Writing Thank You Letters to Grumpy Vegetables

Grade 4 · ELA · 45 minutes

Objective

Students will write persuasive letters using specific examples and emotional appeals to convince characters to change their behavior.

Materials

• paper
• pencils
• colored markers
• chart paper
• whiteboard

Hook

Tell students that the vegetables in the school cafeteria have been complaining loudly about being eaten and are refusing to be nutritious anymore. The broccoli is particularly grumpy and the carrots are staging a revolt!

Main Activity

Students will write thank you letters to their assigned grumpy vegetable, trying to convince it to stop being difficult and go back to being healthy and delicious. Each letter must include three reasons why the vegetable is important, one funny compliment about the vegetable's appearance, and a promise about how they'll treat vegetables better in the future. Students will draw their grumpy vegetable character at the top of their letter, giving it an angry face and speech bubble showing what it's complaining about. They'll then read their letters aloud using silly voices for their vegetable characters.

Discussion Questions

1. What persuasive techniques worked best in your letters and why?
2. How did adding humor make your argument more convincing?
3. What would happen if vegetables could really talk back to us?
4. Which letter do you think would actually convince a grumpy vegetable to cooperate?
5. How is writing to convince someone similar to the way characters in stories try to solve problems?

Exit Ticket

Write one sentence explaining which part of your letter you think was most convincing and why your grumpy vegetable would believe it.

Differentiation

Support: Provide a letter template with sentence starters like 'Dear _____, I know you are upset because _____' and 'You are important because _____' to help students organize their persuasive writing.

Extension: Have advanced students write a response letter from their grumpy vegetable's perspective, arguing back and creating a funny dialogue between themselves and their vegetable character.