PERSUASIVE WRITING: Tooth Fairy vs. Santa Claus

I knew I wanted to come up with something creative that would really get my kids excited about their final persuasive writing piece to culminate the end of our persuasive writing unit. One of my team members mentioned seeing an idea online where students had to argue who had a tougher job: the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus. A-dorable. We couldn't find any actual printables for this, so of course, I made some myself!

First, we brainstormed some reasons why the Tooth Fairy works harder {my opinion: this girl wins, hands down. She touches nasty teeth and never gets a night off. Come on.} and then why Santa Claus works harder. They came up with some HILARIOUS reasons! One of my favorite reasons was in favor of the Tooth Fairy working harder: "The Tooth Fairy must spend a LOT of money on babysitters taking care of her kids every single night!" Hahaha! Who thinks of that?! Second graders do. They were SO passionate about their opinion and we had to have a chat about how to respectfully disagree with someone else's opinion. ;)

After brainstorming some of reasons for both sides of our argument on this graphic organizer, students used this graphic organizer to plan their Opinion, Reasons, Explanations, and Conclusion/Opinion Restated {OREO}.

Once they had their graphic organizers filled-in, it was time to write their "sloppy copy" persuasive essay. We conferenced and discussed how to make some reasons and explanations stronger, to really make sure our point was being made!

The final step in their persuasive writing project was to write their final copy on this final writing paper. These turned out SUPER adorable and made a great hallway addition to our clipboard displays. {Side note: These clipboard displays have been a LIFESAVER and mega timesaver for hanging up work in the hallway. Since it's SO easy, it forces me to actually rotate their work frequently, instead of just leaving things out there for months at a time. Not that I would have ever done that or anything ....}

Our hallway clipboard displays. Each student's name is mounted to a clothespin, making it SUPER easy to rotate work in the hallway.

Here are some of their final copies! I just love 'em.

This one absolutely CRACKED ME UP. 

"Then, she needs wings to go around. Last, Santa needs a sleigh. Ridiculous!"

The picture on this one was too cute. The Tooth Fairy is saying, "I like this girl's style!" talking about the little girl's room decor. Haha!

Look at that concluding sentence! :)

All of the products mentioned are available in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store, right here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Crafting-In-Cardigans

Some other great persuasive writing activities I used in my unit, all from Teachers Pay Teachers, are listed below!

Hey, Little Ant: Squish or Save 

*LOVED this. Will definitely use again.

Hey, Little Ant Persuasive Writing Rubric

Hey, Little Ant Reasons Organizer

I Wanna Iguana Persuasive Pet Letter

OREO Graphic Organizer

Persuasive Writing Organizer

Persuasive Letter Checklist

*I also had my students write to persuade me that they deserved the night off from homework. Of course, if they gave GREAT support, I gave them the night off! Talk about motivation! ;)

Happy Crafting!
- Kristen

ELA RAMBLE: Snowmen at Night

I cannot believe six months have gone by since I last posted ... this year has slipped away in front of my eyes! Now that we are well on our way in the last half of the school year, I figured I was MORE than ready to get back into the swing of things on the blog!

At my school, my grade-level is currently writing our own ELA Curriculum. Although this is time-consuming, exhausting, treacherous, a lot of work, I know it will pay off to have a curriculum filled with meaningful texts and lessons that we are actually excited about teaching. We just have to get through this year of writing it all. ;)

We decided to assign a monthly theme so that we could stay focused on a topic that correlated to either science or social studies standards, and could also lend itself towards some high-quality mentor texts for writing.

This month, we decided to do a Snow/Winter Unit to tie-in some of the science standards (types of matter, water cycle, etc). It makes sense to do a winter unit in upstate New York, where there is PLENTY of real-life snow examples! ;) Our central mentor texts for the month include: Brave Irene by William Steig (also available online at: www.storylineonline.net), Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, The Biggest, Best Snowman by Margery Cuyler, and It's Snowing! by Gail Gibbons.

After focusing heavily on sequencing and transition words in our writing {first, then, next, last}, we read the story Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner. These snowmen books are a-dorable, and my kiddos totally eat them up! They love trying to find the pickle on every page. Leave it to seven year olds ... :)

After reading the story, I had my students brainstorm what THEY would do if they were snowmen at night. What wild adventures would they go on?! They were encouraged to be as creative as they wanted. This original idea was from Cara at The First Grade Parade aka: My inspiration in life.

They came out super cute and have made an awesome hallway display! Plus, you've gotta love a snowy display in New York. This can stay out until April, if I'm really feeling lazy!!!

I just love the way the torn-paper snowmen came out! SO stinkin' cute. Will definitely repeat this one next year!

We are working on wrapping up a couple of our Persuasive Writing Pieces + Projects now, so stay tuned for a post on that SOON! :) 

Happy Crafting!

- Kristen