Bing Bang Bongo: Essays for Elementary School

  for elementary students

       The dreaded five paragraph essay. A mention of it silences a classroom, until groans begin to emerge into a whining crescendo. I blame this on school curricula, forcing students to write several a year. It creates this sort of electric panic in parents, who then equate writing proficiency to writing an essay.  To help dispel this negativity from the pressure of schools and parents, I assign one three paragraph essay a year in the fall semester (see post of 6/8/20: How to Essay)  and one five paragraph essay a year in the spring semester.
       Like all assignments, I strive to make them fun and do-able. Who can resist shouting, “Bing Bang Bongo!” Each B word represents a paragraph. I use this alliterative trio for our outline. I snitched it from the internet (CREATE for Mississippi), and I made a handout with fun fonts for each. The handout is for outlining the essay's body paragraphs.
       After distributing the handout, I play a quick game with the class. The students are split into groups of three.  Each person is assigned to be Bing, Bang, or Bongo. Next I give each group a subject, and each person comes up with their paragraph topic within that subject. For instance, I assign a group with “Space.” Bing might choose stars, Bang might choose planets, and Bongo might choose the moon. Some subjects I toss out are sports, flowers, trees, monsters, books, movies, music, history, aliens, Valentines Day, reptiles.

 Lord of the Rings:
Bing: Hobbits
Bang: Elves
Bongo: Dwarves

Flight Vehicles:
Bing: Airplanes
Bang: Space Shuttles
Bongo: Helicopters

 Ducks:
Bing: Mean behavior
Bang: Nice behavior
Bongo: Care and Maintenance

Birds:
Bing: Birds of Paradise
Bang: Peregrine Falcons
Bongo: Hummingbirds

       I model the Bing Bang Bongo outline on the board, as I simultaneously create a bubble outline (some students have seen these before). I always make sure there are ideas within each.  Here is an example:

Sports:
Bing: Football
         tackling, touchdowns, field goals, teams
Bang: Softball
    homeruns, bat, bases, jerseys, cleats
Bongo: Soccer
    goal, ball, team, cleats, positions

       Here is the same example as a bubble outline, which some students prefer:

       Many students like to write about a favorite movie, so we brainstorm as a class on what a B could be written on. For the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, we came up with plot, costumes, characters, special effects, or music.        
       The week’s homework is to outline Bing Bang Bongo and write each body paragraph. A paragraph must have 5 sentences and be indented, so this gives students a guideline for length. I cover the introduction, conclusion, and thesis during the following class; then Bingo! they have written a five paragraph essay!