Reading/Language Arts Grade 6 Descriptive Words and Phrases

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Gavin Phillips
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1 Reading/Language Arts Grade 6 Descriptive Words and Phrases

2 Dear Parent or Guardian: Your son or daughter is currently learning to use words and phrases to describe a person, place, object, or animal. Here is your chance to help him or her practice this important skill. In this PAL Packet you will find a short activity for you and your son or daughter to do. Please do the activity and The Back Page this evening. Then sign your name on The Back Page and have your son or daughter return it tomorrow. Thanks for your help. Sincerely, Your son or daughter s teacher Grade 6 Descriptive Words and Phrases 2004 Evans Newton Incorporated 1

3 USING DESCRIPTIVE WORDS AND PHRASES Parent Pointer As a writer, it is important to use words, phrases, and sentences that stimulate a reader s interest. To do this, writers use descriptive language to paint a colorful picture. Descriptive language uses vivid or sensory details to describe people, places, things, or ideas. These sensory details are meant to appeal to one of the five senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, touch) to help the reader see, smell, hear, taste, and feel the subject. Using these sensory details to describe a subject is essential to writing an effectively descriptive paragraph or story. An author also uses descriptive details to describe characters and settings in stories he or she writes. Reading In the Home, On the Go, and For the Fun of It DIRECTIONS: With your parent or partner, read and discuss the ideas presented in the Writing with Descriptive Details page. Then choose a subject (e.g., person, place, object, animal) and write it in the center of the Something to Describe! page. Fill in the surrounding bubbles with descriptive details that help describe the subject using each of the five senses. Use the Writing with Descriptive Details page to help you. On the Descriptive Sentences page, write five complete sentences about the subject you chose, one for each of the senses, using the descriptive words and phrases you wrote in the bubbles. Read the completed sentences to your parent or partner. Talk About It After you have finished the activity, turn to The Back Page to show what you know. Now go have some fun with the activity! Grade 6 Descriptive Words and Phrases 2004 Evans Newton Incorporated 2

4 Writing with Descriptive Details Descriptive details (words and phrases) are used to tell, in story form, how something or someone... feels or what something feels like hears or how something sounds sees or how something looks smells or what something smells like tastes or what something tastes like These details should be strong, vivid, colorful, and appealing to the reader, as well as to the writer. When using these details in this way, the following will occur: The writer s style will be improved by using the best word(s) to describe the subject. The writer s words will have meaning, feeling, sight, and sound because of using the best descriptive words. The subject of a story will be more interesting, appealing, and clear to a reader because a writer uses strong and effective adjectives (modifiers). The story or paragraph will be more interesting, clear, and creative because a writer uses figurative language. Grade 6 Descriptive Words and Phrases 2004 Evans Newton Incorporated 3

5 Writing with Descriptive Details (Continued) Avoid using adjectives that are frequently used such as: bad big cute fun funny good great neat nice pretty small Instead, use adjectives such as: terrible enormous adorable entertaining hilarious delightful impressive efficient pleasant attractive insignificant These words give greater meaning to the description and make the descriptions more pleasing and interesting to the reader. Examples of Figurative Language: simile - compares two different things using like or as Example: The car was as yellow as the bright, midday sun. metaphor - compares two different things without using like or as Example: The falling hail was a popcorn machine. personification - an idea, object, or animal is given characters of a person Example: The exhausted dog slept like a newborn baby. Grade 6 Descriptive Words and Phrases 2004 Evans Newton Incorporated 4

6 Something to Describe! Grade 6 Descriptive Words and Phrases 2004 Evans Newton Incorporated 5

7 Descriptive Sentence #1 - Sight Descriptive Sentences Descriptive Sentence #2 - Smell Descriptive Sentence #3 - Sound Descriptive Sentence #4 - Taste Descriptive Sentence #5 - Touch Grade 6 Descriptive Words and Phrases 2004 Evans Newton Incorporated 6

8 The Back Page Talk About It Parent Ask your son or daughter the following questions: Why is it important to use descriptive details when writing a story? What should a writer include in a descriptive story to make it interesting and clear to the reader? Student Answer the above questions in complete sentences on the reverse side of this page. OR Do one of the following activities (use the reverse side of this page if needed): Write a descriptive paragraph about the subject discussed in the previous two pages. Write a descriptive story about a character from your favorite book. Student s Name Parent or Guardian s Signature Grade 6 Descriptive Words and Phrases 2004 Evans Newton Incorporated 7

Reading/Language Arts Grade 6 Literal and Nonliteral Meanings

Reading/Language Arts Grade 6 Literal and Nonliteral Meanings Dear Parent or Guardian: Your son or daughter is currently learning to determine the meaning of literal and nonliteral words and phrases in