Tell Me About it: Adjective Practice

Teaching the parts of speech can sometimes be very difficult in first grade, especially when a lot of what we do is to try to teach students to simply be able to read and write basic sentences. However, adjectives make sentences come alive and as part of the Common Core standards first grade students must be able to identify them, use them, and understand the purpose of adjectives in sentences.

Two activities that I have done in my classroom have revolved around using food items to help students understand that adjectives are how we use our senses in sentences.

The first activity involves Skittles. Students are given one Skittle and then we look at it, taste, it, feel it, and dare I say....listen to it to come up with words to describe the candy. Then students pick three of the describing words and write sentences. The last part of the activity involves them drawing a basic picture of their Skittle.








The next activity involves marshmallows. Students completed this assignment by observing and interacting with the marshmallow in the same way we did the Skittle. Except this time, students brainstormed adjectives that would describe the marshmallow instead of simple circling the words as indicated on the above worksheet. Then students drew a picture of the marshmallow. Students were also able to use a white crayon and black construction paper to complete this assignment. I could also next time have students construct a word web instead of the list to display their marshmallow adjectives.