Hi there! I am Neetu from Cinnamon’s Classroom, where I create resources to help teachers SPICE UP learning {cinnamon… spice… see the connection?!} I am beyond honored to be a guest blogger here today, sharing OVER 20 of my favorite tools for teaching descriptive writing…picture thesauruses!
Kristin (One Stop Teacher Shop) was one of the first people to adopt my descriptive writing tools in her classroom, and now that she’s a homeschooling momma, she also uses them with her daughter! L♥ve it!
WHAT are these tools and WHY are they so fantastic??
First, the “what” part: PICTURE THESAURUSES!
I created ‘picture thesauruses’ as a way to solve a problem I was having in my classroom. I wanted my students to be more descriptive, but the traditional tool – a thesaurus – was just not working! Students randomly select a word from the long list provided, and often, the word chosen was used in the wrong context.
For instance, take the sentence: “My big bear is soft.” If I asked a student to replace big and soft with vivid descriptive words, I would get something like this:
I knew my students needed a better resource – a tool with visuals to help them SEE the subtle differences between synonyms.
So I began working on solving these problems, and presto, my mini “picture thesauruses” (yep, that’s a term I made up) were born.
Why they work!
Picture thesauruses help students see that “pliable” is better suited for describing objects like dough; and “spacious” is best when used to describe large spaces (not large objects).
Check out the video below to take a closer look at the cards. It is set up to play the “soft” and “big” sections, but feel free to watch the whole video to see all 700+ words included! {Not shown in the video is “said” – a bonus booklet I added to the pack!!}
You can put the cards on rings and hang them on your word wall. Or, spice things up even further by creating a 3d interactive ‘RIP Dead Words’ bulletin board display! This short video shows you my display idea and what else you’ll get in the complete pack!
HOW PICTURE THESAURUSES HELP STUDENTS WRITE DESCRIPTIVELY:
(This is the “why are they so fantastic” part)
1. To write descriptively, students need to include rich sensory details that paint a picture in the reader’s mind. The details should appeal to all of the reader’s senses. That’s why picture thesauruses focus on THE 5 SENSES + EMOTIONS. When students describe the look, smell, taste, sound, or feel of an object, it pushes writing to new heights. Using precise vocabulary to express emotions help students add voice to their writing!
2. As you can see in the first video, the synonyms within each booklet are grouped based on the subtle differences in meaning; and the words are illustrated to show these subtle differences. This takes the guesswork out of choosing the RIGHT descriptive word as students can see the various shades of meaning (unlike a traditional thesaurus).
3. There are numerous synonyms provided in each Picture Thesaurus. The complete set has over 700 descriptive words to help budding writers.
4. The splash of color in each image helps students zero in on the part of the picture that highlights context. The illustrations not only serve to show students the nuances between word meanings, but they also help to entertain and engage learners as well.
This all equates to rich DESCRIPTIVE SENTENCES that… MAKE SENSE!!
If you want your students to SPICE UP their writing by using rich vocabulary and vivid descriptive words, you can grab my Boring Words Interactive Notebook and Synonym Booklets Bundle HERE.
If you would like a FREE sample to try in your classroom, click the image below…
Thanks for stopping in and hanging out with me today! ‘Good-byes’ are hard for me… so I say we STAY CONNECTED! Here are a few places we can meet again:
