Costume Description Game

     The "Budding" class got to play "The Costume Draw Game!"  Here is how you play:

Step 1: Draw yourself in your Halloween costume.
Step 2: Write a detailed description using size, shape, and color adjectives.
Step 3: The teacher hangs all the pictures on the wall, and reads the descriptions out loud.  If the class guesses your picture on the first try, it means you wrote a PERFECTLY detailed description!

     Natalie (3rd grade) wrote a very detailed description of her beautiful picture.  Enjoy!

     My costume has a bright yellow triangular horn.  It also has two wings that are big and golden.  I'm also wearing one big rainbow dress, and a rainbow mane and flat shoes.  My favorite part of my costume is my beautiful rainbow tail!  My background has one bright moon, three houses, my basket, and one pumpkin that is round.  My costume is cute and beautiful!

The Snowman Draw Game: Descriptive Writing Fun!

ADJECTIVES, ADJECTIVES, ADJECTIVES!!  Without them, our readers are left with an incomplete picture in their minds.  With that theme, the 3rd-6th graders participated in the Snowman Draw Game.  Here is how it is played:

Step 1: Draw a snowman with a background.

Step 2: Describe your snowman in paragraph form, from head to bottom, with adjectives that tell SIZE, SHAPE, COLOR, and NUMBER.

Step 3: Trade descriptions with a partner, and try and draw theirs while your partner draws yours!

The winners were judged by the class, and the contests were close.  Congratulations to our winners!

Izzy's Snow Family (5th grade)

     I have made a snowman family!  The first snowman is on your left.  He is made of three balls.  He has two round black eyes.  He has one horizontal orange triangle nose.  His smile is five black dots.  He has a black hate that is slightly tilted to your left.  The circle under the top one has a brown sleeveless vest that is outlined with dark blue.  It also has three black buttons going straight down the middle in a vertical line.  His arms are brown.  They are straight with three little fingers at the end.

     There is another snowman on the right.  It is a showgirl.  She has two round black eyes and a horizontal orange nose.  Her smile is three black dots that are slightly moved to your left.  She has a small pink bow on your right.  She has a pink shirt just like the snowman except it's pink and is outlined in gold.  Her arms are straight and brown with three tiny fingers at the ends.  On the shirt, there are three dots organized in a vertical line.  The bottom circle is a skirt that almost goes down to the end, but doesn't.   It is also outlined in gold.  It has three gold lines down the middle.

     There is also one in the middle.  He is a tiny ball not touching the ground.  He is high enough off the ground that he can hold his mother and father's hands.  His eyes are two circles that are black and tiny.  He also has a tiny horizontal orange nose.  (All the snowmen's noses are pointing to your right.)  He has a hate that is rainbow, but you can only see the the colors red, orange, green, and blue, and there is a tiny yellow propeller at the top.  He also has two tiny balls for feet.

     The family is standing on pure white snow.  The dad is holding a golden rope that is connected to a brown sled.  The sky behind them is blue with sixteen tiny golden polka dots.

Izzy's writing was so clear and descriptive, that her partner Sammie (5th grade) drew this!

Josephine's Snow Rabbit (4th grade)

     My snowman looks like a rabbit.  It has a big ball on the top, and a medium ball on the bottom.  It is on a flat snowy ground.

     My snow rabbit has two long rabbit ears as long as the head.  It has two big pencil coal eyes, a medium coal nose, and a smile made of seven small pieces of coal.

     My snow rabbit is wearing a scarf that has alternating red and green stripes.  It has two brown sticks as hands, with three fingers.  For the feet, it has two small snowballs, a little bigger than the coal eyes.

     In the background there is a pine tree on your right, a little taller than the snow rabbit.  There is a present on your right also.  The present is wrapped in green, with a red ribbon bow.  The sky is light blue, with nothing in the sky.

Josephine broke down her parts into such clear paragraphs!  Here is what her partner Amelia (3rd grade) drew:

Kavin's Snowman (6th grade)

     Draw a small ball at the top of the paper, then a medium ball under, and a huge ball.  All balls are gray.

     Draw two eyes in the small ball that are gray.  Draw five dots and the layout should be in the shape of a mouth.  They are gray.  Draw a small orange carrot nose, and a gray hat on the top of his head.

     Draw three small dots that are gray in the medium ball.  Draw a small, red bow at the top.  Draw two stick arms.  Under the stick arms, draw gray icicles.  Draw three gray drops under each tip of the icicles.

     There are four snowflakes for the background.

From Kavin's clear writing, Tyler (6th grade) was able to draw this!

Congratulations to our winners!

Halloween Monsters

Adjectives, adjectives, adjectives!! They paint such important pictures in our minds. Colors, numbers, shapes, and sizes.... we can't clearly envision an object without adjectives.


My Writers' Workshop students celebrated Halloween last week with the Monster Draw Game.  Here is how you play:

1. Draw a monster and have fun with the art work.

2. Write a description that is incredibly detailed. Describe every aspect of your picture with size, shape, color, and number adjectives.

3. Exchange your descriptions with a partner.

4. Attempt to draw their monster, while they draw yours.

5. The winners' pictures will look almost identical, because the description will be so vivid and easy to follow.

When the game was over, the classes (and a few parents, too!) voted on the best matches.   I promised the winners they would be published on the blog, so here they are!

Sianna (4th grade) wrote such a vivid description for her monster that it was no wonder her partner Abby (3rd grade) drew it so accurately:

My monster isn't scary, but cute.  She has a giant round orange body.  She has a purple top hat with a little pink ribbon and bow.  her two eyes are light blue.  On top of her eyes she has five dark blue eyelashes.  Just like people, she has two brown eyebrows.  Her nose is a little turquoise circle about one inch under her eyes.  Her mouth is a big red smile (because she is always happy), with one little gray tooth in the middle on the top.

Because he's round, her little arms stick out.  They are about one inch and are yellow with four fingers.  Her pink legs are about the same size as her arms (except a little shorter), with little purple high heels.

And here is how Abby drew it.  Besides the darker shade of orange, they are almost twins!

Katherine (4th grade) wrote a fantastic description, except, as her partner pointed out, when she forgot to include a couple of key color adjectives.  Jay (4th grade) persevered anyway, and followed Katherine's instructions beautifully.  So even though some parts are colorless, we voted they were winners!

My monster isn't tall or scary.  It is friendly and kind.  Her head is a round circle with cat ears on top.  she has a cute little mouth and five eyes looking north, south, east, west, and straight.  Her body is blue and shaped like a raindrop.  On each side, she has three arms.  She also has four legs.  She has wavy legs and arms with four fingers.  On her back, there are two yellow wings.  She has pink slippers and blue shoes.  She also has a bow on the top of her head.

Good writing, Katherine, and Good reading, Jay!

Riya (3rd grade) and Lillian (3rd grade) worked beautifully together.  Riya is a very thorough writer, and Lillian is an excellent reader!

My monster has a big round white head.  She has a red round nose and one eye.  She has three curved pink hairs on her head on each side.  My monster has a black smiley mouth with two purple fangs!  She has two wavy white arms with magenta stripes, with five small orange fingers.  My monster has no body.  She just has four legs.  The two on your right are purple, and the two on your left are green.  They look like golf clubs!

Lillian's version is smaller, but still right on!

A Lesson in Descriptive Writing

Adjectives, adjectives, adjectives!! They paint such important pictures in our minds. Colors, numbers, shapes, and sizes.... we can't clearly envision an object without adjectives.

That was the theme of the "Snowman Draw" game that we played one cold winter's day. Here is how you play:

1. Draw a snowman and have fun with the art work.

2. Write a description that is incredibly detailed. Describe every aspect of your picture with size, shape, color, and number adjectives.

3. Exchange your descriptions with a partner.

4. Attempt to draw their snowman, while they draw yours.

5. The winners' pictures will look almost identical, because the description will be so vivid and easy to follow.

Christina (4th grade) drew Caley's (4th grade) picture perfectly! You'll see why as you read Caley's excellent description. She even remembered to break her description down into paragraphs, making it so much easier to follow. Congratulations, girls!

Caley's Snowman:

My snowman is three snowballs: the top one is small, the middle one is bigger, and the bottom one is the biggest.

He has a purple flower headband, with six purple flowers on the top snowball. The flowers have orange middles.

He has two black coal eyes and a black coal smile that has exactly eight pieces of coal. Right above his mouth is a perfect orange carrot nose.

He has a lei made out of seven purple flowers with orange middles that matches his headband. It is on his middle snowball. Also in his middle, he has three black coal buttons going from top to bottom.

His arms are nothing but brown sticks with three twigs at the end. They are sticking straight out.

Next my snowman has a dark green grass skirt going all the way to the sides of the bottom snowball.

My snowman is standing upright looking at the dark blue ocean. There are two palm trees in the background. The one on the left is facing left with a dark brown trunk, five big dark green leaves right on top of the trunk, and three dark brown coconuts. The one on the right is facing the right with a dark brown trunk, four big dark green leaves (one of which is going out of the picture), and three dark brown coconuts right on top of the trunk.

Right above the snowman's head there are two white clouds. In between them there is a yellow sun with no rays.

Here is what Caley drew, and described so beautifully:

And here's what Christina got from it. She is an excellent, careful reader, don't you think?

I just love this assignment. We did it first semester, too, with monsters at Halloween time. (I think I like these sweet little snowmen better!)