Persuasion at its best!
16th March 2023
Have you ever been persuaded to do something that you really did not want to do? Well, Year 3 children have been learning about persuasive writing in English. They started off by writing a letter to Mrs Gould asking for more playtime. The next day, the children were shocked to find out that not only had Mrs Gould denied their request, but she had sent a persuasive letter to the teachers to request that the children in Year 3 get LESS playtime! This caused a huge uproar, as you can imagine and the mission to write an outstanding persuasive letter was on!
The children first needed to be equipped with the right tools in order to write a highly persuasive letter, so they magpied ideas off of Mrs Gould’s letter. For practice, they wrote a short paragraph to the Year 3 teachers persuading them to cancel homework for three weeks. (It didn't work!)
Next, the children needed hard facts and evidence to support their argument in order to persuade Mrs Gould for that extra playtime. They used iPads and as well as their prior knowledge of internet safety to carry out their research on why playtime is important for children. They were excited to see that playtime encourages curiosity which was our theme for the ‘Thought of the Week’. They were also shocked to find that playtime encourages resilience and most importantly; playtime is essential for their growth and development and of course, for the teachers to relax!
For their last practice, the children had to convince their teachers to buy a run down house. They had to use all of the learned persuasive techniques to try and persuade us - the challenging bit was that they could not lie! They came up with excellent ways to persuade the teachers. Instead of saying that the house’s toilet was outside with no door, some wrote “ I know how much you love the outdoors. This house has an outdoor toilet just for you! The best part is that it will never smell bad because it is outside.” They definitely could have persuaded anyone who hadn't seen the house before.
Next week, the Year 3s will use all their knowledge and practise to start writing drafts for their reply to Mrs Gould, encouraging her to give them more playtime. Their teachers wish them all the best as they embark on this exciting mission.
