Curated OER
From Ordinary To Extraordinary Writing
High schoolers investigate the quality of writing while focusing on the use of sensory words to convey meaning and ideas. The power of similes and metaphors is emphasized while they create and edit works of writing. The skill of...
Curated OER
Awesome Animals
Sixth graders write descriptive narratives about animals. In this descriptive writing instructional activity, the teacher models how to write a paragraph with interesting sensory words and exciting verbs. Students choose a picture of an...
Curated OER
15 Seconds of Fame
Students write an autobiographical essay. In this writing lesson students read a narrative, Panic in Paris, and review the elements of a narrative as a class discussion. Well-known stories are used as examples for writing their own...
Curated OER
Reading a Classic Novel
Charles Dickens offers an excellent example of sensory writing in this reading comprehension activity. Learners read excerpts from the novel Hard Times in which he describes the New England industrial city of Coketown. They...
Curated OER
Build Mastery: Visualization
What do you see? Young reader tap into the visualization process as they listen to or read a fiction story and fill out a graphic organizer. Model this first with a think-aloud, showing scholars how you visualize a familiar story. For...
EngageNY
Writing Narratives from First Person Point of View: Imagining Meg Lowman’s Rainforest Journal
I spy with my little eye! Learners observe page 23 in The Most Beautiful Roof in the World and practice what they would add to a field journal. They discuss how details from the text help add to their thoughts. To finish,...
K12 Reader
Add Interest with Synonyms
Kids add interest to a paragraph about a day at school by replacing flat, over-used words with synonyms.
Curated OER
Conventions: Adjectives
Investigate adjectives with writers. They define adjectives and create their own sentences describing objects found at home using adjectives correctly. Focus on the five senses and sensory details.
Curated OER
Message in a Bottle
Sixth graders write a short story about being stranded on a deserted island. After a brief geography review of locations at various latitudes and longitudes, 6th graders draft their story about being stranded. They use sensory and...
Curated OER
Writing a Personal Narrative
Students learn characteristics of an effective personal narrative. For this personal narrative lesson, students discover ways to show rather than tell, adding richness and detail to their writing. Students evaluate a news...
Curated OER
Describe a Journey
Students describe the sensory experience of a character's journey in an essay. In this precise details writing lesson, students explain the effects on the senses of weather, time of day, landscape, and other...
Curated OER
Descriptive Writing
Third graders have fun using descriptive words in an expository format to describe a food that they hate. They utilize a planning worksheet that's imbedded in this plan before they begin their drafts.
Curated OER
Reflecting/Writing after a field trip or other experience
Young scholars reflect on field trips in writing. For this journal writing lesson, students write about a recent experience by using 4 of their senses to tell what they remember. They turn these into poetry.
August House
The Stolen Smell
Some smells are better than others! Explore your sense of smell with a series of activities based on the Peruvian folktale, The Stolen Smell. With exercises about phonics, counting, cooking, art, and drama, the lesson is a...
Curated OER
Come To Your Senses
Write narratives that include ideas, observations, or memories of an event or experience, and be sure to use concrete sensory details! Groups utilize a few of the famous I Spy books in order to create narratives that utilize sensory...
Curated OER
Oceans: A Sensory Haiku
Young scholars create an ocean haiku. In this haiku lesson plan, students use their five senses to write a haiku. Young scholars watch videos about the ocean, make a sensory portrait, and create a class haiku.
Curated OER
A Moment in Time
Eighth graders study poems to see how punctuation, line length, rhythm and word choice can be used to create a memorable moment. They read and discuss poems by Shel Silverstein.
Curated OER
Sensory Descriptors
Pupils feel items in a bucket and describe them using descriptive words. In this sensory descriptive lesson plan, students use words such as smoothe, rough, and bumpy.
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Chiaroscuro Apple
I absolutely love this idea. Kids explore the chiaroscuro technique as they draw, then bite, then write about an apple. They discuss chiaroscuro, depth, shade, perspective, and texture. Then they draw their apples, write a descriptive...
Curated OER
Crafting Poetry: A Sensory Journey
Tenth graders experiment with poetry devices to write poems. In this poetry lesson, 10th graders participate in learning stations. Students create a word pool and select a word from the list to create a line of poetry. Students complete...
Curated OER
I Imagine
Students discuss the importance of using sensory words to describe objects; talking about words that refer to size, shape, texture, sound, smell, etc. They select a few objects around the classroom and use sensory words to describe.
Curated OER
Writing to describe
Students examine descriptive writing. In this writing lesson, students listen to an audio version of the diary of Lt. Polly Hatchard and her expedition to the South Pole. Students explore the components of descriptive writing and...
Curated OER
Dear Diary
Students analyze a piece of writing by creating diary entries based on a character. In this reading comprehension lesson, students read an assigned book with their classmates and create a sketch of what they believe the main...
Curated OER
My Favorite Room - Brainstorming Sheet
In this writing worksheet, students brainstorm a writing piece about their favorite room. They write a purpose sentence, and fill a chart that describes the room using the senses. They write a draft using the purpose sentence and three...