The Day the Chairs Quit!

Year 2 had a shock this week when they arrived in their classes to find all the chairs stacked up in the corner refusing to be sat on! The children had to put their persuasive letter writing skills to the test to get them to come back.

This week in Year 2, the chairs had had enough! They went on strike writing to the Year 2 children explaining that they were fed up with being dragged across the floor, not being tucked under, children rocking on them, feet being put on them and even teachers standing on them! They were extremely upset.

The children realised they had been taking the chairs for granted and not treating them with respect. They discussed all of the points the chairs had mentioned and owned up to their poor choices. It was time to take action. After working with a talk partner the children decided that the best thing to do was to write a letter back to the chairs, apologising for their behaviour and persuading them to come back. Each class got straight to work planning what they were going to say in their letters, remembering to include persuasive language and giving examples to show they would treat them more kindly in the future. Very quickly, the children realised how important the chairs are in the classrooms as they had to lie on the floor or kneel at a table to write their letter plans!

“We need to remember to say thank you to them!” commented one child. They collaborated with each other to create very sincere and apologetic persuasive letters.

“It’s really hard to do handwriting without chairs to sit on!” added another concerned pupil.

Once their plans were complete the children wrote their letters to the chairs, remembering the letter writing features they have been learning over the last three weeks.

Luckily for Year 2, the chairs seemed to be pleased with the children’s letters and after lunch their strike had ended. The children were relieved to find out the classroom was back to normal and they had chairs to sit on again. The chairs even wrote them a reply, forgiving them for their wrong doings and believing all their promises!

I’m sure now, Year 2 will be extremely careful about how they treat our classroom resources – we wouldn’t want anything else to quit!

Ms Gemma Gotting

Y2 Teacher and English Leader