Tag Archives: letters

Persuasive Writing!

Many of you are saying to yourselves…really?! In FIRST GRADE?! Believe it or not we are beginning our brand new unit of writing persuasive letters. So far the kids are having a blast! We began by reading I Wanna a Iguana and discussing how Alex wrote letters to his mother trying to persuade her to get him an iguana. This sparked a huge conversation of how we all have wants, needs, opinions and beliefs. We learned that one way people have their opinions heard is by writing persuasive letters. I asked them to think about things they felt were unfair or they wished they could change… and boy did the gates open! We talked about how opinion letters included: greetings, conclusions, their opinion of change, solutions, and reasons why this change would work.

The excitement the students have for this unit is sure to make these letters so much fun to read! I will be sending a note home tomorrow letting you know how you can be of help to us during this unit of study!

If some of your kiddos have brought home a letter, be open to discussion and you may even write them back. 🙂  We talked about how we might not get the change or the need that we want, but to work on being persuasive and making a positive change happen.

Thanks for all the support coming from home! 🙂

Writing!

This week we have focused on how writers organize their writing.  The students have created two piles of writing in their folders: writing they are done with and writing they want to keep working on.  They have started out each writing session by rereading their stories from the previous day to get their minds thinking about their three daily choices: add more to the pictures, add more to the words, or start a new story.  The writers have enjoyed stretching their stories out into three page books. We learned about how they can reread their old stories and tell new stories from their old ideas.  They also learned that they can use those old ideas in new ways, such as writing letters or lists.  You might have seen some writing samples come home this week while our writers were experimenting with using writing to help them do things throughout the day.   These writers are branching out in so many new ways!