Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Snapshot" Exercises & Sensory Detail Word Bank

For Teachers 2nd - 12th
Read a sample of creative descriptive writing to your science class. Discuss how writing can be used to record and communicate observations that scientists make. Reading selections and thought-provoking questions are suggested. Also...
Lesson Plan
Roald Dahl

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
You can't read Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory without craving the rich treats described in Dahl's vivid prose. Young writers try their hands at sensory language with a lesson plan that prompts them to write about...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Seashell Lesson: Writing for Detail and the Scientific Process

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Practice descriptive language in this lesson, which prompts elementary and middle schoolers to write detailed descriptive sentences describing a seashell. They write a description of a shell, create an illustration, and other students...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Editing Marks, Part 1

For Teachers K - 2nd
Dander from the show Twisted Whiskers and characters from My Little Pony are featured in this three part lesson that explores using story pyramids to scaffold ideas, adding sensory details to enrich writing, and editing using common...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Sensory Walk

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students define and give examples of five senses, compiling a list of sensory words to be used in a written descriptive paragraph.
Organizer
Curated OER

Sensory Image Chart/Unforgettable Settings

For Students 6th - 7th
In these sensory image and settings worksheets, students list a book, author, and passage that contains sensory image for the five different senses. Students also read several passages and answer questions about the settings for each.
Writing
Curated OER

Printable Story Starter: The Get-Away

For Students 3rd - 4th
This fun, creative writing prompt invites young writers to continue the story of Boe and Tim, who discover a hot air balloon while escaping from their big sisters. The worksheet provides a space where learners can finish the middle and...
Writing
Curated OER

Printable Story Starter: Treasure in the Daisies

For Students 3rd - 4th
Class members can practice using sensory details and imagery with this writing prompt, which provides a vivid introduction about a girl who discovers a treasure box in her mother's garden. The middle, ending, and title of the story are...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sensory Visualization chart

For Teachers 6th - 12th
In this sensory visualization worksheet, students are provided with spaces to record their senses after a teacher has given them a visual prompt.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sensory Descriptors

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
Students 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.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Borrowing Narrative Skills from Mr. Fletcher: Using a "Prompts in Reverse" Technique to Inspire Your Writers

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Help your class find their writing voices with this lesson which uses the work of Ralph Fletcher to guide a "Prompt in Reverse" activity. Using the chapter "First Pen" from Fletcher's Marshfield Dreams, learners decipher what they...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Setting the Tone with Figurative Language

For Teachers 8th Standards
Explore figurative language with your secondary class. Extending a language arts unit, the lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine how an author's word choice establishes a story's tone, possibly using metaphors, similes,...
Organizer
Curated OER

Writing Organizers

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Eight graphic organizers to choose from? That's right! Each of these organizers relates to writing or reading. From narrowing a writing topic, to responding to literature, to planning a writing project, you'll find many purposes for...
Organizer
School District No. 71

Adding Written Detail: Using Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon as a Mentor Text

For Students 1st - 4th Standards
Access your senses with a worksheet on sensory language. Based on Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, the worksheet prompts kids to find examples of each of the five senses, as well as phrases for inner emotion. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Sound of…Poetry!

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Scritch, scratch, scritch. It's the sound of pupils writing poetry! Focus on sensory language and onomatopoeia with a writing lesson. After listening to some sounds, learners examine a couple of poems that include sound words and then...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reliving History through Slave Narratives

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Essential Elements of Habitat

For Teachers 1st
First graders compare their local area with the Belize landscape. They construct maps of the school area, adding descriptive information. They write haiku poems about their favorite outside places.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

“My Little Sister Hugged An Ape” | Literature, Math, & More!

For Teachers K
Students read the story "My Little Sister Hugged An Ape" and make a list of sensory words from the story. In this interdisciplinary math lesson, students participate in sensory writing, and complete a questionnaire which they will use to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Visit to the Aquia Episcopal Church

For Teachers 12th
Twelfth graders use a trip to the Aquia Episcopal Church in Virginia for motivation and background information before reading Thomas Gray's "Elegy". They consider the use of sensory metaphors.
Worksheet
K12 Reader

Tension in the Pit and the Pendulum

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Readers will get a peculiar thrilling sensation from this reading comprehension exercise that asks them to identify how Poe uses repetition and sensory language to build tension in his short story, "The Pit and the Pendulum."
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Polar Bear Literacy Activity

For Teachers K - 1st
Students generate vocabulary words synonymous or related to "noise." For this literacy lesson, students listen to the book Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do You Hear? by Bill Martin and Eric Carle and discuss the meaning of vocabulary...
Lesson Plan
August House

The Stolen Smell

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Maniac Magee: Found Poem

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Instruct your readers to scrounge through the pages of Maniac Magee in search for descriptive passages or words they may use to write poetry. As they look for meaningful, sensory descriptors in Jerry Spinelli's novel, readers...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using the Senses to Write Descriptively

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students write descriptive paragraphs using adjectives based on the use of their five senses. They use sensory impressions to improve their writing.