Adjectives: A Unit Study for Valentine's Day

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Adjectives can Describe Anything

Fill the day with arts, crafts, science experiments and ways to say I Love You. Pour out your feelings of love throughout the day.

But it's not Valentine's Day you say? No Problem, these activities adapt to any other day or holiday.

You will find bulletin boards, games, word walls and math activities. Open up your heart and smile...

Brainstorm Adjectives 

Word Wall

1. Cover a bulletin board with red paper and Valentine's Day trim.
2. Brainstorm words to describe Valentine's Day and explain that these words are called adjectives.
3. Write the words on heart shaped pink and white papers. Arrange the words on the bulletin board.
4. Use this word wall for many of the activities suggested below.

pink

7 points

red

2 points

lacy

2 points

loving

2 points

sweet

2 points

romantic

1 point

mushy

1 point

Adjectives Make your Sentiments come alive 

Valentine

AFFECTIONATE: adoring, caring, considerate, devoted, loving
BEAUTIFUL: attractive, fair, lovely, stunning
DIVINE: godly, heavenly, glorious, wonderful, wondrous
ENDLESS: continual, eternal, perpetual, unceasing, unending, timeless
FAITHFUL: constant, steady, steadfast, true
FOND: affectionate, dear, devoted, loving
HAPPY: cheerful, glad, joyful, joyous, merry, pleased
HOPEFUL: hoping, optimistic, promising
INFINITE: endless, limitless, unbounded, immeasurable
MARRIED: marital, matrimonial, nuptial, spousal, wedded, united
NOBLE: august, royal, ethical, moral, virtuous, honorable
OPTIMISTIC: bright, sunny, upbeat, promising
PEACEFUL: placid, quiet, serene, still, undisturbed
PRICELESS: precious, inestimable, invaluable, valuable
SINCERE: genuine, honest, real, heartfelt
TOTAL: complete, entire, whole, absolute, pure, sheer, utter
UNCOMMON: extraordinary, scarce, unusual, rare, unique
UNCORRUPTED: ethical, principled, untarnished
UNDENIABLE: certain, incontestible, sure, undisputable
UNDYING: deathless, immortal, eternal, everlasting
UNFADING: enduring, lasting, undying, unfailing
UNIVERSAL: omnipresent, cosmic, global, worldwide
UNSELFISH: selfless, self-sacrificing
VIBRANT: intense, strong, vivid, dynamic, energetic, vigorous
VIRTUOUS: ethical, moral, noble, principled, pure, righteous
WARM: compassionate, sympathetic, tender, enthusiastic
WORTHY: capable, deserving, desirable, suited, honorable, noble

Add You Favorite Adjectives 

Adjectives

Put up pictures on a refrigerator or magnet board with magnet word adjectives and encourage everyone to put words that describe the picture under each one. New words can be added by using magnet strips.

honest

2 points

sparkly

2 points

green

1 point

mellow

1 point

gnarly

1 point

purple

1 point

sweet

1 point

Silent Reading 

Old Hat New HatHatsSilent Reading

Old Hat New Hat is a great book for introducing adjectives and most First Graders will be able to read it on their own my February. I have several copies in my classroom and allow children to read it in groups of 2 or 3 during Silent Reading time.

We also use this book as a Center Time activity by putting Highligher Tape (See Beginning to Read ) on each of the adjectives in the book.

I have a collection of hats in the Drama Center that the children like to wear when reading this book.

Old Hat New Hat (Bright & Early Books(R))

Amazon Price: $8.99 (as of 12/15/2009) Buy Now

Adjectives in Transition 

Transition Time

I love to pick up hats at yard sales. Whenever I bring in a new one we try to come up with as many words as possible to describe it. We write those adjectives on papers shaped like hats and put them all into a hat by the door.

Whenever we are lining up and need to wait for a few minutes we pick adjectives out of the hat and point to something that the adjective describes.

Writing Workshop 

Writer's WorkshopAdjective Poster

Valentine's Day is all about writing. We read the poem :

Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet
and so are you.

Some children choose to write variations of this poem and others make up their own verses. We always share our writing.
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Letters need Adjectives 

Add some Adjectives to Your Letters

Woman Writing a Letter




Buy at AllPosters.com


Whether you are writing a Valentine or writing a letter for a contest, all letters need adjective. Use adjectives whenever you need to describe a noun. Take out your fancy, feathery pen and write an explicit adjective-filled letter today.
Reading Rockets : Letters from the White House writing contest
Offers effective teaching strategies, activities, lessons, lesson plans, worksheets, exercises, skills, tests, assessments for reading comprehension, language arts, literacy, fluency, phonics and phonemic awareness for children, especially those with dyslexia and other reading difficulties.
Valentine's Day Love Letters to Children: A Gift from the Heart to Loved Ones Big and Small
Take a moment this February 14 and write a love note to the kids for Valentine's Day. Let them know how important they are with meaningful words from the heart.

Stick on some Adjectives 

Descriptive Word Magnets

Magnet Words

Of course you can stick these magnetic adjectives to the refrigerator but have you ever thought about sticking them to a cookie sheet?

Make an Adjective Center with magnetic pictures and words.

1. Match words with pictures.
2. Write sentences that use descriptive words.
3. Write a simple sentence and then add adjectives to make more complex sentences.

PCS LEARNING MAGNETS 90 DESCRIPTIVE

90 Descriptive Words with Picture Communication Symbols. Designed with the help of speech and language pathologists, these magnets will appeal to both special needs students and emerging readers.
Grade: PreK-1

Amazon Price: $28.00 (as of 12/15/2009) Buy Now

AdjectivePoem 

Almost any common noun can be made into an adjective by adding -y (air, beer, cat, dough, earth, fish), however, the adjective nearly always expresses a disagreeable or negative aspect of the noun's meaning.

Adjective Poem

Write adjectives on your ValentinesThis is a provincial province:
Brassy brass, tinny tin,
Womanly women, dressy dresses,
Hearty hearts, skinny skin;
Winey wine, watery water,
Earthy earth, stony stone,
Fruity fruit, flowery flowers,
Fleshy flesh, bony bone;
Soupy soup, sugary sugar,
Fishy fish, beery beer;
Glassy glass, leathery leather,
Smelly smells and hairy hair.

The point of all this double Dutch?
Why do we hate ourselves so much?

Challenge: Can you find any adjectives made this way with positive meanings?
An adjective poem
Brian Farrington wrote this little rhyme.
Poems With Adjectives
An inter-active poetry website for children and anyone interested in children's poetry., It also contains poems by well-known children's poets and a wealth of educational material for teachers.

For example.

On my way to the zoo I saw a bear.
It was a brown bear.
It was an ugly brown bear
It was a wild, ugly, brown bear
It was an angry, wild, ugly, brown bear
It was a hungry, angry, wild, ugly, brown bear
It was an escaped, hungry, angry, wild, ugly, brown bear
And it wanted to eat me!

Listening Center 

Listening Center

I read Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What Is an Adjective? onto a Cd and then have it available for children to listen to in the listening center. Repetition is very important for young children.

Soon the children are using new adjectives in their speech as well as in their writing.

Morning Meeting 

Morning Meeting

During Morning Meeting greet eachother by using the phrase

I like you because your are ...

Then explain that the words used to describe our friends are called adjectives.

Counting Hearts 

Sorting Candy Hearts

In the Math Center I have a baggie of candy hearts for each child and a 2 cm square graph paper worksheet with sentences at the bottom to be filled in such as: There are ___ pink candies. There are ___ green candies. There are ___ pink and green candies all together.

1. Sort the hearts by color.
2. Arrange the hearts on the graph.
3. Color each square under the heart.
4. Fill in the blanks at the bottom of the graph.
5. Check your answers with your partner.
6. Eat your candies.
7. Put your graph in the 3 ring notebook that will become a class book.

Remind the children that both numbers and colors are adjectives because they are words that describe something.

Variation: Use cut out hearts to write words on and sort them by parts of speech.

Baby Talk Conversation Hearts Candy

Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 12/15/2009) Buy Now

Jello Heart Science 

Observing and describing the states of matter

Jello Hearts

This is a good project to do with a parent volunteer.

Several packages of strawberry jello, hotplate and pan, spoons for mixing, bowl, ice cubes, refrigerator, heart shaped cookie cutters.

1. Notice how the jello powder is a solid.
2. Notice how the water is a liquid.
3. Heat the water and notice the steam.
4. Mix the powder into the hot water. The solid powder has become a liquid.
5. Add icecubes (solid) unitl they form a liquid.
6. Let cool in the refrigerator until afternoon.
7. Cut the jello with heart shaped cookie cutters.

Describe the jello as you eat it. These words are adjectives.

Make a Touchy Feely Box 

Use Adjectives to discribe what you feel!

Feely Box

Children learn best when they use all five senses. Adjectives are no exception. Ask the children to reach in and describe how each item feels. Explain that the words they use to describe these things are adjectives.
Touchy Feely Box
Choose touch words: hard-soft, warm-cold, smooth-rough. Make up many mystery boxes and have the children match boxes containing like objects.
The Touch n Feel Box
An extension of this lesson would be for the students to each make their own touch n feel box. Encourage them to come up with difficult things to identify. Have students make a list of describing words used to identify the object in the box.

Pink, Purple, Squishy....Adjectives for Valentine's Day Paintings 

Painting Adjectives

1. At the Art Center, let the children mix white and red tempra paint to make pink. Add a little blue to make purple.

2. Shape your hands as in the picture above and press them into the paint.

3. Press your hands onto paper.

Now use adjectives to describe the heart you made.

What Is Your Language? 

Learn adjectives in other languages

I Love You

Read the book: What is You Language?

What is You Language?
Please tell me now.
My language is ___.
This is the way it sounds.
_____ (Yes in many languages)

After reading it several times we change the words of yes to I Love You in as many languages as possible.

Ask children if they know any ways of saying I Love You in other languages. Write these words or gestures on heart shaped Post-its. Allow the children to stick them to the world map on the countries that speak those languages.

Think of your favorite adjective and then look it up in other languages. Can you use those adjectives to describe your favorite person?

What Is Your Language?

"What is your language? Please tell me now." Each group responds with the name of their native tongue and then replies, "This is the way it sounds...." The boys and girls say the word "yes" in German, French, Russian, Inuktitut, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Swahili, and Spanish. Then, when the traveler says he must go home, on one page they all say "no" in their respective languages.

Amazon Price: (as of 12/15/2009) Buy Now

Say I Love You around the world 

Social Studies for Valentine's Day

I Love You

Je t'aime.

French4 points

Te amo.

Spanish3 points

Wo ai ni.

Chinese (Mandarin)3 points

I Love You

English2 points

Ik hou van jou

Dutch2 points

Ich liebe Dich

German1 point

Volim te

Croatian1 point

Ai shite masu

Japanese, female speech1 point

Ai shiteru yo

Japanese, male speech1 point

Mi amas vin

Esperanto1 point

Cootie Catchers for Valentine's Day 

Cootie Catchers

Do you remember making cootie catchers? Did your teacher take them away from you and tell you to stop fooling around when you should be learning something?

Cootie catchers are the best way to get children to write down lots of adjective and use those adjectives over and over again.

I like to invite a class of older kids to come in and help the children make them until they get the hang of it. Soon this will be one of the most sought after centers in the classroom.

Cootie Catcher Book (Klutz)

Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 12/15/2009) Buy Now

What kind of Dress did Mary wear on Valentine's Day 

Adjectives in Music Class

Mary Wore a Red DressHenry Wore His Green Sneakers

Sing the song Mary Wore a Red Dress several times until the children know it well. Then start changing the word red. She could wear a blue dress, wrinkled dress, spotted dress, clean dress or a ripped dress. These new words are adjectives.

1. Pass out a coloring sheet with a girl in a dress.
2. Have the children color her dress.
3. Fill in the adjective that describes her dress.
4. Share your picture and sing the verse that goes with it.
5. Assemble the pages into a class book.

We love to sing this song with Pete Seeger or Raffi. Having a copy of the book in big book form is helpful for reading with the whole class. We just descovered the version with Henry's green sneakers and now have found it in spanish as well.

Hugging is Physical Education and Mathematics rolled into One 

Did you know that numbers are adjectives?

Group Hugs

Take the kids out on the playround. Tell them that they will be running around the playgound until they hear the whistle. When they hear the whistle they must immediately stop and listen for the directions.

ie:

Get into groups of 3.
Run
Get into groups of 2.
Run

Notice that some times there will be children left over. Whenever possible I join these children to make the groups even. If it is not possible we learn about remainders in division and they get to hug me until it's time to run again.

Games for Math

Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 12/15/2009) Buy Now

Adjective Saturated Picture Books 

Adjectives

Reading to children everyday, all day, is very important. These are books that just happen to have lots of adjectives. We read these books first of all because they are fun to read.

After the children know the books well we talk about adjectives. Some children even begin to try to add adjectives to their writing the way it has been done in these books. When they are sharing their writing I point this out to the class by praising each child's writing that uses an increased number of adjectives.

Please add your own adjective rich book suggestions to the list.

After reading these books to the children I like to make them available to take home in Literacy Bags.

The B Book (Bright & Early Books)

Big Brown Bear. Big brown bear. Blue balloon.. Lot more...2 points

Old Hat New Hat (Bright & Early Board Books(TM)) by Stan Berenstain

Adjectives describe all the kinds of hats.2 points

Many Luscious Lollipops (World of Language) by Ruth Heller

An adjective book with incredible illustrations.2 points

Save Your Adjectives Literacy Bag 

Adjectives

Read the story The Boy Who Loved Words to the children in class. Then invite them to take home this literacy bag and fill the pink rubber piggy bank with adjectives that they find when reading the B Book or anywhere else at home. They write the adjectives they find on pink heart shaped papers that fit into the piggy bank. Kids will love the magnet words and blocks which also have adjectives. When back in school we look for new adjectives that and add them to the Adjective Word Wall.

Stick an Adjective in your Pocket 

Make Books with Pockets for Valentine's Day

Theme Pockets

We all know kids love to stuff their pockets with neat things. Each volume contains complete instructions and materials to make three different books with pockets, based on a topic pertinent to the month, and utilizing items and information you have readily available.

Theme Pockets - February

Amazon Price: $14.99 (as of 12/15/2009) Buy Now

Adjective Blocks 

Find and Stack the Letters
Pick out a letter to have your child find, such as the letter 'a'. Have them stack up all the 'a's' they can find as high as they can until the blocks tumble. Or, instead of stacking the found letters have the child place them side-by-side, or build some other structure. Have them build something that begins with the letter the child is looking for. For example ask, "Can you build a bridge with all the 'b's'?" Or let the child direct the building.
Related activity: Have the child count the number of letters they have found.

Adjective Blocks

I Spy - beginner
"I Spy with my little eye, all words beginning with the sound 's'." Child finds all words beginning with the letter 's'. ('sat', 'sleeps', 'silly', sticky', 'sister', 'shoe', and 'school') Repeat with other sounds.

Adjective Blocks

What If - beginner
Ask child to pick a block and then ask, "What if the first letter was taken away? What word would we have?" Example 'Cat..at', 'ran...an', 'sister...ister'. Some words will be real words, others will be nonsense words, but it is important to explore with both types.

Adjective Blocks

What If - advanced
Ask child to pick a block and then ask, "What if the first letter was switched to a different sound, such as the sound "t". (recommended substitution sounds include 'p', 'd', 'l', 'g', 'n', and 'm'.) Example: original word is 'cat'; new word is 'tat'.

Adjective Blocks

Find-A-Word
Have your child pick out specific words. "Can you find 'cat'?" Make the task easier by limiting the number of blocks to choose from or more challenging by including more. Or, have the child find certain words by providing descriptive cues, for example, "find me something you might wear on you foot." Expand number of blocks provided as child's sight-reading skills improve.
Related activity: Set out one or all of the adjective blocks. Pick out a word like 'house', and have the child find adjectives that describes theirs, such as 'big', 'white', 'new', etc.

Adjective Blocks

Sing-A-Long
Create your own sentence and ask child to tap/beat drum/clap to the sillables in each word as you would for the song "Happy Birthday to You".

Opposites
Choose a word from the following list; 'girl', 'boy', 'brother', 'sister', 'old', 'new', 'white', 'black', 'big', 'little'. Have the child create a sentence using one of these words. Lastly, ask the child what is the opposite of the word they were given.

101 Word Games 

101 Word Games

These games are great for Beginning Readers, Foreign Language Learners and even for learning Math or Science vocabulary.

Games include:
1. I Packed my Bag for Alaska
2. Animal Squares
3. In the Dark
4. Take a Number

There are Vocabulary Games. Number Games, Structure Games, Spelling Games, Conversation Games, Writing Games, Role Play and Dramatics.

101 Word Games (Resource Books for Teachers of Young Students)

Amazon Price: $10.10 (as of 12/15/2009) Buy Now

Adjective Assessment 

Draw a heart around the adjectives.

Print a poem or a short story for the children to enjoy and then ask them to draw hearts around the adjectives.

Drawing the hearts in pink or red sparkly pen will make the activity fun and not feel so much like a test.

Adjectives can discribe great works of art 

Adjectives in Pictures

Large, full-color photographs are excellent language development tools for Speech-Language therapies, ESL programs, or other language interventions. Includes teacher resource cards filled with instruction suggestions, activity ideas, word lists in English, Spanish and French, and a sturdy storage box. Use to develop expressive and receptive language skills, stimulate conversation, support augmentative communication, build literacy skills, increase vocabulary, and more! Includes 275 photo cards of Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives.

Love Letter Adjectives 

It's Show and Tell Time with adjectives:

Valentine's Day Origami

Photo Credit: Origami Heart
on Flickr, Creative Commons.



Write a love letter and include lots of adjectives to tell how much you love someone. Then show them by folding your letter into a heart shape.
How to Fold an Origami Heart | eHow.com
How to Fold an Origami Heart. I often find myself in need of an original way to fold a letter to my loved one. This easy trick adds a little romance to my notes.

Printable Adjective Activities 

Words I Know by Heart
Multisensory Grammar Activities
Identifying and classifying adjectives in a printable pdf format.
Activities for: Pig Pigger Piggest
Adjective activities to go with the book: Pig, Pigger, Piggest.
Sharing Mini Office Files
Words I Know by Heart
BE MY VALENTINE
Worksheets for working on grammar including adjectives with a Valentine's Day Theme.
Adding Adjectives
Scroll down to the adjectives activity where children get to add adjectives to sentences to help them describe better.

Online Adjective Games 

Playing Games
Online Adjectives Games
Lots of Online Word Games
Grammar Blast
Online adjective game by Houghton Mifflin
WritingFix for Kids...The Adjective Game
Click on ideas and adjectives for writing a story.
Wacky Web Tales: A Special Valentine
Fill in the blanks. A Special Valentine adjective color color plural noun singular noun singular noun adjective your name adjective famous person plural noun verb ending with -ing Wacky Web Tales Education Place Site Index Cop

Opposite Adjectives 

Opposites

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The Adjective Song 

Laminate and Post this Adjective Song for singing during Morning Circle Time. Once the children know the song you can turn it into a center by having them draw hearts around all of the adjectives.
The Adjective Song
(sung to the tune of "School Days" by Chuck Berry)

An adjective describes a noun
There are eight types you've got to get down
Descriptive adjectives, there are a lot
Short, fat, skinny and hot

Indefinite articles "an" and "a"
Definite "the" is all you say.
Demonstratives, there are four to know
This, that, these, and those

Interrogatives are what, whose and which.
Limiting have too many to list
But words like "all," "some," "any," or "few,"
"Several," "other" and numbers, too.

These are possessives so learn them too
My, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose
Proper adjectives you've got to try
American people, French fry

Comparatives: good, better, and best
Tall, taller, tallest and all the rest.

Valentine's Day Adjective Art 

Match the Adjective to the Valentine

Valentine's Day Adjective Art

Have each of the kids draw or paint a picture for Valentine's Day. Then ask them to trade pictures with someone else in the room. Display all of the pictures on a bulletin board.Now gather the children together and read the descriptions. Can they tell which description goes with each picture?

Once children understand the process, this could become a center.

Numbers could be put on the back of each picture and matching description for self-checking.
Next step with adjectives - ProTeacher Community
Next step with adjectives Second Grade
Heart Art
Bulletin Board of Heart Art

Adjectives are in the Directory 

Adjectives

Thank you to the Wheelers for including the Adjectives in their Directory.
The Four Wheelers Unit Study Directory
The Four Wheelers Internet Directory of Unit Studies contains a list, roughly arranged by subject, of links to unit studies that are published on the Internet.

More Fun and Active Teaching Ideas can be found in the following lenses. 

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Adjectives: A Unit Study for Valentine's Day is in the Four Wheeler's Online Unit Study Directory 

The Four Wheelers Internet Directory of Unit Studies

Thank you to the Four Wheelers for including the Adjectives: A Unit Study for Valentine's Day in their Online Unit Study Directory.
Internet Directory of Unit Studies
The Four Wheelers Internet Directory of Unit Studies contains a list, roughly arranged by subject, of links to unit studies that are published on the Internet.

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