Show, don't tell charades: a 25-minute writing activity, grades 3–5

1. Write a telling sentence on the board: "He was angry." Underneath, write a showing version: "He slammed his backpack on the table and wouldn't look at anyone." Ask: "Which one can you picture?"
2. A volunteer draws a feeling card and acts it out for 20 seconds without words, using face, hands, shoulders and the way they walk or sit.
3. Everyone else writes two or three things they saw, actions only. No feeling words allowed: "shoulders up near ears", "staring at the floor", "bouncing on toes".
4. Students guess the feeling, and the volunteer reveals the card. Did different actions point to the same feeling?
5. Each student turns their notes into one showing sentence about a character. Three students share, and the class gives a thumbs up if they could picture it.
6. Play four or five rounds, choosing a new volunteer each time.
7. Apply it. Each student finds one telling sentence in their own draft, circles it and rewrites it to show the feeling.

Tip: after a few rounds, add other ways to show feelings: what a character says ("I'm fine," she snapped), what they think, and what their body feels, like a fluttery stomach or hot cheeks.

Differentiation: for newer writers, post a word bank of actions (clenched fists, slumped, grinned, fidgeted) to borrow from. For advanced writers, ask them to show the feeling in a sentence that also moves the story forward. For English learners, act out the action words together first and let them write notes as quick sketches. For students who would rather not perform, they can act in pairs or describe a feeling with their hands only. Reading faces and body language can be hard for some students, including some autistic students, so keep a chart linking each feeling to two or three body clues and treat it as a tool, not a test.

Quick check: on an exit slip, students rewrite "The girl was tired" as a showing sentence with at least two actions.

If you try it, share the best showing sentence your class wrote, and see if we can guess the feeling.