What began as a warm-up exercise for my 5th grade class turned into sentences so fantastic that I had to put them on the blog! The lesson was writing in a style called "show not tell." The idea is to take a simple sentence or scenario, and make it so the reader can see and hear a fantastic picture in their minds of what the author was trying to convey. Adjectives, adverbs, strong verbs, similes and metaphors, and onomatopoiea can all be used to achieve this challenging-yet-rewarding style of writing!
The students were presented with the following simple scenarios involving personifying a piece of paper, and their job was to improve them with show-not-tell styles of writing. I hope you enjoy this "warm up" activity as much as I did!
Scenario 1: The paper is getting written on.
Max: I feel like I'm being pushed, the hard lead tip smashing through my skin. The sharp graphite is putting colors on me, and the pain is coming at me like a bullet train.
Zivah: The sharp pencil piereces my thin skin. The bold graphite stains me. It hurts me so badly, but nobody can hear me cry.
Scenario 2: The paper is getting cut by scissors.
Sara: The unforgiving, ruthless points cut right through my life. I am speechless, and only the pure thought of despair can bring me away from the violent rip.
Mabel: Snip, snip. "Ouch!" I yell. I feel the scissors cutting me into thousands of pieces, and the sharp pain makes my paper eyes water. I am ripped into jagged pieces, falling to the floor.
Leo: The unforgiving, cold metal scissors cleave through my unfortunately thin, delicate skin, and I hear the screech of the multiple blades ripping me apart.
Scenario 3: The paper gets thrown away.
Aria: After the aimless marks stop, I am suddenly being gripped by a pair of giant hands. My feet touch my nose, and my mouth touches my elbow as they crumple me. Suddenly, I am being whisked away, soaring high-- "I am flying!" I thought. I land in a musty gray bin.
Grayson: I am lifeless as I feel myself turn into a ball with many holes. I hear the crackle as I fall into the "basketball hoop."
Adelynn: Crumple, crumple, crumple. I feel the cold strong hands shrivel me up into a worthless ball. They throw me into the pit of darkness where all the useless things go. I have no more purpose anymore. I feel myself being sucked into the half-drunk soda, which makes me soggy.... or is it just my own tears?
Kaia: I feel the pain as two big hands squash me into a small, wrinkly ball. I start to fall and soon I am drowning in tears as I have been thrown into the dark, unforgiving, inescapable hole. A trash can. The place for unwanted things; disappointments.
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