Persuasive Writing and Turkey Disguises

I honestly d not know where the first quarter of the year has gone! Two more school days until Thanksgiving break - WHAT?! With Thanksgiving upon us we did some Thanksgiving themed writing this week.  Our writing from Journeys this week was persuasive letters.  What better persuasive letter assignment than to pretend you are a turkey and persuade a farmer that he should not eat you for Thanksgiving dinner.  This is a writing prompt that I have heard about from many different people, it is perfect for this time of year.  

One of the things that our little ones can struggle with sometimes is coming up with ideas of what to write.  Or in this case ideas of how to persuade the farmer not to eat them.  I though I would play a little dress up to get them thinking.  We have writing right after recess, so while my class was at recess (luckily I didn't have duty) I changed into some jeans and a plaid shirt and straw hat.  Overalls would have been ideal, but unfortunately I didn't have any and thy weren't in the budget.  When the students came back in I had them go into an empty room.  I came in and talking with a little bit of a different accent told them that I was Farmer Paul and that it was almost Thanksgiving and I needed to find a Turkey.  I told them that luckily I had lots of turkeys and pointed to all of them.  I had a few of them show the class how they might be able to act like a turkey.  I told the class that when I said go they were to go around the room acting like turkeys.  If I pointed to them with my arm extended and said "shoot" the whole class had to freeze and the person I said "shoot" to had to come up with a reason why I should not have them for Thanksgiving dinner, then we did it again only I would choose a different student.  My students LOVED this and they came up with some awesome ideas!

Some of them included things like:

- I'm to young to die

- I'm skinny, I don't have any meat on me

- I am a rare type of Turkey, I'm the only one of this kind on your farm

- I won't taste good

- I have poison in me

- I'm dirty

It was great when we went back into the classroom because I gave the kids a graphic organizer (they had to have three reasons why the farmer should not eat them with explanations for each reason) and they went to work, they were creative and didn't complain about not knowing what to write.  They had gotten enough ideas in our little drama experience to get them excited about their writing. 

After the graphic organizer we wrote rough drafts and final drafts of our letters.  Then today we did a little art project to go with the assignment.  I told the kids that their letters were great, but in order to make sure that the farmer really didn't eat them for Thanksgiving dinner they would have to disguise themselves!  We brainstormed some things they could disguise themselves as on the board.  Then I gave them some turkeys and some tips on how to cut the disguise to fit the turkey and they went to work!  Their turkeys are GREAT! I love looking at them in the hallway.  Here are a few of them:

The disguises below include a word wall letter, a barn, a ninja, fire, a bowling pin, a rose bush, an iPad, and a Christmas tree.

 

                               

                                        

                                   

They all did a great job and it is so fun to look at them in the hallway!

Recipe to Success!

I came up with this idea towards the beginning of the summer and am really excited about doing this lesson sometime during the first week of school.  One thing that I LOVE to do is to dress up for lessons!  The look in the kids eyes is priceless and they listen really well too : )  

The objective of this lesson is for my new class and I to come up with a "Recipe to Success" for Second Grade!  I will begin by dressing up as a chef/baker. Luckily I dressed up as a baker for Halloween a few years back so this part will be easy.

I will come in and have the kids brainstorm things that a baker or a chef would need.  They will brainstorm in table groups and then I will call on some students to share.  Hopefully they will come up with "recipe", if they don't then I will lead them to it.  We will come up with ideas on why a recipe might be important and why we need to use a recipe. 

I will then tell them that we are going to come up with a Recipe on how we can make Second Grade a great year.  I have a letter that my class from last year wrote to my incoming class, we will read that and pull some ideas from that.  I will then have the students share things that they did last year in first grade that made first grade great.  We may add some of those.  Following this I will have students think about rules and procedures and different things that I have told them about my class. 

As I write our ideas on our BIG RECIPE CARD (that we will display in he classroom near our rules and consequences) the students will write some of their favorite ones on THIS small recipe cad.  I found the free download on Pinterest, you can type on the recipe card to personalize it to your class.

When we are done with the lesson I will take the students recipe cards and laminate them.  I will then give them back to them and let them use them as a bookmark.  They can serve as a good reminder throughout the year.   

That's a wrap.  Recipe to Success Lesson.

100...

Today I introduced our "If I were 100..." writing prompt. It was great! And my kids were loving it. I got dressed up. Playing dress up is one of my favorite things to do as a teacher, and the kids love it too! The light and excitement in their eyes and the huge smiles on their faces are priceless!

I walked in shuffling along with a cane. I told the students that I was Barbara and that I was 100 years old and that I had come from the old folks home to be with them for this lesson.

Here is Barbara:


o.k., o.k., I know the hair isn't grey but I couldn't find a wig so I told the kids that I dyed it especially for them because I didn't want them to see my grey hair.

Alright, I know I don't have glasses either, but I didn't have any and the cheapest ones at Smith's (the only store on my way to school that was open)were $10.00, so I just told the kids that I forgot them and pretended to have a difficult time reading the book that I read to them.

I did have a cane though! Made it myself out of a shoebox! (there are some perks to having parents who have a shoe store)




We read a book and then we filled in bubble chart about characteristics of old people. I wrote as if I were an old person. I promise my handwriting is better than this : )



We reviewed what an opinion is, then I read some statements. If the students felt that what I had read was their opinion they showed me the Y (yes)side of the spoon, if it was not their opinion they showed me the N (no) side of the spoon.




We went back to our desks and filled out the following chart to gather our ideas for our writing:



The final products will look something like this:


The students are making their 100 year old selves tomorrow! I can't wait to see how they turn out! They are sure to be much cuter than mine, I will be sure to post pictures!

- The 100 year old teacher