Persuasive writing ideas

One thing our kids are learning at Primary School is persuasive language - both spoken and written. How to argue their point and explain their opinions.
This is also something that is in the Naplan tests in the form of a writing test.  I've mentioned before this link to Pascal Press which has free downloadable sample writing tests and answers for each graded level.

Here are some topics from those samples, some past tests and some of our own ideas too.

Hats should not be compulsory at schools.

Life is easier today than in the past.

Dogs are a better pet than cats.

Cats are a better pet than dogs.

Every child should have a pet.

School uniform should be compulsory.

All children should have to play sport.

Boys and girls should not be allowed to eat sugar.

Junk food- should it be banned at school?

Recycling is the most important thing we can do as a family.

Computer games- are they a waste of time?

What is more important- friends or family?

Caged or free- should animals be kept in zoos?

Climate change- man made or natural?

Graffiti- is it art or vandalism?

Reading books is better than watching TV.

Shoes should not be compulsory at school.

Everyday people waste power, we should save electricity when possible.

It is better to live in the city than the country.

It is better to live in the country than the city.

If you fail something you should give up.

School should run seven days a week.

Maths is tricky- schools should stop teaching it.

Spelling is tricky- we shouldn’t worry about spelling.

Everybody is equal- this is the most important thing for all of us.

Sharing- we should share everything with everyone.

Fresh air- every child should spend half their day outside.

Rest is important- every student should go to bed at 8pm.

Stop school break time- we should have more time studying.

Here is a site with some ideas on how to structure an argument.

I hope this gives a few ideas for topics you can bring up with your kids to help them practice arguing their opinions!

Jill and Euan

White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Our girls love baking - and our younger daughter very kindly made us a batch of these tasty cookies before she went away on her school camp.




Here's the recipe:




1/2 cup butter                                1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar                                    1/4 cup oatmeal
1 egg                                              1 1/2 cups (8oz) chopped white chocolate chunks
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375F (190C).
Beat butter and sugar together then add egg and vanilla. Mix well.
Sift dry ingredients and stir in the oatmeal. Add these dry ingredients and the chocolate to the butter mixture.
Mix well then roll into balls and flatten onto a non-stick baking sheet.
Bake for 8-10 mins.

We try to let our girls bake and cook as much as possible to get them to learn and gain confidence in the kitchen.  Plus, as I've already mentioned in another post - baking provides lots of excellent numeracy skills practice too!

So go on - set your kids off in the kitchen - what a great skill for them to learn!

Jill

Improving our eyesight - a commitment after 20 years of procrastination - motivated to help my child

I am short sighted and wear glasses. I only need them for driving and distance vision, so I don't have to wear them all the time - but I don't like wearing them at all.

I remember going for my first eye test - into a tiny optician's darkened room - having heavy metal frames pushed onto my nose -and then several different lenses pushed into them and having to say whether each lens was better or worse for seeing through.

I left that room as quickly as I could and was halfway back home before my brother came running after me (his eye test was straight after mine) saying that I had to go back because I needed glasses.

So I got my first pair of glasses when I was about 10 years old - a pair of pink framed ones you got for free from the National Health Service in the UK where I grew up. Lovely!



I wore them in class to read the blackboard at school for several years, then just before I left school, I found a book in the library about the Bates Method for better eyesight without glasses.  I read the book cover to cover then went and bought myself a copy.  It was all about how you could improve your eyesight and so not need to wear glasses - by doing a series of exercises.

How brilliant!  I started out doing the exercises - but didn't stick at them for long.  Over the years, I have done these exercises - now and again - but never managed to find the motivation and will power to stick at them consistently long-term.

I think that once I left school and university - I didn't need to wear my glasses much.  I also went for 10 years without having my eyes tested when I travelled and worked in various countries.  Once we settled here in Cairns, Australia, I had an eye test again, and the optician was surprised to see how much my eyes had improved from my prescription dated 10 years previously! Now I wear my glasses for driving, and that is pretty much it.   So since my glasses stay in the car, and hardly anyone ever sees me wearing them, it's become no big deal to me, and so there's not enough motivation there for me to stick to daily exercises long term to rid myself of my glasses.


However - our eldest daughter is also a little short -sighted.  We noticed this some time ago - just when we were out and about - there were odd things here that I couldn't read from far away - and neither could she.  Now you would think this would provide me with the motivation to do the exercises together with my daughter.  My own kid's eyesight has to be important enough to me to stick to this.  So, at that time, I wrote about these exercises then on this very blog here. Again, almost a year later - I wrote another post saying that "Really THIS time I was going do do the exercises" .  That second post was - I'm ashamed to admit - over a year ago.

So last week - I noticed our elder daughter squinting to read her swim training schedule on the white board by the pool.   That was it. Enough is enough!

I came home and found  the website linked to the last book I read on better eyesight about a year ago - written by Leo Angart. - Clear Vision Naturally.
There are workshops held worldwide to start you off with these eye exercises- but unfortunately none in our home town. So I downloaded all the charts, printed and laminated them, read the instructions, stuck them up on our walls at home and made a start.

So what am I doing differently this time that makes me think that after more than 20 years, I will finally be able to stick to these exercises regularly and actually improve my eyesight?



Well - I am doing them together with my daughter.  She is keen to work at the exercises and so not need to get glasses.  Her eyesight isn't yet causing her any real problems in class at school, so the plan is that she will never reach a stage that she has a problem!

Doing anything with a partner makes it easier to stick to, more fun and much more likely that you will continue than if you just do it by yourself.  Over the last summer holidays I helped my daughter with her swimming training. Her coach was away for a few weeks and so, I went to the local pool with her and got in the lane and did the various laps and swimming drills each day. As a 9 year old, my daughter doesn't have the motivation to train 2 hours a day all by herself, but she enjoyed going with me, helping me with my swimming (which improved lots!) and so kept up her fitness while her coach was away.
So I've decided to apply the same principle to our eye exercises - hoping they will be much more fun if we do them together!

I have made us a chart that we mark off each day when we do our exercises.  I've also shown my daughter how she can do various exercises throughout the day when she doesn't have the charts. Things she can do in class using the posters on the wall, and also when she is out and about in the playground, and in the car travelling to and from places.


We've been doing them for a week now - and so far so good, we're sticking at it, helping to remind each other to do them, and checking the exercises off the chart.

I'm determined that my daughter and I will stick to doing these daily exercises and improve our eyesight so that neither of us will need glasses.  I completely believe in the idea that these exercises will work - and have read enough stories of success that there is no doubt in my mind that our eyesight can become 'perfect' SO LONG AS we stick to the exercises consistently.

So if it takes 21 days to form a habit - in another couple of weeks, we should both have settled into a kind of routine of doing these exercises and we should need less and less encouragement and motivation from each other to do the exercises - they will just become part of our daily habits and routines.

It's a shame it's taken me 20 years to commit to improving my eyesight - but better late than never.
I have found that there are more things I am willing to do to help my kids, than I would do to help myself.  I think this is true of many parents - the trick is to use this fact to do things for yourself at the same time.

Wanting to be a good role model for our kids, helps us as parents become better people too. Are there things that you have been motivated to do for yourself - thanks to your own kids?

And have you heard of improving your eyesight using exercises?  Do you yourself wear glasses -and would you consider going down this path of improving your eyesight with exercises?

Jill

Memories questions and history lessons

Recently, we have been putting information into our family tree on www.ancestry.com.au.

It's been interesting not just for us to collate all the various information we've been sent by relatives but also for our girls to see this information - rather than just have it sit in old envelopes tucked away in drawers.

The girls were interested to see things like - for example, the same first name being given to several generations of their ancestors. (They did think this was rather boring and unimaginative!! )


We also need to find a way to add the information we are slowly gathering from living relatives in the form of Memories Questions.  We live in the Far North of Australia, and our family and relatives are scattered across the globe, so our girls don't get to spend time with other family members very often.
So, every now and then, we email a question to various relatives on both sides of our families. We've asked things like, "What do you remember about your first bike?", "Did you ever have a pet?"  "What do you remember about going to school?"; "What toys to you remember playing with as a child?"  
We have tried to ask questions that relate to what our kids are doing, so that when the answers come back, it provides more interest for our girls to read what their great aunts, uncles, grandparents and of course us - their parents, remember of being their age, going to school etc.

Now that the girls are getting older, and have their own computers and emails, we will encourage them to email their own questions to the relatives.

Our eldest daughter just now at school (Grade 5) is looking at in history, whether life is better now or in the past.  I'm sure her grandparents would have an opinion on this and it would be a great way for her to research the subject for her school work.

Our younger daughter (Grade 3) is also studying history - with an upcoming visit to the local museum.  When we last visited the local museum a few years ago, I was amazed to see an old dial telephone there.  Our family had a telephone like that growing up - and to see it in a museum now reminds me quite how far technology has come along in the last few years (not to mention it makes me feel old seeing something from my childhood in a museum!)


When I was taking a look at our younger daughter's school curriculum for this year (Grade 3), I saw one of the Key Inquiry Questions written there is, "How and why do people choose to remember significant events of the past?" .

In asking our Memories questions to family members, we have noticed that some questions get very long interesting responses from some people, but others remember little or nothing.  It is interesting to see what things people do and don't remember  - what is important and relevant to them!   Hopefully asking and reading responses to these Memories questions, will help our daughter consider this question.

Do your kids get to spend time with older relatives?  Do these family members ever share memories or experiences from their past with you kids?  Are their questions you wish you had asked your older relatives - who perhaps are no longer here?
How are you preserving your family history and memories and are you kids interested in it?

Jill

Aquathon

Each year at our daughters' school, they have an aquathon competition.  Each age group swims, runs then swims together. From age 9 - who swim 50m, run 500m then swim 50m; up to the 13 year olds who swim 200m, run 2km then swim 150m.

 We're lucky to have such a great swimming facility ( a full Olympic sized 50m pool) and great swim coaches at the school.  All the kids have swimming lessons twice a week from the age of 5 as part of their regular schooling, and so every kid can and does swim.

For the last 2 years our eldest daughter has taken part in this aquathon competition and thoroughly enjoyed it.  She is a very keen swimmer and also enjoys running, and has been a medal winner each year.

But what has impressed me most with this aquathon is that every single kid in the school aged between 9 and 13 can and does take part in this event.  Not all are sporty, nor would choose to swim or run.  However - the fact that they all can and do complete the course is great. You can see the sense of achievement in their faces and as it's a house competition and each student who competes gains points for their 'House', they are all contribiting towards the overall House points contest. Colours are worn, cheer chants are made and shouted and the atmosphere is exciting all day. There is a good sense of belonging to each respective House and all the kids leave at the end of the day proud of their achievements - and so they should.

I believe at junior school it is important to not only teach the basic academic skills to children - particularly literacy and numeracy, but also to include a good level of sport and fitness in the curriculum to keep our kids active and healthy.

This aquathon is a great example of how our school is achieving this, to the great benefit of all the kids there.

What sports events do your schools hold that encourage the kids to stay active?

Jill

Spelling corrections - Language conventions practice for Naplan

Spelling is something that kids always need practice in.  The Naplan tests have several questions in the Language Conventions section of the paper where the kids have to identify the words that are misspelled and then correct them.

I thought I might practice this with my girls - but again try to find a fun way to do it.

Last week I made them these fabric envelopes with their names on, and told them they were for me to leave things in for them - notes, things I've made them, or perhaps things they have left lying about that need putting away!!  They are excited about the idea of checking their 'mail' each day.





I thought I'd use these envelopes to leave them short notes - with a few spelling mistakes in, to see if they can correct them for me!


The idea is that they correct my notes, and that they can also write notes for each other - with deliberate spelling mistakes in, and correct each other's!




Jill

Persuasive writing - Naplan test practice

Our daughters currently share a bedroom. They have done so since they were very young. Recently they have begun to ask for their own rooms - wanting their own space a little more.

At school, our youngest daughter has just begun the foundations for writing persuasive expositions - choosing a standpoint for a topic, then finding 3 arguments to support her viewpoint.

Now as the girls have begun to ask for their own room, we have told them they have to show us reasons why and be able to convince us why separate rooms is a good idea.

Something must have connected between these two things in our daughter's mind, as she, and then her sister too - both decided to write essays as to why they should have their own bedrooms.

It was fun to read their arguments - one of them said she wouldn't have to listen to her sister chatting and talking all night - the other said she would't have to listen to her sister say goodnight a hundred times!!

I thought their essays were well written and argued - it was great practice for them - but they chose to do it themselves, for a reason they believed in and a purpose relevant to them.

This is the BEST kind of practice children can have for new things they learn - something that is relevant to their own lives and doesn't necessarily feel like they are 'studying' or 'working'.

Another example comes to mind of a friend's kid practising his persuasive skills on his parents when trying to convince them that their family should join us out for dinner that night.  He prepared his reasons and arguments and then when his parents agreed, his reaction was to say that he would have to tell his teacher how well he had argued his points!

It's great to see kids applying knowledge they learn in school to real life situations and the pride they take in their new found abilities!

In terms of Naplan persuasive writing - there are some sample questions and answer texts that you can download for free at Pascal Press.

Are your kids good at persuading you around to their point of view?

Jill