- Making a daily weather entry in a journal can be a standing prompt for morning work. To connect this to the five senses, assign one sense for each day of the week. On Monday, for example, tell students they must describe the weather with a visual image. On Tuesday, they have to describe what the weather sounds like. On Wednesday, they must tell what the weather smells like. On Thursday, they can say what the weather feels like, and on Friday, they have to figure out how the weather tastes. Each day ask for a volunteer to share his journal entry or post your own to have the class collaborate on how your sentence could be improved or corrected.
- Make two sets of game cards. One set names a sense: vision, hearing, touch, smell or taste. The other set names a weather condition. Organize the children in pairs. One partner selects a sense while the other partner picks a weather card. The partners have to work together to make a true statement about the weather condition that uses only the sense they picked and does not name the weather condition. The class must guess what the weather condition is based on the statement.
- Another group activity that helps children use the five senses to describe weather is to prohibit the use of one or more senses in your prompt. An added benefit of this activity is that it forces the group to become sensitive to issues faced every day by individuals who have visual or hearing impairments. Suppose that a thunderstorm is happening. Direct the children to describe the storm without reference either to what they hear or see. Then tell about the life of Helen keller, who became blind and deaf. The weather activity makes a good preview for a reading assignment about her, for example.
