An excellent way to get students to really immerse themselves into a character’s point of view is to have them write a “Five Senses Poem” from the point of view of that character. In this post, I have included 4 poems written from the point of view of Anne Frank from The Diary of Anne Frank, written by 4 different students in upper elementary, middle school, high school, and one by an adult. You can have students write poems from any character’s point of view from any narrative, though.

Follow These Easy Steps:

1. Either student selects a character or teacher selects character for student. Student will write a five-line poem for each of the five senses as experienced by the character.

2. Brainstorm individually or as a class to come up with ideas. For example, after reading The Diary of Anne Frank, 8th grade students in a class came up with these ideas:       

• see: soldiers, cat, clocktower, children suffering, airplanes in sky, birds, smoke, Mummy   
• hear: quarrels, bombs, gunshots, radio, screams, whispers, silence, quiet voices, burglars 
• smell: strawberries, dust, rats, beans, gun-smoke, cigarette smoke 
• touch: Peter’s hand, hair, cat, shoes, diary, pencil, window
• taste: strawberries, beans, vegetables, potatoes, coffee

3. Select a nice digital frame such as the one above, find your own border/frame to print, make your own frame, or use my free template below to write a wonderful five senses poem. I suggest having students write rough drafts first that they can show their teachers for some quick editing before doing the final drafts.

Note: The template for this poem is available in my free product “Analyzing Characterization 6 Ways With 6 Graphic Organizers” and also check out the related blog post “Analyzing Characterization 6 Ways Using 6 Graphic Organizers With 6 Characters From 6 Stories” that shows samples of how they’re used.

8th grade student sample Five Senses Poem