If your class needs to transition from essay writing to a poetry unit, your students may have a hard time shifting gears to match the new genre. For fifth-grade teacher Julie Ballew, the exercise below was a great way for her young writers to practice expressive writing by exploring their feelings and using their five senses.

Start With a List of Feelings

To begin this exercise, give each student a list of feeling words. You can create your own list, or use the sample list below which was created by the UCSB Children’s Center.

Invite your students to highlight the feelings that they have previously experienced or the feelings with which they feel a strong connection. They should copy those words into their writer’s notebook for reference and can jot down details from their memories of times they’ve experienced those emotions.

Have Your Students Use Their Senses to Describe These Feelings

Remind your students that writers sometimes use sensory language (or each of their senses) to describe something. To get them in the mindset, read a poem or two that exemplifies sensory writing. 

Have each student choose one of their highlighted words from the feelings list and give them time to think about that feeling through each of their senses. 

Finally, have your students create a flipbook for their chosen feeling, with one flap for each of their senses. Students should write about how their chosen feeling might smell, taste, look, hear, or feel. Students may use comparisons to things they already know, like describing “plain white rice” as the taste of loneliness.  

RELATED READING: 5 Tips for Teaching Poetry to Your Students

Invite Your Students to Respond

Talk to your students about their experience with this exercise. Here are two example questions that elicited thoughtful responses from Ballew’s young writers.

That’s a pretty long list of feeling words—what made you choose this word?

Student: Well, I knew we were about to write poetry. I’ve written poetry before, so I know that my best poems usually come from my miserable side.

How do you think this activity will help you as a writer?

Student: Well, I never thought about describing my feelings like this before. I can paint a good picture with descriptions like this that use my senses.

RELATED READING: 7 Ways Love That Dog Helps Students See Poetry in a New Light

To inspire your students, shop books about emotions below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store.