Using 5 senses to describe a story.

 Are your students stories a bit "bland"?

Maybe we need to remind our students what the 5 senses are and what's their potential. 

Level: medium to high 

Materials: Rap video (see below), different sounds (use youtoube), different objects that teacher can bring. 

Procedure:

• Ask SS what the five senses are
• Brainstorm vocabulary for every sense: Ex: touch: rough, smooth.. 
• Students listen to RAP about the five senses. You may download video HERE if the  embedded video   fails to  open.  

• Sense of touch/smell : Students work in pairs/teams of 3. One of the students is blindolded. Students need to guess what the object is. They need to describe what they feel when they touched it and what the smell is like. Preparation:  teacher needs to bring objects. Students can pass the objects from group to group. You will need as many set of objects as number of groups: Suggestions: a bottle, skein, rubber band, sandpaper, paper bag, a potato, some salt/sugar...
• Sense of sound: Teacher plays sounds. You will find many on the internet. Suggestions: birds singing, baby wailing, sound of sea, cicadas, rustling of clothes, gusts of water,  pouring rain ... Students identify the sounds, and their names. 

Lazy stories to practice hypothesis: 3rd conditionals + modals ( might have, may have...)

Level: intermediate to high

Previous knowledge: 3rd conditionals/ compound modals 

Procedure:

• Download the handout with the texts to read: Click HERE to download the texts by George Chilton 
• Teacher (or students) read short texts for students to decide what might be happening or what they would have done.

Example: Text One.

I awoke one night to the sound of an insistent scratching at my bedroom window.
The wind was howling loudly and, very close-by, there was the distinctive cry of a baby wailing in distress.Where was it? On my window-ledge? This could not be! My whole body shook with fear.
Then I turned over and went back to sleep.

Click HERE to download the texts 

The source of the is: https://designerlessons.org/2012/01/21/esl-lesson-plan-student-centred-writing-activities/