Grade Levels: K-3

This page provides information to support educators and families in teaching K-3 students about Adjectives and Adverbs. It is designed to complement the Adjectives and Adverbs topic page on BrainPOP Jr.

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 asmother, 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.