The research set out in this paper seeks to develop pedagogical knowledge regarding how persuasive teaching approaches can be developed in primary science classrooms. To achieve this, the paper examines three case studies in which the teachers have been charged to develop and implement teaching strategies designed to persuade their children of the usefulness and validity of target scientific concepts. The analysis probes the teachers' choice of contexts and patterns of discourse using criteria drawn from the socio-cultural literature. Outcomes of the study exemplify how the teachers' choices of learning contexts fail to emphasise the functionality of the target concepts, and as a consequence scant rewards are provided for the children to participate actively in conceptually rich discourse. The final part of the paper explores how the development of what the author calls theme-specific plots could be used to help teachers to stage teaching and learning performances that emphasise the functionality of specific explanatory models.