Persuading the Principal

This week 2nd grade started on a new writing unit - Opinion Writing.  The idea is for the students to be able to state an opinion and support that opinion with reasons and evidence.  We started by writing an opinon letter to the great leader of our school, Mr. Guthmiller.  It was our opinion that we deserved a third recess.  Here is our argument.

October 23, 2013

Dear Mr. Guthmiller,

    We are writing you today because we feel like our class deserves a third recess for today.  The reasons we feel we need a third recess are:  we have been very good, recess keeps us from being tired, and we have been working very hard in school.  Please continue reading and you will find out why we deserve a third recess.

    First, we have been good all week.  No one in our classroom has gotten a Time to Paws.  During our work time, no one is messing around and everyone is doing what they are supposed to.  Do you know how good we have been?  We have been so good that 5 people in our room got bracelets yesterday!  We are sure that 5 more will get bracelets today!  We have even gotten enough points that we have filled Fred the Potato Head twice since the beginning of the year. 

    Second, recess keeps us from being tired.  Second grade is hard work and we need lots of energy for it.  Recess lets us get our wiggles out so that we are not running around and messing around in our classroom.  It also gives us energy so that we don't fall asleep when we are supposed to be doing our work like writing.  A third recess would give us lots of energy so that we can be working hard all day.

    Finally, we have been working hard in school.  Our writing is so amazing.  We always use our nicest, neatest handwriting.  We did a really good job on our writing test last week.  Mrs. Heath said that they were amazing and we added great details.  We also worked really hard on our math test.  Even though there were some hard problems on there, we did our best.  We made pumpkins and wrote riddles about them.  You could even come in and try to solve our riddles while we are at our third recess if you let us have one.

    In conclusion, we feel that you should allow our classroom to have a third recess today.  As you can see, we have been very well behaved, completed our work, and need an opportunity to get more energy so that so that we won't be tired.  And besides, it’s only for ONE day!  We hope that you will agree with us.

Sincerely,

TEAM Heath

We must have done a good job convincing him, because here was his reply:

 

Team Heath,

Thank you for sending me such a wonderful persuasive essay!  It was very well put together.  You had a clearly stated thesis statement which told me right away as a reader what the point was you were trying to make.  Thank you!  The next thing I always look for in an essay are three reasons that do a good job of supporting your thesis statement.  You had these too!  Great job!  All three of your reasons were very well supported and you had plenty of evidence to help explain why they were good reasons.  What a fantastic essay!

After having written such a wonderful essay, I would LOVE to be able to celebrate with all of you at a third recess!  Unfortunately, I have to attend a very important meeting this afternoon at our district Central Office.  L  Please accept this reply as my permission to take a third recess today.  You deserve it!  I will leave the rest of the details up to Mrs. Heath to decide when that will be.

Again, thank you for the letter.  Great job, 2^nd graders!

Mr. Guthmiller

We are looking forward to a third recess this afternoon AND having some more fun with opinion writing!!