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) 

Family Storytime: Snowmen

We started off our snowman storytime with our opening bean bag song and then got started with our first story, Snowzilla by Janet Lawler. This is a story about building the biggest snowman ever. The kids enjoyed this one and we talked a little bit about the concept big and small.

Our first activity was making our own snowman together on the flannel board. Everyone got a piece to complete our snowman and since the kids were so proud of it, we left it on the flannel board for the rest of storytime.

Our next story was All You Need for a Snowman by Barbara LaValle. This is a good read because it explains what makes a snowman and was a nice transition from the flannel board to this.

For our next activity, we each had a snowman piece to put into our magic envelope. Once we said "Abracadabra" our snowman magically was put together. This is a fun one that the kids really love because it is surprising. My magic was having two envelopes with one of the envelopes having a snowman already made.

Our final book was 100 Snowmen by Jen Arena. What a way to get the kids counting and following along. Loved all these books for our theme!

Our craft was making a snowman using paint, construction paper, and markers.

Other Snowman and Snow Books:

When the Snow Is Deeper Than My Boots Are Tall Jean Reidy

The Biggest Snowman Ever Steven Kroll

The Snowy Day Ezra Jack Keats

The Most Perfect Snowman Chris Britt

Waiting For Snow Marsha Diane Arnold

Dinos in the Snow! Karma Wilson

Pip and Posy The Snowy Day Axel Scheffler

Snowballs Lois Ehlert

Snowmen at Night Caralyn Buehner

The Biggest, Best Snowman Margery Cuyler

The Smiley Snowman M. Christina Butler

Here Comes Jack Frost Kazuno Kohara

Hello, Snow! Hope Vestergaard

Mouse's First Snow Lauren Thompson

There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow! Lucille Colandro

Big Snow Jonathan Bean

You Make Me Smile Layn Marlow

A Very Special Snowflake Don Hoffman

When the Snow Falls Linda Booth Sweeney

Into the Snow Yuki Kaneko

I See Winter Charles Ghigna

Best In Snow April Pulley Sayre

Mine, All Mine! Claire Hawcock

Sugar White Snow and Evergreens Felicia Sanzari Chernesky

Snowballs Lois Ehlert

Little Penguins Cynthia Rylant

The Reader Amy Hest

Toddler Art: Andy Warhol

During Toddler Art: Andy Warhol, we read a short board book story called Andy Warhol's Colors by Susan Goldman Rubin, introducing Warhol's artwork and the concept of colors.

Afterwards, there was craft time. The first craft was making a Warhol inspired flower portrait using black card stock, green paint, and die-cut flowers. Painting and gluing were part of this craft.

The last craft was making another Warhol-inspired craft with colored square construction paper, die-cut hand shapes, and stamping hand prints on them to get the full pop art effect.

The family enjoyed the story and had fun painting together.

Other Books:

ABC Pop! Rachel Isadora

Other Craft Ideas:

-black and white picture and markers

-yarn warhol face craft

Family Storytime: Friendship

We decided to pick a friendship theme for Valentine's Day week and there were so many sweet books about friends and provided a unique storytime instead of the usual love theme.

After our bean bag song, we read Adorabull by Alison Donald. The kids really enjoyed this one about a boy and his bull friend and kept using the word "adorable" afterwards to describe the pictures in our stories.

We had a matching activity where they each had half of a heart shape and had to match it up on the flannel board with the same color half. The group always enjoys getting interactive with the flannel board and they each did a great job with matching!

Our next book was The Friendship Book by Mary Lyn Ray. A nice, sweet book describing what makes a friend and friendship.

Afterwards, we did some more matching using laminated book characters. They really enjoyed the matching activities and liked talking about some of the characters that were matched to their friends.

Our last story was My Big Bear, My Little Bear, andMe by Margarita Del Mazo. The surprise twist at the end is what made the book for the kids.

For our craft, we made friendship cards using cloud and sun die-cuts, construction paper and crayons. This craft was easy practice for the kids and they liked coloring their cards and added hearts.

Other Books:

Bear's New Friend Karma Wilson

Will You Be My Friend? Nancy Tafuri

Cyril and Pat Emily Gravett

Mr. Scruff Simon James

A Splendid Friend, Indeed Suzanne Bloom

Other Activities:

Laurie Berkner I Have a Friend (last track on Buzz, Buzz)

If You're Happy and You Know It

Preschool Picasso: Andy Warhol

This was a great Preschool Picasso turnout for the unique theme of Andy Warhol. I'm finding that the parents are excited for the specific artist themes I've been incorporating into this program. As long as I can find age-appropriate crafts and books for both preschoolers and toddlers, the artist-related theme is something I would like to stick to in the future.

We started off Preschool Picasso with our story, Uncle Andy's Cats by James Warhola that explained a little bit about Andy Warhol's life and included a fun story on his cats that inspired his artwork.

Once we finished our story, I explained the two crafts we would have for the day. Our first craft involved paint and green bell peppers. A unique artist requires a unique craft. The kids used cut green pepper and black paint to stamp on a flower-like outline that was inspired by Warhol's flower artwork. Once the outlines were stamped on their colorful neon card stock, they could paint inside with different color paint.

Their next craft was making a Warhol inspired block pop art using different colorful squares and colorful cat die-cuts, inspired by the story. The kids glued on their squares to their paper and added their cats on top to give it that pop art look.

Other Books:

ABC Pop! Rachel Isadora

Uncle Andy's James Warhola

Family Storytime: Hats, Mittens, Scarves

We started off our hats, mittens, and scarves storytime with our bean bag song to get some of the kids' sillies out and then we dove right into our first book, Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London. This is a perfect book for a warm clothes storytime and gets the kids laughing everytime.

Once we were done with our story, we used the flannel board and matched colored mittens. They loved being able to put a mitten on the board and we each counted them all at the end.

Our next book was another adorable book, Little Owl's Orange Scarf by Tatyana Feeney. This book always seems to keep the kids engaged and has simple illustrations.

We used the flannel board to count winter hats using a fun rhyme. We talked about their colors and everyone followed along well.

Our last story was A Hat for Minerva Louise by Janet Morgan Stoeke. This is another silly story that kept the group's interest.

For our craft, we made snowmen with ear muffs and scarves using styrofoam cups, pom poms, construction paper, and pipe cleaners.

Other Books:

A Mountain of Mittens Lynn Plourde

Do You Have a Hat? Eileen Spinelli (about all hats, not just winter)

Where's Mary's Hat? Barroux (about all hats, not just winter)

Knitty Kitty David Elliott

Whose Hat? Margaret Miller (about all hats, guessing, older pictures)

One Mitten Kristine O'Connell George

Smitten David Gordon

Song Activities:

Johnette Downing Scarf Activity Songs Track 3 "Shake Your Scarves" longer song

H.U.M. All Year Long Track 2 "The Mitten Song" short song with a few movements

Night Train 57 Track 10 "Hats" Short random dancing song

Optional Craft: Decorating cut-out mittens

Book of the Month: One Red Sock

I noticed One Red Sock by Jennifer Sattler while browsing our library's new books and it was too cute not to read! I was hoping that it wouldn't be a long one so I could use it for an upcoming storytime, ant it's the perfect length!

Summary: When a little purple hippo cannot find the mate for her red sock, she tries everything in her sock drawer in order to be fashionable-or at least to match. 

Ages: 5 and up

"In a big pink chair in a room full of dots...sat a purple hippo wearing one red sock."

Jennifer Sattler’s book is a cute, short read with sweet illustrations and a simple rhyme. This book helps kids learn their colors, matching, and acceptance. It also teaches them that it’s okay if things aren’t perfect. A great book for storytime that I’ll be sure to read in the future.