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Activities for Teaching Adjectives to First-Graders

The parts of speech are a main focus of language arts instruction in the first grade. At this age, children are beginning to become competent readers and writers, and as they become more experienced with words, they start learning the different types of words. When teaching first-graders about adjectives, use engaging activities that interest them to foster greater comprehension of this important part of speech.
  1. Name the Item Game

    • Print out pictures of different items that have definite distinguishing features; colors, shapes or size, for example. Spread out the pictures and explain to pupils that you're going to describe an item and they should select the picture of the item you're talking about; explain that the describing words you are using are called adjectives. State a few descriptive words that relate to a particular item. For example, if you're describing an orange, you might say, "It's orange and round." Provide a description to one pupil at a time. If the pupil can identify the correct item, she takes the picture; if she can't, the next pupil tries to identify the object. The pupil with the most pictures wins the game.

    Sensory Adjectives

    • With this activity, pupils use their sense of touch to describe how different items feel. Place items that have different textures inside individual bags -- sandpaper, cotton and satin, for example. Invite pupils to place their hands inside the bags and feel the objects. Encourage them to describe how the items feel. Explain to them that the words they are using are called adjectives. Ask if they can guess what the items are based how they feel.

    Erasing Adjectives

    • On the board, write two lists of words that include nouns, verbs and adjectives. Divide the class into two teams and have each team form a single-file line. The first player on each team must read an adjective from the list of words. If he has correctly identified an adjective, he may erase the word and step to the back of the line. If the word he reads is not an adjective, the player steps to the back of the line without erasing it. The first team to erase all the adjectives from its list of words wins the game.

    Adjective Dictionary

    • Enlist pupils to help create a dictionary of adjectives. On construction paper, write individual adjectives -- smelly, skinny, tall, fat, pretty and so forth -- and distribute them to pupils. Instruct pupils to write a sentence on the paper they've been given that uses the adjective and then have them draw a picture to illustrate the sentence. For example, the person who has the word "pretty" may write, "The flower was pretty," then draw a picture of a flower. Collect the papers, laminate them and assemble them as a book. Look through the dictionary as a class and encourage children to use the dictionary as a tool while writing.

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