Descriptive Writing

It's been a hectic several weeks.  We are preparing for our accreditation visit and I am on our continuous school improvement committee.  We have been prepping reports, data binders, evidence binders, etc.  I will be glad when our visit is over next week.  In between all our prep work, we have been able to teach somethings.

We have been focusing alot on using adjectives in descriptive writing.  We started by writing adjectives for popcorn using a popcorn container for our graphic organizer.

After brainstorming ideas for adjectives, we wrote a class paragraph describing all aspects of popcorn.  We started with our topic sentence, added four or more good details, and concluded with a wrap-up sentence.  Once we wrote and discussed our descriptive writing, we partnered our students up and gave them a choice between Skittles, M&Ms, or Starbursts.  Each person got a brainstorming web.  With their partner's help, each student brainstormed adjectives that described their candy and wrote their ideas on their web.

After brainstorming their adjectives, each student, again with their partner's help, wrote a descriptive paragraph using the adjectives.  They had to start with a topic sentence, add four or more good details, and conclude with a wrap up sentence.  After writing, editing, conferencing about and re-writing their descriptive paragraph, they mounted their writing on white construction paper and created a construction paper collage of their candy.

Our students were very proud of their work and obviously wanted to display it for the whole school to see.  Here are two examples of the finished pieces with their brainstorming webs.

This is our gallery of work in the hallway.  Our students love to see their work on display!