Persuasive Writing

I must say that today was another wonderful day at work. I have had many of them over my 40+ years, but my return to Cedar Grove Elementary to work today for the principal, Kerry Mahlman, was a delight. I have so many good memories of this school from my previous years working there.

In the last few weeks here on the Sunshine Coast we have had a number of cougar sightings and the photo to the left was taken by a fellow in Roberts Creek and made the news with a story on the CBC.

One of my tasks today was to spend some time with the grade 7 class doing a persuasive write. Ms. Mahlmann had suggested using this current events story as a starter for this activity. At the beginning of class we watched the 2 minute video and then talked about my recent readings on Facebook Sunshine Coast sites where this is a topic of discussion about three possible solutions. These were to relocate the cougars to another part of British Columbia, to kill the cougars or to let them move up the Coast until they found their way to mountains. The students were to choose one of these three options, or suggest a fourth, and then to write the body of a letter to the conservation officer suggesting their solution for dealing with the wildlife. They were not given much time for this task - approximately fifteen minutes. Not all the students were successful with this writing, but all gave it a go. Two of the students asked if theirs could be published and I said I would put this on my blog for today.

Kali wrote:

I believe the conservation officer should let the cubs be. People should intervene only if the cubs kill pets or livestock. The cubs should be left alone because right now they are not harming anyone or doing anything to interrupt the Sunshine Coast. If we let them Carry one then most likely they will find their way up the mountain and in the process of doing that, they will not affect us.

Hanna wrote:

I believe that the cougars should not be harmed. The cougars should be left to do what nature wants them to, but at the same time if they started to harm people or pets, they should be transported not killed. Killing the cougars would be barbaric. If they were going to harm someone it would only be because they thought they were in threat and in that case people should be more smart and just let them be.

Good job ladies.

Here are a few more photos from today.

IXL with Mrs. Chambers, a lovely note to a Kindergarten child from her mom and buddy work at the close of the day.