Persuasive Writing Tips (with The Friendly Teacher)

Hello! It's Hannah from The Friendly Teacher here! Whenever we do writing we always start with a mentor text. Why? Because I want to always connect my writing with my reading. I think that it is important for students to know that the two are completely combined. I also think reading a mentor text first helps the students to have a model to understand what they are to write.

So, before I ever begin a writing I always start with reading a story that is written in that type of writing. When we do this we JUST READ! We don't focus on a skill, all we focus on is reading and listening to how the author writes.

Then, after we read we start the writing process using a prompt that is related to the book that we just read.

My favorite type of writing to use mentor texts with is Persuasive Writing! I love using it with persuasive writing because the books are so darn fun!!

Here are ten great books for persuasive writing with the writing ideas! There are also two free units for you to give this a try!

1. I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kauffman-If you sign up for my newsletter here you get a great packet to go with this book for FREE 

2. Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin- This is great for persuasive letter writing.  We love to write letters to Farmer Brown like we were farm animals. Check out the unit here! 

3. Dear Mrs. LaRue by Mark Teague-Another one for great letter writing! Grab the whole unit for FREE here!

4. The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt-Hilairous letters will come out of this book! The students write in the eyes of a crayon and it is so much fun! Check out the unit here! 

5. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka- Have your students write trying to talk the wolf out of blowing their house down! The students will get a kick out of it!

6. I will Never Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child- This is a healthy food lesson and a persuasive lesson! Get those two birds with one stone! Have the students write persuasive pieces on what they would not eat!

7. Can I Have a Tryannosuarius Rex Dad! Can I Please? by Lois G. Grambling- Dinosaur units are my favorite! My kids get so into them! Mix your dinosaur unit with this great persuasive book! Have the students write a letter to their parents explaining why they should get a pet.

8. I Wanna New Room by Karen Kauffman- Writing letters to parents is always a funny way to mix curriculum with parent involvement! You can have them write a letter to their parents about something that they want!

9. My Teacher for President by Kay Winters- This is a fantastic way to mix government lessons with persuasive writing! You can have your kids write why you should be president or they could choose another person to be president. And you could see why your students love you so much. Who does not like that?!?! 

10. LaRue for Mayor by Mark Teague- With this book you can have the kids write a persuasive speech on why someone should be in government! Hello, your are getting all kinds of content in there!

I hope you can use some of these ideas in your class!!!

Writing Tips in PreK and a Freebie {ALL Y'all Need}

I absolutely LOVE teaching writing in PreK because the growth is incredible! Throughout the year, I witness students from drawing lines to represent words to sounding out and blending words by the end of the year. Here are my five essential tools for successful writing in PreK:

#1 Mat Man
Our school uses Handwriting without Tears to introduce letter formation. My favorite part of the program has to be Mat Man. Not only does Mat Man teach them how to draw people, it also teaches them how to form straight and curvy lines that are used in letter formation.

#2 Play Planning
At my school, students write about where they are going for center time every day. They start out by drawing a picture of what they are going to do at the center and tracing the sentence, "I am going to the ____ center." By the end of the year, they are writing the sentence independently and extending the sentence. For example: "I am going to the blocks center to build a road."

#3 Writing Center
Create a writing center where the students can free write in a journal. In my writing center, I have markers, tape, crayons, word cards, and different types of writing paper for them to use. This past week, my students have been creating their very own Valentine cards.

#4 Write on the floor
Give your students a clipboard and let them write while laying on their tummies! Research shows that students are more prone to develop correct pencil grip and muscle memory if you allow them to write on the floor.

#5 Create Books
Over the past few weeks, my students have been creating their "Love Book." I just took some blank books from the Target Dollar spot and added pages that pertain to our theme. The kids LOVE how personalized the books are! Here are a few pictures of our "Love Books."

Freebie! 

Click on the link below to get your copy of the "Love Book." It is specifically measured to fit blank books from The Target Dollar Spot. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6XMrIPIox8IZ1dhMzVta3VQVDA/view?usp=sharing

Happy Teaching!

Read Alouds We Love with Tickled Pink in Primary

One of my absolute favorite books is The Monster at the End of This Book. My mother used to read this to me and my sisters when we were little. She was a teacher, so she knew how to do read alouds perfect! She would sound like a monster, turn the pages in suspense, change the inflection of her voice, etc. It added so much excitement to the story.

My nephew Colton now has a love for this book, much like his mom and aunts did. It's so fun to see my mom read it to him and watch him giggle. He says grandma reads it better than his own mom. :) Even though he's only 4,  I've been telling my sister to start working with him on comprehending the books she reads to him or the simple books he's already reading. Yes, he's already reading at a 1st grade level - crazy smart kid! Since my nephew and I both love this book, I wanted him to help me with this post. I gave my sister some of the worksheets from my Reading Responses bundle. Colton chose to write about his favorite part of the story.

I could've almost guessed he would choose this part! If you haven't read this book, your students will LOVE it!

Since we love our followers, we are giving away a pair of Tieks this month! I don't have a pair, but I've heard they are super comfy. Great for those tired teacher feet! Enter below to get a FREE pair!

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100 Days Number Line {with The Learning Chambers}

Hey friends!  The 100th-day of school is super special to me because of all of my years spent teaching First Grade.  We had a HUGE celebration and several 100th-day stations.  We made a snack, made glasses, put together puzzles, bowled, and even hula hooped a hundred times.  Now that I'm teaching second grade, we still celebrate the 100th-day but it's not a big shindig.  However, we still have fun in Second Grade!  Here are two activities that would be perfect for any age of elementary students.

This year we've been working on a class created number line and we are getting so close to 100!  Number lines are a pretty big deal in Second Grade.  Each day, we add a new sticky note with the number of the day.  We write the number in both standard form and word form.  We stick the sticky notes on a long piece of receipt paper (I'll take another pic tomorrow and add it to this post.  That way you can see it better!)

It's awesome because the students refer back to our number line daily and it helps us with our spelling when we are writing numbers in word form.  We are super excited to complete our 100th-day soon!  This would also be a great activity to complete on the 100th-day as a class project.

Each year, I LOVE using writing prompts on the 100th-day of school.  It's a great way to have my students reflect over our school year.  There are three different prompts to pick from and they are a great way to differentiate your writing instruction.

My little guy helped me with the primary writing prompt.  He hasn't had his 100th-day yet, but I asked him what he thought he might be doing.  He was excited to share!

You can grab these FREE writing prompts HERE.

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