So your kids understand what an adjective is. Now what?
Here are some fun activities you can do with them to practice identifying adjectives and using them!
1. Outdoors Scavenger Hunt
Take your students outside with a
clipboard and a sheet to record what they observe.
- Have them touch things and
record what those things feel like (warm, cold, smooth, rough, hard, soft,
sharp, blunt, etc). - Have them close their eyes, listen to sounds, and record
what those sounds sounded like (loud, soft, high pitch, low pitch, pleasant,
annoying, etc). - Next, have them look around at things. Have them describe the
colors and other qualities of the things they see. - Back in the classroom, have them write about what they experienced outside using the adjectives on their chart!
2. Book Scavenger Hunt
Have your students partner with a buddy to find adjectives in books that they enjoy reading.
- As students find adjectives, write them on sticky notes.
- When they are done, have the buddies find 2 other buddies and use the adjectives to orally retell the parts of the story that go with each adjective.
3. Sentence Strip Scavenger Hunt
Get kids moving and looking for adjectives by doing a scavenger hunt in your classroom!
- Write sentences with adjectives on sentence strips.
- Number the sentence strips and tape them to your walls. If you have hallway space, this can also happen out in the hall!
- Give your students a clipboard and paper and have them number the paper to match the number of sentences you have on your walls. (If you have 10 sentence strips, kids number their papers from 1 to 10).
- As students walk around
and read the sentences, have them identify the adjectives and write them on the
lines next to the corresponding number on their papers. (If they are working on sentence number 4, their adjective is written on line 4 on their paper.) - If you feel it would be a fair assessment, collect the papers and take a grade! (MAKE SUPER SURE that each paper has a name before you collect them 😉
4. Card Sort
Make your cards or purchase for 1st or 2nd Grades. |
This is a super quick activity for the morning, or a “ticket out the door” type of thing.
- Have a T-Chart chart on your easel with the
headings “Nouns and Adjectives”. (Or use as many parts of speech as you find appropriate.) - As students come into your classroom in the
morning, or as they leave for lunch, hand them cards with either a noun or an adjective. - Have students write their names on the cards and place them under the correct heading on the chart.
- This activity is another informal way of assessing your students’ understanding, and a quick way to determine who needs extra instruction in a small group setting.
5. Describe a Funny Picture
Kids love being creative. Let them use adjectives to creatively describe pictures!
- Show your students a picture of a
funny character, or have them draw their own. - Have students use adjectives, in complete sentences, to describe their pictures.
Preview |
I use these adorable printables in my classroom. I love the choice of difficulty level, because it allows me to address different students needs.
Preview |
Here’s an example of what one of my students did.
Looking back, I should have required them to not repeat adjectives in their sentences, right?
Available for 1st and 2nd Grades. |
- Challenge early finishers to write a story about their character using adjectives!
These were written on the back of the sheets you saw above.
Grab my Parts of Speech Sample!
Don’t miss 5 Noun Lessons you should teach in 1st Grade!
For extra adjective resources, feel free to check these packets at my TpT store. They are packed with all sorts of activities to help you teach great adjective lessons!
1st Grade |
2nd Grade |