Adjectives and Adverbs
Background Information & Activities

© 1999-2012 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

Review with your children that adjectives are words that describe nouns, and adverbs are words that describe verbs. We recommend screening the Nouns and Plural Nouns movies for review. In this movie, Annie and Moby learn about and explore different adjectives and adverbs. It is important for your children to understand that adjectives and adverbs help writing come to life and help readers and listeners make clear pictures in their minds.

Remind your children that a noun is a word that names a person, place, animal, thing, or idea. Brainstorm different nouns, such as mother, school, dog, chair, and information. Explain that an adjective is a word that describes a noun. Adjectives describe how nouns look, smell, taste, sound, or feel. Adjectives can also describe how a noun behaves or acts: "My dog is playful." Add adjectives to some of the nouns you brainstormed together to form phrases or short sentences: "My cat is black and white." Remind your children that colors can be nouns or they can be adjectives when they describe a noun.

Numbers can also be adjectives. Explore different sentences with numbers together, such as "I have three books." The number describes the quantity of books. Adjectives can describe how much or how many, as in the words some, few, all, most, many, a lot, several, couple, and half. Practice writing different sentences and phrases together. You may want to point out sentences where numbers act as noun, as in the sentence "My favorite number is 3." This might help some children distinguish when numbers are used as nouns or as adjectives.

Adjectives can appear in different parts of a sentence. Sometimes they come before a noun: "The black cat crosses the dark street." Sometimes they come after the nouns: "The cat is black" or "The street seems dark." Brainstorm different adjectives and have students use them in sentences. Then ask them to notice where the adjectives appear in the sentences.

Adverbs are words that describe verbs. Remind your children that a verb is an action word. Brainstorm verbs together or have your children act them out. Verbs name actions, such as kick, dance, skip, hop, clap, think, see, and fall. Adverbs describe actions and tell how an action is done. Write the sentence, "The girl sings loudly." The word loudly is an adverb that describes how the girl sings. Come up with sentences together using adverbs. Some children may notice that many adverbs end in —ly.

Adverbs can also describe where and when, or how often an action takes place. For example, the words yesterday, today, tomorrow, sometimes, rarely, never, always, often, and twice all describe when an action takes place or the frequency of when it takes place: "I ate soup yesterday." Adverbs like outside, inside, here, there, and everywhere describe where an action takes place: "I sat outside." Together, write different sentences together or find examples of sentences with adverbs in books and magazines.

Help your children understand that adjectives and adverbs help bring writing to life. Adjectives and adverbs are descriptive and they help readers and listeners make clear pictures in their mind. Encourage your children to use adjectives and adverbs when they write to strengthen their language and sharpen their skills. Give them the tools to be confident, strong writers by exposing them to different kinds of writing through books, magazines, and poetry.

See more lesson plans and resources: BrainPOP Educators.

Adjectives and Adverbs Teacher Activities

© 1999-2012 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

Adjective and Noun

Give each student an index card or stickie note. Ask half the students to write a noun and the other half to write an adjective. Encourage students to be creative. Remind them that numbers and colors can be adjectives. Then have students walk around the room and pair up nouns and adjectives together. Have them read their words out loud and write a sentence together. The nouns and adjectives might be very silly together! Some students may wish to act out their sentences in front of the class.

"Simon Says" with Adverbs

Play the game "Simon Says" but use adverbs in the commands, such as "Simon says to slowly walk three steps." You can stop and write the sentences on the board or have a student volunteer to write the sentence on the board. The students that get "out" can call out the commands using adverbs. You may want to have a bank of adverbs available for students to get ideas for their commands. Encourage them to be creative!

Sentence Builders

Write a simple sentence on the board, such as, "I see a bird." Then have students improve the sentence by adding adjectives and adverbs. You may want students to write their sentences down in their notebooks and share them with the whole class. Discuss each sentence and identify the adverb and adjective. Guide students to understand how adjectives and adverbs bring writing to life!

Adjectives and Adverbs Family Activities

© 1999-2012 BrainPOP. All rights reserved.

Play by Play

Together with your child, listen to a sportscast on the radio. Have your child pay attention to the sportscaster and how he or she describes the game. What kind of adjectives and adverbs were used? Then do an activity together, such as cooking, cleaning, or gardening. Have your child narrate the activity just like a sportscaster. Encourage him or her to be creative and use plenty of adjectives and adverbs.

Brainstorm Storm

There are many ways to describe one thing! Have your child imagine a storm and come up with as many adjectives as possible to describe it. To challenge your child, put a time limit on the brainstorming session. How many adjectives can your child come up with in five minutes? Two minutes? You can repeat the activity using other nouns.