Mysterious Place Paragraph Planner

Name:

Date:

Part 1: Get Ready to Write

WALT: We Are Learning To plan and write a vivid descriptive paragraph about a mysterious place.

Success criteria:

I can use details from at least three senses.

I can choose precise adjectives and strong verbs.

I can vary my sentence structures.

I can use capital letters and punctuation consistently.

1. What mysterious place will you describe? Give it a name.

Sensory-details planning table

Write words or phrases that will help your reader imagine the place.

Sight: What can you see?

Sound: What can you hear?

Smell: What can you smell?

Touch: What can you feel?

Taste: Is there a strange taste in the air or in your mouth?

Word bank

Strong adjectives: shadowy, deserted, ancient, eerie, jagged, silent, murky, glowing, twisted, enormous

Strong verbs: crept, drifted, rumbled, shimmered, curled, flickered, echoed, trembled, loomed, vanished

Prepositions: beneath, beyond, between, beside, through, above, inside, around, under, behind

2. Choose two words from the word bank and add two of your own.

Part 2: Build Your Paragraph

Plan one paragraph with a clear beginning, three detail sentences and an ending.

3. Topic sentence: Where is the place, and what makes it mysterious?

4. Detail sentence 1: Describe what can be seen.

5. Detail sentence 2: Describe a sound, smell or touch.

6. Detail sentence 3: Add an unusual detail or explain how the place makes you feel.

7. Concluding sentence: What question, warning or thought could leave your reader curious?

Sentence variety tip: Begin some sentences with a prepositional phrase, such as Beyond the broken gate, or Under the pale moon,. Try joining ideas with and, but or because.

Part 3: Edit and Draft

8. Before you write your final paragraph, check each box.

I used a capital letter at the beginning of every sentence.

I used end punctuation correctly: full stops, question marks or exclamation marks.

I used different sentence beginnings or sentence lengths.

I replaced ordinary words with precise vocabulary.

My paragraph has a topic sentence, detail sentences and a conclusion.

9. Write your final descriptive paragraph. Remember to indent or leave a space at the beginning.

Teacher guidance

Encourage students to orally rehearse their paragraph before drafting. Model combining short and longer sentences, using prepositional phrases, and selecting precise verbs. Confer by asking: “Which sense helps your reader picture this place most clearly?”