Persuasive Writing

Happy St. Patrick's Day (late)! I hope you all had a great weekend! The weather in Chicago was/is absolutely amazing - 80 and sunny - which is soooooo unseasonable. Usually I am bundled up on St. Patrick's Day because it's 30s and windy. 

Yesterday was a first for me - I ran my first 5k! It's not as monumental as it may sound, as running is not new to me (I played lacrosse in college), but it was my first experience with a race. It was fun to be a part of something with so many people....and with such great weather! I think I'll do it again. Does anyone else run races? I was pretty proud of myself because I ran faster than I had at the gym on the treadmill, which I was not expecting...25:42. My sister, who ran it with me, was amazing and ran it in 25:02! 

We've been working on some pretty fun things - Backpacking through genres, descriptive writing, and our weather unit. Everything has been going well thanks to Hope and Abby! I will post pics soon! We also just began our persuasive writing unit. How do you all teach persuasive writing? I use this handy dandy little book by Lucy Calkins to guide me:

I always start the unit with Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type because it allows me to introduce the idea of persuasion with a story the kids are usually already familiar with. We talk all about how the cows used going on strike an ultimatum to persuade Farmer Brown to give them electric blankets. Then we talk about the ending of the book and how we think Duck must have persuaded Farmer Brown to give them a diving board. This is where I tell them they get to pretend to be Duck and write a letter to Farmer Brown persuading him to give them a diving board. Everyone gets so excited and can't wait to get going! There are so many mini-lessons you can do even with just that one topic (voice: what does Duck sound like?; perspective: what might Duck do to try to convince Farmer Brown; using mentor texts: what did Doreen Cronin do that we can try?)

Then I move on to reading I Wanna Iguana. LOVE this book! It is fantastic for getting kids to think about what they might actually persuade their parents to do. I also reread parts for mini-lessons on for word choice, voice, and letter-writing conventions.

The other books I really love to use to teach persuasive writing are:

I love this book because the voice is so funny - I try to get kids to think outside the box and be creative! Then, I get a bit more serious on them and read:

This book allows me to help them see how they can make a difference within our school or even at home. I've had kids write letters to our custodians asking them to not dump our recycling into the garbage at the end of the day (sad, but true), to our principal asking him to put a stop to bullying (again - sad, but true), and one sweetheart asked his mom, "please don't say no when I ask you to help me with my homework." (wow). I don't know how all of those ended up a bit depressing, but it's fun to see them believe they can do something about the things that go on around them.

Ok - that's all for now! Are there any other great books for teaching persuasive writing? I'd love to know!!!