Recently, I have been lucky enough to be relieving in classrooms where the teachers want me to focus on descriptive writing. This activity allows even your reluctant writers to get excited, and to produce amazing sentences! Boys LOVE having the visual image, and seem to thrive with this type of activity. The quality and depth of work I am able to get from their students with this "Snapshot" activity always amazes them, so here is the process in case you would like to try it too!
- Discuss language features - metaphors, similes, personification, onomatopoeia
- Discuss senses - sight, hear, smell, feel, taste, touch
- Introduce the image (some ideas are below)
- One minute imaging time (silent!)
- Brainstorm vocabulary as a class (this should be quick - one word or a short phrase)
- Children have five minutes to write ideas under each sense in their own books
- Volunteers to read their favourite aloud - children are allowed to be “inspired” by each other
- Ideas into sentences - may join more than one idea
- Ordering ideas into a logical sense - check that there is a hook at the beginning AND the end!
- Celebrate!
- For a collaborative snapshot - children bring their favourite sentence to to mat to join together (I usually do this as they are reading around the circle)
- For an individual snapshot - continue as you would with normal classroom writing (eg. proof reading, teacher conferencing, publishing...)
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