12/15/2026

Morning Announcements

Morning Meeting Agenda

Mon · Social Studies Tue · Literacy Wed · Science Thu · Math Fri · ROAR + Houses
Literacy of the Day

Show me, don’t tell me

“The kitchen smelled good” is telling. “The kitchen smelled like cinnamon and warm butter” is showing — and it puts the reader right there in the room with you.

Word of the Day: DESCRIBE. To describe means to use words that help someone else see what you saw. Good writers use all five senses!

See Hear Smell Taste Touch

Five senses — five ways to describe!

Let’s talk
  • What is your favorite smell in wintertime?
  • What does winter sound like? Let’s make some winter sounds!
  • What is one food you only get to eat this time of year?
Reveal some examplesHide the examples
See: twinkly lights. Hear: boots crunching. Smell: cookies baking. Taste: hot chocolate. Touch: a scratchy sweater. Those words put you right there!
Try it

Sense detective! Close your eyes. What do you HEAR right now in this room? Name three things. Now open them — what do you SEE that you didn’t notice before?

Quote of the day: “If there’s a book you want to read… then you must write it.”

Who said it?Hide
Portrait of Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison — one of the most celebrated American novelists ever. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She worked as a book editor while writing her own early novels, often in the hours before her children woke up. Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Morrison’s point applies to your own life: some stories only you can write — because only you were there. Writers make those moments land with concrete sensory detail.

Same moment, two ways to write it TELLING “Grandma’s house was nice.” 4 words, no picture SHOWING “Grandma’s floor creaked and the whole house smelled like coffee and cornbread.”

Specific details are what make writing memorable.

Let’s talk
  • Why does the second version feel more real, even though “nice” is a perfectly good word?
  • Notice the showing version names a sound and a smell, not just a sight. Why do those senses hit harder?
  • What’s a story from your family that has never been written down?
Reveal the writing ruleHide
“Nice” tells the reader your conclusion. Details let the reader reach that conclusion themselves — which makes it theirs. Smell and sound land especially hard because they’re tied tightly to memory: a scent can bring back a whole room in an instant. Writers know this and use it deliberately.
Try it

Break assignment! Over the holidays, ask an adult in your family to tell you a story from when they were your age. Write down three sensory details from it — a smell, a sound, something they touched. Bring it back in January. You’ll be writing a book nobody else could write.

Additional Notes/Activities

If additional activities are needed for the Morning Meeting, they will be added here.