Persuade for a Pet
Grades: K-3
Persuade for a Pet
Students write a letter to their parents, or classroom teacher, to persuade them to get a new pet, supporting their opinion with reasons and examples.
Engage
To engage young students in animals, start with a pet-themed event. Encourage students to share pet photos or videos. Discuss the types of pets they have and create a bar or pictograph off the information they share.
Once you talked about animals that students already have as pets, push students to think more deeply about pets with questions like:
- What makes a good pet?
- What would not be a good pet?
- Are some breeds better than other?
- Why doesn’t everybody have a pet?
Read a story like I Wanna Iguana. to get students thinking about what it takes to care for a pet.
Spend time with students thinking and talking about their experiences and ideas for giving pets the care they need.
Next, let students know that they are going to have an opportunity to try to convince you, or their family, to get a new pet.
Create
Ask your students what they think will happen if they say, “I want a puppy!” to their parents. Will their parents just get one for the family? Why? Why not? See if you can help your students connect the idea of wanting to the idea of convincing or arguing, using words like “reason” and “because.”
Let students know that if you want someone else to agree with your opinion, or act on it, you need to persuade them. Talk to your students about what it means to persuade someone?
Have students use an O-R-E-O organizer to clearly craft the opinion they will share in their letters, as well as the reasons and examples they can use to persuade their parents to agree with their opinion.
Once students have finished organizing their ideas, introduce the parts of a friendly letter: greeting, body, closing, and signature. Have students write a rough draft of their letter based on their O-R-E-O organizer.
Assign a template like the Friendly Letter or have students use a Stationery template.
Students can type their letter and then use paint tools and clip art to illustrate life with their new pet.
Consider having students write additional persuasive sentences to overcome the objection that pets are too much work. For example, students could describe how they will help care for the animal.
Share
Print letters to hang in your classroom and/or send to parents. Have students read their letters to both practice fluency and give everyone additional ways to use reasons and samples to support opinions and ideas.
If students chose to persuade you to get a class pet, read all the letters together and then vote on which pet would be best for the classroom.
Standards
Common Core Standards for English Language Arts
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.1
Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is...).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.1.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.1
Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.
Next Generation Science Standards
1-LS1-2
Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive. [Clarification Statement: Examples of patterns of behaviors could include the signals that offspring make (such as crying, cheeping, and other vocalizations) and the responses of the parents (such as feeding, comforting, and protecting the offspring).]
