Persuasive Writing

We are trudging through persuasive writing. I chose the verb trudging because composing a well-written writing piece is such a struggle for my kids. They HATE the idea that they have to brainstorm, fill in a graphic organizer, write something, edit it, and write it AGAIN. Blows their little minds.

"Whyyyyyy????"

Because I said so!

Because following all of these steps make certain that you have high quality work that is neat, organized, and focused, my beautiful children!

So I came up with an activity to engage them into persuasive writing. First, we visited our "heart" maps, which include things that we care and love. These things would be the best to write about because we are passionate about them! Then, we brainstormed aspects we'd like to change about these things to make them better.

For example, I obvi wrote teaching in my heart map. I told them one thing that I'd like to change is higher pay smaller class sizes more resources less drama goodbye state testing a bigger classroom! We decided I could try to persuade the school officials. And we brainstormed reasons why that would be a great idea!

My other examples were wanting people to adopt a pet and asking my sister to come visit more often. We are doing these one at a time, and I am challenging them to think of one "world" issue, one "personal" issue, and then whatever they want.

Once all of these are filled out, I will conference with each student and we will choose which idea would probably be the strongest to write about for their writing piece. This is key, because I'm SURE some of my friends are going to want to "persuade" the most RANDOM things.

Anyway, here's the freebie. Now, there's a Gandhi quote on the worksheet. Is this legal? I mean, I'm not selling it, right? And I gave him credit! I'm so paranoid now, I almost don't want to post anything! [Insert Snooki WAHHHH.] Don't get me started on Snooks.

Anyway, click the preview & let me know what you think!

Persuasive Writing Activity

Currently...

I haven't posted in two weeks.

I'm sure ya'll have heard the saying.. "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

Well, I have nothing nice to say about school right now. I love my job, I really do. But I truly believe that I am being tested. I'm over handful of troublemakers. I'm taking it day by day, week by week, month by month.

Which brings me to this post! I was waiting for a positive reason to post, and here it is! Farley's monthly currently! I'm so happy that it's that time, I needed a reason to pop up on your google reader feed! =)

Like many of you,  I needed to google adjectives! Right now, "firm" is probably the nicest way to describe me in the classroom. I am faithful to my friends, 100%. I take their sides, and they can depend on me to listen or anything else really, even though I live over an hour away from most of them now. My family probably thinks I'm focused. Right now, I'm trying to figure out what to focus on in regards to grad school, but at least I'm focusing on being focused, right? =)

Go link up with Farley, who shares my initials! I'll be interested to see other people who needed to use F. Maybe I missed some better adjectives!

Hopefully I'll be back sooner than later with something insightful. Or at least positive!

WHERE IS THE SNOW?

Disclaimer: I should not complain about this. I hate snow. Snow seems like a harmless target. Can't hurt snow's feelings, right?

Okay, I'll complain about ONE more thing: The fact that my online grade book program thingy isn't working on my home computer. So I need to go in early tomorrow to input comments for interims. I was trying to be finished early & ahead of the game, so of course something had to go wrong. OF COURSE.

Ugh. I'm glad I'm not the only teacher feeling the strain/stress/exhaustion at this point in the year. Thanks blog land for reminding me that it is okay for me to feel like this, and I'm not alone. A lot of people put on a happy face and look at you like you're crazy when you're being a downer. But not you, blog friends. You listen, leave thoughtful comments, and reassure me that although it is tough right now, it will get better. And I thank you for that!

Anyway, I had a random two hour fog delay on Friday. Fog. In February! My kids were insane. Don't really want to get into it. Tomorrow is a new day/week.

So much Seuss stuff going on right now. Yikes. And copyright drama! I was thinking about making something, but I'm not getting involved. How sad is that? I've found tons of fun stuff though, and I can't wait to share it with my students! I also signed up for a school activity on the 3rd which celebrates Seuss. I don't remember signing up for it. And even if I did, I certainly wouldn't have signed up for it if I would have known it started at 8:30am on a Saturday! But I'm going, and it'll be fun. I gave my grade level chair a craft I found on Pinterest that we are going to do!

No fancy pictures or anything new to report! I'm starting Persuasive Writing this week, and we've just begun fractions. Meaty stuff! Any resources you guys can throw my way would be fantastic!

Must go to bed. I have something called work tomorrow. So quickly you forget when you're knee deep in a three day weekend!

Bloggy Exchanges!

I participated in both the Teacher and Class exchange!

For the class exchange, I was paired with Amber at...






We kept it simple and exchanged handmade cards. I honestly wanted to do more, but I was paranoid of doing Valentine's stuff too far ahead of Valentine's Day and getting in trouble! We third graders have a test to prepare for you know! Anyway, our classes matched up nicely, and we paired up our students so that they made/got cards for/from the same student. At least that was the plan. Until 1 of my boys was absent, 1 boy moved after I sent her my list, and 1 boy refused to cooperate [as usual]. So I had to reassign a few. But my kids had fun and loved getting stuff from other kids! I wish I took pics. My girls made the cutest cards. A few boys really did, too. But then there were some strange ones. Sorry, Amber! I have a unique bunch this year.

Onto the Teacher Exchange! My gift was for Mor at

I forgot to take a picture before I sent it [typical]. But she put a pic on her blog, so I'll post that! I made her a LOVE wreath, and I included a cute little trinket box. I'm glad she liked it!

My valentine was from someone named Sydney. Sydney, if you have a blog, reach out to me! I'd love to thank you for the gift! She gave me a giftcard to Erin Condren. Truth be told, I'm a Erin Condren virgin. But this gives me a reason to be that no longer. So thank you Sydney!

If you participated, don't be a slacker [like me]! Go link up! =)

You know you're a teacher when...

This one is hitting close to home. I polished off a box of Savannah Smiles in THREE days because they are in my desk. And I just popped open a box of Samoas that made it home. I need help!

Such a cute idea! Go link up with Jeannie at