Five Senses and Mystery Novels

We had some breakthroughs in our older class today; we learned to show our reader what is going on instead of telling them.
Sensory language- make sure to use all five senses in your descriptive sentences: sight, touch, taste, sound, smell.
Adding details to places that our characters visit.
Showing emotion instead of writing the emotion. Instead of She was frightened, you can write, She froze in her tracks, looked slowly over her shoulder, wiped the sweat from her brow, and tensed her shoulders. 
Abstract concepts- these can be brought to life by using concrete language. Instead of poverty you can write, Waiting in the line at the unemployment office, hungry children, dirty faces.
Add sensations to each word- add a color, touch word and an action to nouns.
Make sure to use similes and metaphors throughout your entire story.
The homework is to write chapter 2. We are off next week so you have two weeks to do the most amazing job!

In the younger class we became detectives! We had to use our eagle eye for details when a strange person walked into class. Then we read a mystery story and had to figure out the ending. We played a game with an investigator and a suspect, changing clapping and guessing who could be the leader. Finally I gave them a story starter that they had 20 min. to make up an ending. The homework is to finish the story. We will share them in two weeks.