Oct 05 2009
That’s using your sniffer!
Sniff sniff, Jalenne! I think she likes the Altoids I put in the cup!
Today during language arts, our young writers were given a hands-on lesson in using sensory words. Too often, students miss the opportunity to describe small moments in big detail. To help with this, we identified some words that could help us describe the way something smells. We used “positive” words like scent and aroma to describe smells that were pleasant. We also identified “negative” smell words like stench and odor. For some reason, there were more words on our “negative” list…interesting. 
After we came up with exciting words, the students were put in groups of four. Each group was given two mystery cups that were covered with wax paper. They were not allowed to look inside the cups; they could only lift the paper slightly and smell what was inside. They then had to write a short paragraph describing the smell, using the new words we brainstormed. The mystery items represented a variety of scents, including coffee, curry powder, garlic, ginger, mints (Altoids), basil, and (Ansen’s favorite) sardines! Let’s just say that we needed to open the doors for a little while.
The final products at the end of the day were extremely creative. The kids were proud that they could make their writing come to life by using words that appeal to the senses. They will practice this skill in their blog assignments this week, so keep a look out for their A4 posts!
