Writing Lesson - Poetry Using the 5 Senses

Over the summer, we did different experiments and learned about using the 5 senses: sense of touch, taste, sight, smell, and hearing.

I was very excited to take all of what we learned, and use the information to help us do some creative writing. Our six year old had great fun using his knowledge on the five senses to write about the fall season.

With the fall season here, we observed and noticed signs in nature letting us know of the season’s change. We also read various books on fall together for inspiration. If you’d like some ideas on fall book suggestions, check out our post on a round-up of fun titles.

The Listening Walk by Paul Showers and Seasons, A Book of Poems by Charlotte Zolotow are great books also – perfect for preparing us for our poetry writing.

The whole writing process from beginning to end looked something like this:

Day 1 & 2 – Pre-Writing/Brainstorming

“Fall Season” was written in our main bubble, with all of the fives senses written around it. He used inventive spelling to write, write, and write!

With corrected spelling, this is what he wrote for the each of the senses:

Taste – Thanksgiving food, apple pie, rain, turkey

Hearing – Leaves crunching, wind blowing

Touch – Leaves falling on me, fog, leaves, rain

Smell – Apple pie, turkey

Sight – Leaves on the floor, fog, tree tops swaying, bare trees, leaves that are yellow and brown

I really liked his idea of “tree tops swaying” for the sense of sight – I thought it was such pretty imagery!

Day 3 – Choose Favorite Ideas

After taking a break from the brainstorm, he circled his favorite idea for each of the senses that he wanted to write about.

Day 4 – First Draft

He took his ideas and wrote his first draft. Again, he used inventive spelling to write, write, and write! Here it is with corrected spelling:

“About Fall”

When I…

See Halloween decorations,

Taste turkey,

Touch rain,

Hear wind blowing,

Smell apple pie,

I know it is fall!

Day 5 – Adding details

On this day, he added details to his writing to make it more interesting. If you look closely, you can see his additions in blue using inventive spelling.

Here it is with corrected spelling:

“About Fall”

When I…

See scary Halloween decorations outside my window,

Tatse delicious turkey on Thanksgiving,

Feel rain on my head and eyes,

Hear wind blowing: whooooooooooooooo

Smell yummy apple pie in the air,

I know it’s summer!

Since he wasn’t sure what the wind sounded like, in the middle of his writing, we went outside to take a listen. It was so cute! He was quiet and focused, and came back inside and said, “It sounds like whooooooo…”

Day 6 – Editing and Final Draft

I helped him with any spelling corrections and did them in orange. Then he copied his final work in pen on a fresh piece of paper. He was very proud of his writing piece!

Day 7 – Illustration

He drew a picture to go with his poem. The drawing is of “the wind blowing.”

There comes great pleasure in writing creatively, and I could see that he felt a sense of pride with his poem. We have written rhyming poems before for family birthday cards and other special days, but this time, we worked with a different style which was also fun.

We hope you enjoyed this post! If this inspired you and your little one to write together, please share your writing piece with us! Also, keep in mind that if you have younger children who are not writing yet, ask them to dictate their ideas to you and you can write it down for them – make it simple and fun!