A 10-minute writing task for your YEAR 4 child - A Storm

🌧️ Week Eleven Writing Challenge! 🌧️

A short and simple task this week — perfect for ten minutes of creative fun.

Since it’s rainy and stormy across much of the UK, we’re focusing on something children often find surprisingly enjoyable: using taste and smell to describe things that don’t really have either.

Children love writing with the five senses, but they often get stuck on taste and smell when the object isn’t food. They usually say they can’t taste a storm… and then we end up with the same metallic idea again !

This week, we show them that taste and smell can link to feelings, memories, or the mood of a moment.

🌪️ Examples

Here are a few ideas to get them thinking:

• The storm tasted sharp, like the moment just before tears spill.
• The air smelled angry and heavy, almost like burnt toast left too long.
• The rain tasted excited and fizzy, a bit like lemonade bubbles popping.
• The wind smelled tired, like old paper that has soaked up the night.

📝 10-Minute Task: Describe a Stormy Evening

Write 3–4 sentences describing a rainy, stormy evening as dusk settles.

Encourage your child to think about:

• what the air might smell like
• what the storm could taste like, using emotion or imagination
• how the atmosphere feels as night begins to creep in

✨ Example Starter (optional) using a simple sentence starter, ‘The…’:

The storm rolled in as the sky deepened to purple. The air smelled heavy, almost as if it was holding a secret. The first drops tasted sharp on my lips, cold and full of nervous energy.

🌧️ Word Bank

Smells:
damp, smoky, earthy, heavy, sharp, bitter, stale, fresh, electric

Tastes:
tangy, metallic, sour, sweet, sharp, nervous, excited, cold, fizzy

Atmosphere words:
gloomy, restless, rumbling, distant, shadows, trembling, shivering, humming

Happy writing, everyone! ✍️✨

Anna Donovan
Qualified Teacher (QTS 2005)
Specialist 11+ Exam Essay & Creative Writing Tutor