Persuasive Writing

After watching the first five minutes of this...
Our writers got a sense of how intelligent animals can be. 

So then I popped the Writer's Workshop question...Should Mr. Cavileer let a lion into the classroom to go to school with us?

After introducing our four-square organizer, the students and I modeled how to put together a persuasive paragraph arguing why lions shouldn't be allowed to go to school with us.  The class thought our writing sounded alot like the children's book, "Don't Let the Pigeon Ride the Bus!"

After the group paragraph, each team had to persuade me not to let other animals in the classroom, no matter how intelligent they are.  Since our four-square organizers had so many convincing reasons and details in their writing, I'm afraid Petey Parrot, Polly Penguin, Tommy Turtle, and Rooster Rudy will have to hang up their backpacks for now.  Our classroom is just for kids!