Adjectives: Making Stories Interesting

Adjectives.... Do you know what they are? Adjectives are words that describe nouns. They are what make our stories interesting. Compare these two sentences:

1.)The girl ran down the road.

2.) The dirty little girl ran down the dark, muddy road.

Which sentence is more interesting? Which one grabs your attention and makes you want to read more? Adjectives are like the flavoring for our writing. We can write a sentence without adjectives but, it will be a boring sentence.

Go to the following website and watch this movie to learn more:  http://www.kidsknowit.com/interactive-educational-movies/free-online-movies.php?movie=Adjectives

Now that you understand what an adjective is and what it does, how about a game to help you practice?http://www.ezschool.com/Games/Adjectives.html

Did you enjoy the game? Now that you have had some practice lets test your knowledge. Take this quiz to see how well you understand what an adjective is and how they are used: http://www.grammaruntied.com/adjectives/adjpractice.html

How did you do? Are you ready for a challenge? Break into pairs.Write the story below filling in your own adjectives in each of the blanks. Then compare your story to other  group's stories. How different are they? Do different adjectives change the story?

     One _____ day, I was sitting in my _____ room. I looked out my window to see a _____ bird with _____ spots sitting in a tree. I had never seen the ____ bird before. I went outside to see if she had a nest in the tree. To my surprise, ______ baby birds were in a nest in the tree. They looked just like the mommy bird except they were ____er and _____er.

Are you ready for the real challenge? Are your creative juices flowing? Can you use adjectives to make a story unique? If you think you are ready try this:

1) Have each member of your group come up with a list of twenty adjectives. Everyone should keep their list private. Shhhh... no telling!

2) As a group write a story leaving 20 blanks for adjectives. Remember each adjective describes a noun so there must be at least 20 nouns in your story.

3) Print a copy of your groups story for each person in the group. Each person should use their list of adjectives and fill in the story. Compare your stories. Are they all different? Are they silly? Do your stories make sense? Did you choose adjectives that worked well?

4) Turn in your completed stories to your teacher. Remember to use adjectives to make all of your writing more interesting.