Animal descriptions/language features

After learning about language features, we applied it to our inquiry topic which is about animals and the environment. I gave each student a picture with an animal on it, and they had to write at least 1 language feature or describing word about that animal on the paper. Then after 30 seconds (ish), we rotated the papers. For every student to write on every paper took about 20 minutes. The students were engaged the whole time, as they had something different to think about every 30 seconds, and had an attainable goal of only writing 1 thing about each animal. 

We did get some similes for some of the animals, but I would like to go back and add more onomatopoeia and alliterations which are easy language features to do.

I can see some connections to the habitat information from the day before as well. 

These brainstorms will be used in writing poetry about habitats and animals.