Persuasive Writing in Kindergarten

I know what you are thinking, “What? Persuasive Writing in Kindergarten?” This was a first for me too. I was a little skeptical, but at the end of the unit I found myself enjoying it and excited to teach persuasive writing. The students' learning of this topic was impressive.

With the new Common Core Standards, Kindergarten Writing is much more than writing letters, writing their name, drawing a picture, or writing a sentence. This year, we have wrote true stories, narratives, and how-to books. Our last writing unit is Persuasive Writing. Once Spring Break passed, it was time to get started on our Persuasive Unit.

Here is how I organized my weekly lessons:

Week 1: Discussion on ‘What is persuading?’ Then, I read The Lorax. We talked about convincing people to do things or buy things. What should you tell them? What can you do? The students tried their first attempt at this and we continued this practice through the week. 

Week 2: Earth Day happened to fall during this week. We discussed taking care of our Earth and what to do when you see someone being wasteful and littering. The students wrote posters and notes telling others to take care of our world and what they should do instead of littering. We continued this practice throughout the week. 

Week 3: We moved to writing letters to others. I explained that writing a letter is a good way to convince people to do something. I used an example of mail I had received trying to get me to donate money. I also read, Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type. The students were motivated and excited to get writing. (They finally understood the words, ‘convince’ and ‘persuade’.) They really enjoyed writing letters to others. They still write letters when they have free time. :) 

 

Week 4 (final week of unit): I started the week by reading, I Wanna Iguana. In this story the little boy, uses letter writing to convince his mom to get him a pet iguana. The pictures and humor are very engaging; it became an instant classroom favorite. The students then wrote their final pieces. I told the students that their writing had to explain exactly what they were asking for and why they wanted it or deserved it. Each student made a poster to illustrate his or her writing.

In the Final Presentations, each student presented their writing as a ‘commercial’. I video recorded each student with a PowerPoint slide behind them illustrating what they were asking for. I emailed these to their families. (Some students even convinced their parents and got what they asked for!)

Overall, this unit was a lot of fun. I know my students understood and were excited to write persuasive pieces (many high school students are not excited for such a task!).  I learned a lot and am excited to do this unit again next year!