The Adjective

Material

A group of objects that are in some way related to one another, e.g. animals on the farm, a model house (dollhouse), a tea set, etc. 
Box of grammar symbols. 
A box of printed adjectival slips describing the objects, in a container (can be marked with adjective symbol and a #1).
The teacher’s writing tray. 

Presentation

1. Invite two to three children to the lesson. 
2. Introduce the children to the farm.  
3. Make light conversation about the farm.  
4. Show the children how to open and close the roof of the barn. 
5. Ask the children to place and move animals on the farm however they like. 
6. Return to the table. 
7. Write on a slip of paper the followed by an animal’s name 
   e.g. the cow 
8. Ask the child to read it and bring the object.  
9. “Oh yes, that is a nice one! But I am thinking of a different cow.” 
10. Repeat these steps for the other children. 
11. “Put this cow away and I’ll write you another clue, so you know which cow I’m thinking of.” 
12. For each child, write on a separate piece of paper an adjective such as a color or size. 
    e.g. brown  
13. Place the adjective at the end of the other slip. 
14. Ask child to read the cow brown. 
15. “Does that sound right to you? Me neither, it’s a little strange.” 
16. Cut the cow label in two pieces. 
17. Transpose the words, showing way that don’t make sense. 
    e.g. brown the cow. 
18. “Does that sound right? I didn’t think so either.” 
19. Place the words in the proper order.  
20. “Now does it sound right? There we go!” 
21. Repeat this process at least twice for each child. 
22. Ask the child to get the object. 
23. Bring the box of grammar symbols to the table.  
24. Do the following simultaneously with all the children. 
25. “Which word told you what animal I wanted?” 
26. Tell the children that the large black triangle symbolizes the object you wanted.  
27. Place the large black triangle above the word cow. 
28. “Which word told you which cow I wanted?” 
29. Tell the children that the medium dark blue triangle symbolizes the word that describes the animal.  
30. Place the medium dark blue triangle above the word brown. 
31. “Which word told you there was only one brown cow?” 
32. Tell the children that the small light blue triangle symbolizes how many.  
33. Place the small light blue triangle above the word the. 
34. Show the children the printed slips so that they can work independently. 

Exercises

Exercise 1, Children works with printed slip labels from the box that is labeled with a medium dark blue triangle with a #1.
Exercise 2, Children write their own slips that can be about anything. 
Exercise 3, Child sits with a book and looks for adjectives. 
Exercise 4, Ask the child to make a list of adjectives. 

Purpose

To make the child aware of individual words when reading, especially the function and positions of adjectives.  

Age

4 1/2 to 5

Notes

This is the introduction of the grammar symbols. 
This is the only time we transpose before placing symbols. 
Exercises 2, 3, and 4 are just suggestions to children to do more things with adjectives. 
These grammar symbols can be paper or plastic.