5 Senses Poem
Overview and Context
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Learning Goals
Students will be able to
learn about what makes a 5
Senses poem, and they will
write one of their own, using
a graphic organizer and a
template for guidance.
University of Michigan, Undergraduate Teacher Education Program
For interns beginning the program in Fall 2012 and beyond
Jenna Sperling
1st Grade, King Elementary
5 Sense Poem Poetry Unit
Monday, March 20
45 Minutes
In this lesson, students learn about how poets use their
words to help their readers imagine and experience what
they are writing about. So, students will practice using their
5 senses to explain a topic
This is the 6th lesson in my poetry unit. The lesson before
was all about writing I Wish poems, and the lesson after
focuses on Adjective poems.
http://www.mywordwizard.com/poems-with-
imagery.html
Learning Goals
Connection to Standards Connection to Activities
ELA GLCES
As a class, students and I will
W.PR.01.01: With teacher fill out a 5 Senses graphic
support, students will set a organizer to have some
purpose, consider audience, and practice with what they will
incorporate literary language be doing when it is
when writing a narrative or independent work time
informational piece; begin to
use specific strategies including After seeing some examples
graphic organizers when of 5 Senses Poems, students
planning will write their own
R.CS.01.01: Students will Students will use a self-
develop and discuss shared evaluation checklist to check
standards and begin to assess their own poem
the quality and accuracy of their
own writing and the writing of
others with teacher guidance
W.AT.01.01: Students will be
enthusiastic about writing and
learning to write
Report Card Goal
Writing Goal #2: Reads and
tries to copy different styles of
poetry based on reading a wide
page 1 of 4
Rev. June 2012
 variety of grade-appropriate
poetry

Attending to the Learners

Anticipating student ideas:
Making the content accessible
to all students:
At this point in the unit, students will have had a bit of
experience reading and writing poetry. With the 5 Senses
Poem, I anticipate that students will find the graphic
organizer helpful and that they will have few issues coming
up with what to write. One possible challenge for students
will be actually picking a topic to use. We will brainstorm
some topics together to hopefully avoid this problem.
A lot of this lesson will be done as a whole class to make
the content more accessible to students. We will look at
example poems, create a 5 Senses graphic organizer
together, and there will be a template for the actual poem.

Assessments

Type of Assessment Learning-Goals Connection

Class Discussion Students will participate in a classroom discussion about 5 senses
poems and what they notice
Graphic Organizer Students will complete a graphic organizer that has them
brainstorm for the poem
5 Senses Poem and Students write their fourth poem a 5 senses poem and self-
Checklist evaluate it using a checklist

Instructional Sequence

Materials Powerpoint, 5 senses graphic organizer and template, rubric

:

Time Steps Describing What the Teacher and Students Notes and Reminders
Will Do (including management
considerations)
1
minute 1. Link Tell students to come to the
carpet
a. Praise students for working hard on
their I wish poems
b. You all have been doing an amazing
job with this poetry unit! I am proud
of the creativity and fresh ideas I saw
during the I Wish Poems, and I hope
you are also proud of yourselves.
c. Yesterday, we worked hard on I
Wish poems great job! I noticed
Today, we will be looking at how
poets use their words to describe
things to the readers.

University of Michigan, Undergraduate Teacher Education Program page 2 of 4

For interns beginning the program in Fall 2012 and beyond Rev. June 2012
15 2. Teach
minute
a. Many poets like their readers or
s
listeners to be able to imagine what
theyre talking about, kind of like
putting a picture into their head.
What are some ways you think a
poet might do this?
b. Poets appeal to the readers senses.
What are your 5 senses?
c. Read both versions of The Race and
discuss which is more appealing to
the listener. Why?
d. Today we will be writing 5 Senses
Poems to practice creating images in
the listeners heads. You will pick a
topic, which we will talk more about
in a second, and you will describe it
using your 5 senses so that the
reader can guess your topic before
he/she gets to the end. Again, what
are your 5 senses?
e. Read Chicken Noodle Soup Poem as
an example. See if students guess it
before I say the last line.
f. When you choose a topic for your
poem, it can be a concept or a thing,
like soup, cookies, winter, etc. Or it
can be something more difficult and
creative to explain, like an emotion,
or feeling. These might be harder for
the reader to guess, and that is ok.
i. Show my original poem
about Happiness.

10 3. Active Engagement
minute
a. Before I let you go to write your
s
original poem, lets look at the
graphic organizer you will fill out
before writing your poem
b. Complete the organizer of a 5 sense
poem together as a class (put the
organizer under the ladibug)
c. Explain self-evaluation rubric
d. Brainstorm and record topic ideas in
case students struggle with deciding
on a poem topic
e. When you finish with your graphic
organizer, your poem, and your

University of Michigan, Undergraduate Teacher Education Program page 3 of 4

For interns beginning the program in Fall 2012 and beyond Rev. June 2012
 rubric, come get it checked by me,
and I will give you a paper (if theres
time) to draw a picture for your
poem.
20 4. Activity
minute
a. Students work independently to fill
s
out their graphic organizer and write
their poem / complete their checklist
I will be circulating and
helping students as needed

5. Sharing Make sure it is 3 students

who have not yet shared
a. Have 3 students share their poem
under the projector
6. Conclusion
a. Today we wrote 5 Senses poems to
practice adding detail and
description to our poems. Tomorrow
we will continue practicing with
detail by writing adjective poems.

Reflection on Planning

Learning goal for self: I want to clearly model how to fill out the graphic organizer,
and I want to keep track of time
Preparing to teach this I planned this lesson in my unit outline and then I laid it out in
lesson: more detail here. I also sent the lesson to my FI for feedback.

University of Michigan, Undergraduate Teacher Education Program page 4 of 4

For interns beginning the program in Fall 2012 and beyond Rev. June 2012