How to Teach Descriptive Writing

Teaching your child to write clearly is important. Teaching them to write so that others are interested is a gift to your child. You can make lesson that will rival the best private school and you don’t need to have a lot of equipment. Using objects and the environment around your home you can teach your child to do more descriptive writing. Read on to learn how to teach descriptive writing.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Blindfold
• Various bottles containing odiferous material
• Abstract or inkblot
• Paper
• Pencil
• Carl Sandburg's poem "Fog"

1. Begin with a blindfold. Hand the child an object and ask them to describe the object without looking at it. Tell them that they can’t use the name of the object but only what it feels like. Record the descriptions. Play them back as you look at the objects together. When you are using this to teach descriptive writing, ask if there are other terms he can think of now that he sees the object.
2. Create a smell-o-write. Cork up several bottles of smells that your child may not know and allow them to describe the odor. Get creative. Ask what color the smell would be if it were a color. Ask why. Ask what animal this would be and why the child would name it that animal.
3. Make a design when you teach descriptive writing. Ask your child to describe what the design looks like and to tell a story about it. This exercise is much like the inkblot test and drizzles of ink on a folded card can be used instead of a design.
4. Walk outside. Ask for complete silence. If you are with a group of children this exercise can be used once a week for your relaxation. Sit in a grassy area and ask her to write what it feels like outside. Describe how the breeze or grass feels against her skin. Tell her to describe the landscape using each of her senses.
5. Help your child to look at the world from a different view. Find unusual places to take your child. Go to the top of a building and look at traffic and people moving below. Ask your child to describe what he sees. You can do this verbally or ask him to write it.
6. Put together a list of nouns. The nouns can be anything. Put them all in a hat together and allow your child to draw two words out. Compare the two nouns in as many ways as possible. Make a second list contrasting the two. Ask your child to create a story that uses one of the nouns as a main character using the comparison list or contrasting list words to describe the character.
7. Take advantage of the weather. Together create lists of words that describe the weather you have that day. Go through the list and see if there are two animals that also have the same characteristics. Read Carl Sandburg’s poem, “Fog” during this lesson.