Adding Sensory Details in Narrative Writing

Are your students having a hard time adding meaningful details to their stories? Including sensory details in narrative writing is a fantastic way to develop students’ vocabulary, introduce ways to engage a reader and help them write stories that are not just read, but are actually experienced through the senses!

A few ways to develop students’ understanding of sensory details and encourage the use in their narrative writing are by using mentor texts, by engaging the senses, and through a focus on sensory language. Let’s dig into each of these ideas!

Using mentor texts to teach sensory details

A great way to help kids understand how to use sensory details is through exposure to authentic texts that show students how real authors use this language in the books they write.

Selecting the best mentor text is crucial so it’s important to spend some time choosing the best example you can find (You can also get a suggested list of mentor texts is included in my resource here).

After reading the entire text to students as a read aloud, go back and reread passages that are particularly great examples of sensory details. From there, you can use anchor charts or graphic organizers to identify the sensory language and which sense it appeals to. This is such a great activity and makes a good anchor chart, too!

In this anchor chart, students analyzed paragraphs full of details that appealed to a specific sense. They underlined their evidence and identified which sense it appealed to. Then they matched that to the effect that paragraph had on the reader. It helped them think about the author’s purpose for that strategy!

Anchor chart for sorting sensory details in narrative writing — Get the materials for this activity and so much more in the Sensory Details resource!

Repeat the process with a few more mentor texts so your students have multiple opportunities to analyze texts and begin to notice sensory details on their own!

Mentor text lists for adding sensory details in narrative writing — Find a list of mentor texts included in my Narrative Mini Lesson Bundle available here.

Meaningful activities to engage the senses

There is no better way to teach students to invoke the senses in writing than to do so in real life! This can be done in a number of ways but some suggested activities include:

Give each student a graphic organizer with recording space for each of the senses. Take students outside and ask them to sit somewhere quietly and spend time focusing on each of their senses and recording what they experience. Use these notes to form sentences and build a text that makes the reader feel they were there with them.
Create a sensory box – a cardboard box with a hole to put their hands in to feel what’s inside. Choose a number of very different items for students to feel and describe. Record the language they use and use this to write a descriptive passage.
Play a soundscape for students to listen to record what they hear. Extend these notes by imagining what their other senses would experience in this imaginary place, e.g. what they would be able to see, feel, smell. Write a descriptive paragraph about the place they imagined.

Involving the senses - Adding sensory details in narrative writing — Use a graphic organizer, like the one pictured, to involve the senses –
available in my Sensory Details Lessons resource here!.

Focus on sensory language

An important part of adding sensory details is arming students with the language and vocabulary they can use in their own writing. A few suggested activities are:

Record words and phrases identified in mentor texts on charts for each of the senses. Charts such as these then serve as a great visual reminder for students during writing time.
Use sentence starters specific for each sense to help students engage each of the senses in their writing.
Provide visual prompts such as photos from each of the seasons, and have students record what they see, hear, feel, smell, and taste. Use the language generated to write about each season in great detail, incorporating each of the senses. You can get this activity in the Sensory Details Lessons resource!
Reread student writing to find a place where adding a sensory description could help the reader envision the piece. Have students use a sentence starter to add in the detail!

Seasons Sensory Chart - adding detail in narrative writing — Create a seasons sensory chart to help students generate sensory language.
Further lesson plans, like the one above, available here.

The Sensory Details Lessons & Activities include a list of mentor texts, a seasons sensory language building activity, hands on sorting and matching activities, lesson plans, and much more.

Sensory Details for Narrative Writing: lessons, anchor charts, activities, and more!

You can also get it on TpT!

Looking for a whole 3-month unit to help your students improve their narrative writing?
Then look no further! I’ve created this engaging bundle which includes mini lessons on adding sensory detail in writing, along with writing great beginnings and endings, zooming in on small moments, and more!

Narrative Writing Mini Lesson Unit Bundle | Hands On, Step by Step Lessons.