Sense poetry activities

Learning objectives: to explore the senses; to extend vocabulary and writing skills by making a ‘senses’ storybook.

You will need

Examples of books with textures on the pages, for example, Dorling Kindersley’s Touch and Feel series; scraps of different fabrics and materials providing a variety of textures and ‘sounds’; scissors; PVA glue; pencils; thin card to make each individual or group’s book.

Whole class

Begin the lesson by playing a ‘senses’ version of ‘I went to the supermarket and I bought…’ For example, you might say, I bought something that was small, round, quite soft, red, dimply and sweet. Do you know what it was? (a strawberry). Invite the children to make up further examples for the class, trying to cover each of the senses.

Ask the children to close their eyes as you read aloud the following two sense poems. Discuss the children’s different reactions to the stories and invite them to give reasons for this. Display the stories on the whiteboard so that you can annotate them with the children’s comments. Draw attention to the adjectives the author has used – writing them in two separate columns, one headed ‘Puppy adjectives’ and the other ‘Snake adjectives’, will help your discussion.

Sense poem 1