What are some strategies for teaching students to organize their writing and develop a strong thesis statement?

What are some analogies you have used to make connections with the students? For example:

I am the Costco sampler person. I give you a little taste (the content limit of standards) and hopefully you will buy more (looking deeper into the subject)

I am an academic mechanic, I have to diagnose the issues and solve that problem.

Has anyone published a class book with their students? I have done this in the past and it is a good way to help students with opinion writing and to see what they have learned about a particular subject. I use a company called Student Treasures. This is there website: https://studentreasures.com. I am showing pictures of 2 books that I have published with my students. I usually invite parents to my classroom for a book party and each student reads their page. They really enjoy it and it builds community.

I will be absent next week and need to write plans for teaching point of view (first and third person) to fourth graders. Anyone have activities to share?

How do you teach opinion writing to 1st and 2nd graders? I like to use graphic organizers to help my students to organize their thoughts. I also like to introduce it with a book called Duck! Rabbit! This book really gets the students to think about why they see what they see. I also like to discuss the different seasons with my students and have them decide which one they like best. I tell them to think about what they can do, see ,eat and celebrate to help them decide on which season they like best.

Storytelling is one of the most powerful ways to build language and so many other skills. How do you incorporate storytelling into your daily routines?

Here are several pages of story stones icons you can easily glue, Modge Podge, etc to rocks of your choice!
https://www.canva.com/design/DAF-IMgGcTc/jb8xTDALz6pU8tgzhc69Zg/edit?utm_content=DAF-IMgGcTc&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton