Writing Detailed Sentences

One day I realized my students weren't good at writing detailed sentences and I also realized I had way too much of that infamous grayish-brown flimsy paper that I used as a child.

That's the one!

What to do?

From this conundrum came a fun lesson for teaching the young ones how to write more detailed sentences using said paper, scissors, and some crayons. Also tape.

Step One: Draw the Apple

                     

Have the students draw an apple on the top of the paper. Not just any apple, mind you, a creative one. We don't want all the apples looking the same, or it ruins the lesson. Tell them to explore different sizes, shapes, and colors for their apples. Give students a chance to be creative and they surely will.

Step Two: Write A Description of Your Apple

They'll need help. They really need to describe their apples in detail, or again the lesson won't work. If they're stumped tell them to write the color, size, and shape of their apple. Emphasize complete sentences. With capitals and end marks too!*

Step Three: Cut In Half

Depending on the age of your students, you may want to do this step yourself. Each paper needs to be cut slightly different, like a puzzle piece, so it can only fit with its other half. I just had the students give them to me and quickly cut them each a little differently.

Step Four: Tape the Pictures on the Board

Step Five: Match the Descriptions

Read a description and have the students guess which apple it's describing. When a student thinks they know, have them match the description with the picture and see if it fits.


It's great fun. You'll have the students' attention the whole time with the drawing, cutting, and guessing. They'll be waiting to hear their description read, which also helps hold attention, and they'll be watching each time a student tries to match it to see if it fits.

The bonus is that they also will learn how to write detailed sentences and they'll see why it's important to do so. You can show that the more detailed the sentences are, the easier it is to match them. If someone wrote, "My apple is cool," no one would know which apple they were talking about.

So try it already!

*I'm a hypocrite.