Sally the Sloth

Good afternoon parents,

I hope you are well and the week is flying by, getting us a closer to the weekend ahead!

I am writing to you to clarify the recent news the children received about Sally the Sloth in class, as I know there has been a lot of excitement around this. 

As part of the Talk4Write PD I completed before school started this term, I was taught a new concept of when introducing a new writing genre, try to create a 'hook' to get the students really excited, engaged and wanting to learn more about the subject. At the start of this Term we are focusing on Persuasive writing, therefore the 'hook' I created was that Sally the sloth is apart of a breeding program at the Perth Zoo and I had made an application to have the chance to babysit Sally for a week. My application was approved and told them in a couple of weeks (after her immunisations of course), I will be able to drive up to Perth to collect her for a week. I then told the students that the problem was that Mr Torrese said I couldn't have the sloth at school for the week, so the students suggested we create arguments to persuade him to let us have Sally in the classroom. This has led us into our unit of persuasive writing. 

However, there have been further updates to the ‘hook’, the students now believe that Mr Torrese has said yes to having the Sloth but my husband (who has taken the week off work) really wants to babysit the sloth for that week:)

I can't believe how convincing this 'hook' has been and has definitely engaged the students, however it is now how do I let them down gently. They still don't know it is not real, and I'd like to keep it a secret for a little longer if you can. I have sent my husband out on a wild goose chase in Perth, in search for a sloth toy to call Sally. It is then I will bring her in and make her our class pet. I am hoping he is successful, so I can introduce Sally on Monday.

I hope this clarifies the sloth situation and apologise to those parents I tricked as well. At least I know it was a convincing story!

I thank you for your assistance with this, have a lovely end to the week.

Many thanks,

Sandy Ricciardone

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