Thursday, November 18, 2010

I Wanna Iguana!

We're learning about persuasive writing, or expositions. This is when we try to persuade someone to do, or agree to something. We watched a video of a book called I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff, which is about a boy called Alex, who really, really wants a pet iguana. He writes notes to his mum, trying to persuade her to agree.


Here are the arguments Alex used in the story to try to convince his mum to let him have the iguana his friend was giving away:
  • It might get eaten by Stinky's dog if we don't take him.
  • It's quiet and cute.
  • Its cage would stay in my room so you wouldn't even notice it's there.
  • By the time it gets too big, I would have moved out anyway.
  • I need a new friend.
  • I could teach it tricks.
  • I'd feed it every day.
  • I'd make sure it had enough water.
  • I'd clean its cage.
  • I'll pay for its food.
He did such a great job persuading his mum that she finally agreed to let him have it! We decided to write to our parents to see if they'd let us have a new pet.

Dear Mum,
I would really like a horse.
I would pay for its food.
I would clean its water every day.
I would clean its stable when it's done a poop.
It would give me exercise.
I hope you get me a horse, please.
Love Charlee




 
Dear Mum and Dad,
I really want a puppy as a pet.
I would buy it dog food with my pocket money.
I would train it two times a day.
I would take it for walks every day in the afternoons.
I would play with it and buy it some toys.
I think it would be a great pet.
Love Allia




Dear Mum,
I really want a shark.
I would buy it toys with my pocket money.
I would keep it in my room and you would not see it.
I would keep it healthy by giving it the right food.
I would keep the door shut.
I really want a shark.
Love Matthew





Earlier in the week, we started making paper mosaics in the shape of Christmas stockings. Most of us finished them today. We needed a lot of patience, especially as our little squares of paper were blowing around in the air-conditioning (it was way too hot to turn it off!).

Alex, Indi and Lachlan with their mosaic Christmas stockings

This term in Sport, we've been going to the local recreation centre to have gymnastics lessons. We do lots of running, jumping, hopping and skipping and it's great!




On Tuesday for news, Kiara brought in some photos of her as a baby. She was really cute! We decided it would be fun and interesting to see what all of The Smarties looked like when we were little, so we're having a Guess-the-Baby competition! We each need to bring in a photo of us when we were babies and give it to Mrs N. It's important that we don't show anyone else, or tell anybody about our photos, otherwise they'll know which is ours when it comes time to guess. Next week, Mrs N will put all the photos up and we're going to fill out a form to guess who-is-who. It's going to be so much fun!


Love from The Smarties and Mrs N

4 comments:

  1. Dear the Smarties,

    Your Christmas stockings are fantastic!!!We think you will have a lot of presents in them :))

    Lyudmila and class

    ReplyDelete
  2. Two of my students just read "I Wanna Iguana" to me in my class as well, and they took on the roles of Alex and his Mum.

    I hope your persuasive letters were persuasive enough for your parent(s).

    -A viewer from Kentucky-

    ReplyDelete
  3. Teacher from Brisbane, QldFebruary 19, 2012 at 10:57 AM

    Dear Smarties,
    Great page!
    I really like your letters to your mums. I wonder if my class would be able to be as persuasive as all of you. We are going to read 'I wanna Iguana' this week. Keep up the awesome work!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Miss Mason a teacher in Tieri QLDMarch 5, 2012 at 4:09 PM

    Dear Smarties,
    I really am impressed with your letters. My class are reading I wanna Iguana this week and we are going to TRY to write some persuasive letters too! We might pick some really tricky pets like blue tongue lizards and snakes!
    Keep up the great work!

    ReplyDelete