Lesson Plan
Words That Make Us Feel: A Lesson on Sensory Language
Use storytelling to teach your first graders about sensory language in this interactive lesson.
Grade:
View aligned standards
What do you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel in the story? First graders will dive into the word meaning behind sensory language in different stories, and find out how they help describe an experience. The lesson plan Words That Make Us Feel: A Lesson on Sensory Language helps students identify words and phrases that suggest feelings and appeal to the senses. After they learn more about this concept, they will use sensory words in their own writing to describe an experience.
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to identify words and phrases that suggest feelings and appeal to the senses.
Introduction
(5 minutes)- Gather students together for the start of lesson.
- Show the cover of Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and ask the students to describe what they see. Encourage your students to give specific details by following up with questions such as, “What makes you say that? Tell me more about that.”
- Write I see/I feel/I hear/I smell/I taste on the board in 5 columns, with space to write beneath each column.
- Ask your students to imagine being the child on the cover illustration. Have them close their eyes and think about what they might see/hear/smell/taste/feel if they were in the woods. Ask guiding questions to support their thinking such as, "What might you see and hear in the woods during the day? How about at night? What kinds of smells might be in the woods?"
- Invite students to share out and record their thinking on the board.
- Explain that today you will be reading a story and noticing the sensory language, which is when we use words to describe things or feelings in a way that reminds us of our different senses. Say, “Some authors work hard to write a story that makes us feel like we are there by using sensory language. Let’s read Owl Moon and listen for those details.”