One way to distinguish between adverbs and adjectives is to see what kind of question must be asked of the sentence. Teach students this technique with an activity worksheet you design. Make a sheet with a number of sentences containing either adverbs or adjectives. Have space next to the sentence for students to make a question. If the appropriate question is how, where or when, the sentence contains an adverb. For example, for the sentence "Bill runs quickly," students will come up with the question "How does Bill run?" and "quickly" is therefore an adverb. In "The room is hot," however, the question to be asked is "What is the room like?" and "hot" is therefore an adjective because it describes the noun "room."
Coming up with a comprehensive list of adverbs is a good way to understand the variety of adverbs out there. Make a worksheet that lists all 26 letters of the alphabet with a blank space next to each letter. Have students think of an adverb that begins with each letter of the alphabet. Allow them to come up with a made-up or silly adverb for the letter X. You can also do this activity orally without a worksheet.
Drama games are good for encouraging student participation. Have one student come to the front of the room and mime an action. The class must guess what action he is performing. The class must then suggest an adverb to modify how the student performs the action. For example, if the action is brushing teeth, students might suggest "quickly," "angrily" or "sleepily." The student at the front must mime the action again in the manner suggested. Have students take turns coming to the front of the room to perform this task.
Students' artistic talents are another good resource for teaching adverbs. Write a number of different verbs on small slips of paper and place them in a hat. Write a number of different adverbs on slips of paper and place them in a different hat. Have students select one verb and one adjective at random. Students must draw the combination in any way they see fit. For example, if they choose "eating" and "horrifically," they must draw someone eating horrifically, whatever this means to them.