1. Painting Word Pictures
Word Choice Writing Unit

2. Name the 5 senses

3. Name the 5 senses
Sight
Hearing
Taste
Touch
Smell

4. Choosing words that connect to your senses:
Sensory language- words that connect to your senses of sight, hearing, smell, touch, or taste are sensory words.

5. Examples:
Name something in your story that smells like peanut butter or gasoline, and your reader could just about smell it!
Suppose a story mentions horse’s hooves on a wooden bridge, a loud trumpet, or the chirping of birds. Can you hear the sounds?
When you use sensory language, you paint a complete picture of your idea in your reader’s mind.

6. Our classroom….. What do you hear in our classroom? What do you see?
What does you smell?
What do you taste?
How does it make you feel?

7. Close your eyes……
I’m going to read a poem about an ocean, and I want you to imagine you were there. We will pick out what things help us to paint a picture in our mind.

8. The Ocean by Cory Mack
When I am here, I feel happy, at peace. I walk along where the wet sand meets the dry, A swerving line of foam and seashells and little sand animals. I look up and see the breaking waves. The sun bouncing off the tops, Life flickering candles. A continuous sound in my ears, Undisturbed by clicking pencils,

9. The Ocean by Cory Mack
And whispers, And papers being ruffled, And other sounds of everyday life. It is here those things don’t matter. It is here I feel at home.

10. Did you notice sensory details….
I see
I hear
I touch
I smell
I taste
Breaking waves
Clicking pencils
Foam
Seashells ?
Flickering candles
Whispers
Wet sand, dry sand
Wet sand
Papers being ruffled
Breaking Waves

11. Chasing Redbird
Strolling from our kitchen through the passage into Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate’s kitchen was like drifting back in time. On our side was a zoo of noises: the clomps and clumps of Ben, Will, and Sam zinging up and down the stairs; the blasting of Bonnie’s stereo; the bleeping of Gretchen’s computer; and the phone clanging off the wall for May. But when you stepped through the passage, suddenly you’d be in the Quiet Zone of Aunt Jessie and Uncle Nate’s house: silent as a tomb most of the time. There you’d see old-fashioned needlepoint pillows and wall hangings embroidered with poems and proverbs; you’d smell cinnamon and nutmeg; and you could trail your fingers over smooth counters and soft quilts.

12. Chasing Redbird I see I hear I touch I smell I taste
Old-fashioned Needle point pillows
Clomps and clumps of feet on stairs
Smooth counters
Nutmeg ?
Wall hangings with poems and proverbs
Blasting stereo
Soft quilts
Cinnamon
Bleeping computer
Phone clanging

13. Write a poem or story using sensory language
Your house
Field Day