Use your senses?!

Last week (Wonderful writing?) I talked about using Once Upon A Picture to inspire my Year 4s to write detailed setting descriptions and I was SO proud of them. This week I decided to try and add more depth to their descriptions by getting them to think about using their settings to deepen their descriptions, once again using Once Upon A Picture as stimulus. 

(Credit: Once Upon A Picture)

First we used this picture and on the carpet we talked about what we could see, hear, touch and how we would feel (emotionally) being part of this picture or looking at it. The children all came up with sentences that they wrote on their whiteboards and we shared a few for each of the different senses. They came up with some absolutely incredible sentences on their whiteboards and I left some up as models. 

Then I sent them back to their desks and displayed the following pictures on the whiteboard:

The children had to choose one of the pictures to write a setting description of using their senses to help them write the sentences. I asked them to think about hearing, sight, touch and emotions. Their setting descriptions came out brilliant. I am so proud of these kids. They’re just working their socks off at the minute and they seem to be really enjoying doing this setting work. I just hope it has an impact on their story writing and they remember to put some of this excellent work in to their stories!

Here are some of their responses:

“If you felt the soft walls you would think it was like a feather”
“It was a relaxing feeling nobody will disturb you”
“When you looked at the shimmering water you could see the perfect reflection of you”

“I can feel the solid concrete under my feel as I walk slowly”
“I can feel the wind gently blow against my face”

“I can feel the cold water shivering down my spine”
“As I run my fingers down the river, I feel ice cold water”
“I can see the lime green moss at the top of the bridge”

“Suddenly the three pirates stopped like it was time for the world to end”
“In the blink of an eye, the pirates saw an old rusty smelly boat that crashed into the face of death”

“The white clouds look like fluffy cushions floating in the burning hot sun”
“There are bells ringing like it’s Christmas again”

To say I’m a proud teacher is a total understatement. This is just a snippet of the incredible work they did. I would be here forever if I shared them all. I can’t stress Once Upon A Picture hard enough if you want some beautiful visual stimulus for your kids’ writing!

Have you ever used Once Upon A Picture?
What other visual stimulus can you recommend to me?
Which sentence is your favourite?

I’d love to hear from you! Let me know in the comments or on Twitter (@eenalol)

S x