Creative Writing Workshop: The Five Senses

For a creative writing workshop on the five senses, I wanted to focus on how using our senses as writers can help with our descriptive writing. This was a program for ages 8 to 12. 

I had a Power Point to present what the five senses are and it showed examples of excellent descriptive writing taken from children books and examples that we as a group could write about and share. 

I also had worksheets available that went along with the Power Point examples so everyone would have a spot to write their descriptive writing and follow along.

Some of the examples were a busy city street, a beach, a carnival, old socks, cupcakes, and a rainstorm. Going over each of the fives senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, brief descriptions of the examples would be made. Pictures, objects, and sound clips were provided during the writing activity. 

I also pulled aside some other examples in case we needed more objects/scenarios to practice our writing and planned on using cupcakes and tangerines for our taste senses.  

The books I used for descriptive writing examples varied from picture books to chapter books, but the point was to show how different levels of writing still need descriptors and that a good description is a thorough description that takes you there and utilizes your imagination.

Below is a list of the books I've used for examples.
Cupcake by Charise Mericle Harper
Carnival Magic by Amy Ephron
Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Pena
Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea by Lynne Rae Perkins
A Family of Poems compiled by Caroline Kennedy (Ode to Socks poem) 

Creative Writing Workshop: Mythical Creatures

This was a fun writing program to present and it was all inspired by Myth Match: A Fantastical Flipbook of Extraordinary Beasts and Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods: 20 Chilling Tales from the Wilderness. 

I started off our discussion on mythical creatures by asking if anyone knew what mythical creatures meant and if they could give me some examples. The group was a little shy at first, but once we got our creative energies flowing the group was able to come up with each of their characters.

I presented a short Powerpoint presentation on mythical creatures, explaining what a mythical creature was and giving some examples. The rest of the Powerpoint was questions they could ask about their character to come up with ideas. This was nice prompt time because it encouraged the group to think deeper on how their characters will be and why.

Once we talked a little bit about these creatures, I read an excerpt from Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods that was a great example of a mythical beast with lots of descriptive language and a storyline. We discussed what was read a bit, pointed out the variety of books we had available for inspiration and reference, and put the Powerpoint back on so the group could look at the questions they could answer when writing their character descriptions.

The rest of the time was given for designing and decorating their characters and writing their character descriptions. I gave each of the kids a long piece of construction paper that had drawing paper and lined paper pre-glued on so they had a space to draw their mythical creature and a space to write their descriptions. I also showed them my example. Colored pencils, markers, jewels, feathers, and glue were put on the tables.

It took a while for the group to get going, but it was hard for them to stop at the end of the program and we ended up using the room for an additional 15 minutes. The kids came up with a magical mermaid, an astronaut beast, a wolf with great powers, and a cat that had the ability to read minds.

I asked the group if they had any ideas for future writing programs and let them know that I would be happy to read any stories they might have. In the group, Emily decided to use the computer in the library to work more on her mythical creature and Donovan's mother asked if we had any more writing programs coming up.

It's always a nice challenge to come up with writing program ideas that are different and have that "cool" element to it.