Classroom Activities: Writing with the Senses

These classroom activities are designed to complement the Writing with the Senses topic on BrainPOP Jr.

What’s that smell?

Bring in different things for your students to smell and describe. Items can include a vanilla bean or extract, rose petals, lemon wedge, cinnamon, apple slice, sprigs of mint or mint candy, chocolate, and vinegar. Students can be blindfolded and name each item by their scents or you can put each item in a dark film container and poke holes through the lid. Encourage your students to think of where they have smelled the scent before.

As an extension, have your students bring in a scent and repeat the activity in small groups. If students have a difficult time guessing the scent, have the student give hints about where the item could be found or how it is used.

What’s inside?

Cut two holes on the side of a shoebox or other small box with a lid. Then drop a secret item into the box. Students can stick their hands through the holes to feel the item and name it. What clues did they use to identify the item? How does the item feel? Some secret items can include a teddy bear, toy car, pencil, flower, eraser, crumpled up paper, or pieces of Velcro.

To extend the activity, have students make collages or sculptures using different textures and put them in the mystery box. Students can guess what materials were used to make the item.

Garden of Scents

Start an herb garden with your students. Plant different herbs and have students record how each plant grows. Then students can classify the herbs in different ways according to scent, feel, taste, or look, such as the number of leaves. Students can smell, touch, or taste each herb and describe them. For example, herbs such as peppermint and spearmint smell sweet and rosemary has thick, sharp leaves.

Sensory Shadow Box

Have students create shadow boxes that display items that represent the five senses. Encourage students to find creative ways to represent each sense. For example, some students may want to play a recording of a bird chirping, whistle, clock alarm, or music. Other students may want to stick to a theme for their shadow boxes, for example, displaying items from a garden. Have students share their boxes and describe each item and display the boxes so students can learn from each other’s works.