Adjective Mini Lessons

We have some ideas to share with you to help teach adjectives to your kindergarten and first grade students. The mini lessons would perfectly follow a reading of our new finger play action rhyme Rabbit however they can also be used independently. Be flexible and incorporate them how you see best into your own lesson sequence.

Our Rabbit rhyme finishes with the line:

He curls up tightly in a soft round ball.

Guide your students to an understanding that round and soft are adjectives - they help us know more about the shape of rabbit and help us visualize or perhaps make a personal connection when we read. The author has written these as descriptive words.

Mini Lesson 1 - Defining an Adjective

define an adjective for your students
help them connect adjectives and nouns
use our printable poster or project it onto your electronic board
read the sample sentence: This is an orange carrot
ask students to suggest a few more words that describe the carrot instead of orange
write the sentence on a board or chart and show students how you can replace the adjective - e.g. little - and it remains describing the noun - carrot

Mini Lesson 2: Using our senses

tell students that we can generate more adjectives for a carrot by thinking about our senses
if you have a school garden or vegetable patch you could let students explore carrots that have grown
if appropriate, bring some fresh raw carrots into class for students to explore with their senses
show students our poster (print or projected onto board) and use it to guide a collaborative brainstorm of adjectives for a carrot based on their sensory exploration

record them on our second chart

let students record their own adjectives on our worksheet or in their reading journals

Lesson 3: Revise and get ready for writing

after a few days have a revision mini lesson
ask students to recall some adjectives for a carrot
record some on the class poster - this time in linear format to lay the foundation for sentence writing (left to right across the page)
model how to use this idea list to support writing a sentence - point across the line of words, read them, select a few, see how they fit in an order that makes sense
guide the class through collaborative sentence writing - Let's choose a few adjectives to include in a descriptive sentence about Rabbit's carrots
vocalize as you write to model the steps you take as a writer to create a sentence - Rabbit has a capital because it it the first letter of the sentence etc

Mini Lesson 4 - Independent Writing

adjust your writing lesson for the age/stage of your students - it could be a sentence, paragraph or short descriptive passage
before students write, model again some descriptive sentences
help students define their purpose for writing before they start - perhaps they are recounting the carrot they found in the school garden. They could be describing a carrot they have eaten at home. They may be describing the carrots that Rabbit has found in his garden in a creative, fictional way.
in our printable pack we have included 3 line styles to cater for your range of learners, however this task could also be completed in a writing journal

Mini Lesson 5 - Display It

after all this class discussion, talking and listening - provide a way for students to contribute to a classroom display of learning
classroom displays help students revise and reflect back to prior learning for the weeks ahead - they may also make additional links to new lessons content and deepen their understanding
in our pack, we've provided a quick craft (color, write, cut) that students can complete - these can be displayed on a classroom bulletin board or in their reading journals
alternatively you may like students to freely create their own visual representation of their learning using paper and pencils

Ongoing

as you read books to your class in the days and weeks following these mini lessons, pause, identify and discuss adjectives that you encounter or make connections to the discussions you had during this lesson sequence