Writing with Sensory Details

As my writing course is coming to end I would like to share an activity that we worked on last week using sensory details.  Good writers know that their reader will need to visualize when reading their story.  It is important to have your students adding details that help the reader to see, hear, touch, feel, smell, and even taste.  This adds so much to the student's writing and is a quick way to spice up a bland writing piece.  
I have posted some of my professors favorite picture books to use for sensory detail along with a quick lesson to get your students using sensory details when they write.  It is very quick and simple and could easily be used as a modeled lesson. 

Before the Storm By: Jane Yolen 

Sense: Smell 

Come On, Rain! By: Karen Hesse

Sense: Smell 

My Father's Hands By: Joanne Ryder 

Sense: Touch 

Night In the Country  By: Cynthia Rylant 

Sense: Sound

Oma's Quilt  By: Paulette Bourgeois 

Sense: Smell

Owl Moon By: Jane Yolen 

Sense: Sight, Touch & Sound 

After using these mentor text to model good examples of sensory details in writing it is also a great idea to create a sensory word chart for each category and have the students add words from the story to the chart.  Here is a good example that Mrs. Radka's class used. This chart would be perfect for students to refer back to and use during their independent writing time. 

Lastly, I created a Sense-O-Gram activity to use as a modeled lesson to teach this strategy or even a quick check for partners to do for extra practice.  Here is a sample of a competed Sense-O-Gram along with a link to four more extra practice pages that could be used. Click the picture to view more samples. 

Hope you found some ideas to enhance your writing workshop time! Happy Teaching!