Sensory Language

Learning Objective:Can I identify what sensory language is and understand how it is used in

poetry to engage readers?

Examples:▫The scissors was blue like the sea.

Which example is more descriptive?

Examples:▫The scissors sounded

like the soundtrack to a horror movie as they cut through thin air and it felt like my fingers had been handcuffed for a crime they didn’t commit.

Which example is more descriptive?

Starter

Poetry is most like a…

1) Song2) Puzzle

3) Painting

Choose one and explain why in your books

What is Sensory Language?

Language that uses words from the five senses

Sight

Sound

Smell

Taste

Touch

Turn and talk to your partner. Write down 3 reasons why you think poets use sensory language in their poems.

Sensory Language in poetry

Pair talk

•You are about to see a series of images;

•For each image you see, you must write two sentences to describe what you see using at least 2 senses – get creative!

Sensory LanguagePractise task

AF1 – write imaginative, interesting and thoughtful texts

Writing using the senses means adding imagination and detail to your

writing.

Smell: musty, damp, stuffy, sweet, sickly, spicy, perfumed.

Sight: colour, (hot or cool, clashing, bright, neon, dark, light, pale) shape, zoom in on interesting details, e.g. fingerprints in dust, eyeliner smudged as if she’d been crying, hands shaking

Touch: sticky, smooth, rough, soft, hard, silky, fluffy, fuzzy, starchy, crisp, corrugated, rippled, abrasive, cracked.

Similes: rough as sandpaper, soft as a jellyfish, moist as a puddle.

Write a poem bringing the hotel room or autumn forest to life using all five senses. Write a poem that is at least 15 lines long.

Ideas to get you started:

Maybe you ordered room service: what does your dinner smell like?

What’s the weather like outside?

What noises are your feet making as you walk through the woods?

You stop to touch a prickly bush, but it burns your hand!

Ideas to get you started:

Did you include

all 5 senses?

SELF-CHECK: Did you

include

stanzas

?

Did you include alliteratio

n?

Did you

include

personifi

c-ation?