Kids love writing about calendar pictures! This descriptive writing prompt is meant to go with any scenic picture on a calendar page. Find a total of 19 Writing Activities to Use With Calendar Pictures here!
Have Plenty to Choose From
Kids LOVE choosing a picture to write about! That’s what makes this descriptive writing prompt fun for them. Make sure you have plenty of calendar pages of scenes for the children to choose from.
Choosing a picture is highly motivating so it’s important to make sure that the last students aren’t “stuck” with the one or two scenic pictures left. For example, I’d pick up 3 calendars (36 pictures) for a group of 24 kids.
*This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.*
To read the complete post on how to use old calendar pages for various writing prompts, click here.
Common Core State Standards
NOTE: This lesson can address the following Common Core State Standards: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3.D and W.5.3.D. (STATE FAIR)
NOW THE LESSON!
To get a full understanding on how I conduct each writing lesson you may want to read the Writing Prompts Introduction post. The lesson outlined below (and all other prompts posted) will make more sense and be easier to follow and use. Here’s the lined paper I use for Grades K-2 and Grades 2-7.
Tell the Story Line
Tell the story line: “You are going to describe in detail the first scene of a story. You won’t actually write the entire story today, just a descriptive introduction. The calendar picture that you chose is the scene that you will describe.”
Brainstorm
Encourage the students to list the things that they would see, hear, smell, taste, touch or feel if in the scene. Here’s a template that I use to help them write out their notes.
Show the 5 Sections
Weather/Time/Location
See and Hear
Smell and Taste
Feel or Touch
Characters or Problem
NOW TO WRITE!
Guide the students through the following steps.
- Begin writing by describing the weather and the time of year/day. They also name the location. An example might be,
It was a cold December morning in the mountains.
2. Next, name the things the eye can see. There were ___________.
3. Then, name the things the ear can hear. The (nouns) were (action).
4. Write the things the nose can smell. _____________ filled the air.
5. Describe any tastes. People were enjoying _______________.
6. Then, describe anything that the feet, hands or skin could feel.
7. Finally, lead into the story by introducing any characters or problems.
Print the Lesson
Here’s the full lesson for you to print out and use.
EASY ART ACCENTS
Calendar pictures are the most popular art accents I use. Kids LOVE to choose a picture to write about. Read my introductory post about Calendar Pictures to find out where to get them and how to use them.
Writers can staple their finished introduction to the back of their calendar page or put them back to back in a plastic page protector*.
OWL MOON is a great book to read with this lesson and can be purchased on Amazon*.
GAMES TO PLAY!
A to Z Word List— (using words that descriptive a scene)
Taboo (using the cards with PLACES)
