Persuasive Writing and a Freebie!

We started our persuasive writing in March and the kids are becoming experts at it.  Now, they try to persuade me to give them extra recess and free time!  

Our first persuasive writing was done with the story, Hey, Little Ant.  

It’s a story about a boy who was planning to step on an ant since all of his friends were doing the same. The little ant tries to convince the boy not to step on him and gives him a multitude of reasons why he shouldn't be squished. The best part is that the book is left open-ended with the choice of whether or not the boy should squish the ant being left up to the reader. This is also a fabulous story to teach point of view- but that’s for another time. 

Here’s a cute Hey Little Ant Song that you can watch with your kids and you can get the book on youtube as well.

The kids used the opinion writing graphic organizer to help them with their writing.  Then, after a conference, they created their final draft.  Below, they are creating their final project.

When finished, they

read about ants and completed a Venn diagram..

You can grab everything you need for this project  here and I've also included a total NO PREP version for those of you that need a quick project or a sub plan- just print and go! 

You can even follow this activity up with a fun treat. Here are some options. 

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I loved the next two ideas my colleagues shared with me. The first idea was to write a letter to a leprechaun on St. Patrick’s Day persuading him to give them some of his gold, so I created this paper for them to write their letter.  Some of their letters were hysterical- such as this boy who asked for the leprechaun's gold or Euros (since the leprechaun is clearly from Ireland and deals in that currency).  

My kids thought it was important to butter him up so all the letters started with greetings such as Dear Handsome Leprechaun, Dear Clever Leprechaun, or Dear Kind Leprechaun.  Clearly, my kids know how to schmooze and pull at some heartstrings. 

 In the end, the leprechaun did share some of his treasure because he was obviously ‘persuaded’ by them!

The last persuasive writing we did was with the story, I Wanna Iguana. The students wrote a letter to their parents asking for a pet. They had to state what they wanted, why they wanted it, and what they would do with their pet after they got it. 

You can grab the whole activity here which includes graphic organizers and an assessment piece.

You can grab this paper for free here. Enjoy!

Some kids asked for the typical pet -a fish, cat, dog, hamster and then, the not-so-typical pet- a snow wolf, a horse, and a dragon. 


Here are some of the letters:

Here's a favorite of mine- this student wants a fish and would feed it and give it water to drink =). 

Afterwards, I sent home another sheet and a note to the parents explaining the project and asked the parents to write back.  

The next day, some of the kids actually got the go ahead to get the pet!  The responses were so creative!  It was great that when the parents gave their answers, they backed it up with reasons to support their answer.

These are some other great books we use in our classroom:
I Wanna New Room by K. Orloff
Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by M. Willems
Earrings! by J. Viorst
Click, Clack, Peep! by D. Cronin
Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type! by D. Cronin
Just a Dream by C. Allsburg


For a list of other great books for persuasive writing, click here!