Descriptive World Writing

Map Photo by Kelsey Knight on Unsplash

This lesson is for third graders to practice their descriptive writing. Students will pick a landmark, city, or destination from one of the flagged markers on the attached MyMaps page (or find their own) and use the photo to write a descriptive paragraph about it (without using the landmark’s name) to see if their classmates can figure out what they are describing.

After picking their location, students will have 30 minutes to research, explore the photo, determine essential details, write and edit their descriptive paragraph. Students will want to make sure they use enough descriptive words to paint a mental picture in their audiences’ minds without outright saying the location’s name.

Then students will work in groups to read out their paragraphs and see if the group members can guess what location they are describing. All students have access to the MyMaps for hints, but students can pick their own location not tagged in the post to make it trickier.

This activity will allow students to practice descriptive language and see how people interpret their writing.

This activity could stretch longer if students want to revise their initial paragraph after their first presentation to add or change their location description and then try again with another group.

MyMaps was great to use for this lesson because it allowed me to build a map with pictures and location titles quickly. I could also write a description of each place for the student if I were doing the lesson for younger kids that include grade-level friendly vocabulary. MyMaps allows students choice to pick their location from the pinned spots or select their own.