond but not the litter or the opinion | Picture shows the pond and the student's opinion clearly | Picture and dictated or written words together tell the full opinion and reason |
Differentiation
Support
Offer a sentence starter for the writing task: "I think we should ___ the litter because ___." Allow the reason to be given as a single word, such as "ducks" or "fish," if a full sentence is still difficult.
Extension
Ask confident students to name one more animal that might live at a pond, beyond ducks and fish, and explain in one more sentence how litter could affect that animal too.
ELL supports
Pre-teach litter, pond, and clean up with simple pictures (a duck, a bag of trash, a pond) and a gesture for "clean up" (a sweeping motion) before the writing task. Allow the Planning Organizer to be completed by pointing to pictures instead of writing words.
Extensions
Take a class walk around the school grounds to look for any litter near a puddle, drain, or garden bed, and let students practice the same clean-up decision on a small scale before revisiting their Miller Pond opinion. Students point to any litter they find, and an adult wearing gloves picks it up.