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Verbs: What ARE You Doing?

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Verbs tell us what's happening

No matter where or when, verbs are action words. They tell what we are doing, what's happening, or how we are.

Whether you are reading, writing or rhyming,
Jumping, swimming or crawling,
Twittering, Squidooing, or DIGGing,
There is a verb that tells what you are doing.

Come explore all the fun, hands-on ways to learn about verbs.

So put your verbs to work, verbs are where the action is...

Photo Credit:Billy Jumps Rope
Hurford, Miriam &...
Available on Allposters

Verbs at Recess

What are you doing on the Playground?

Kenneth Merriman Swinging on Tree Limb After Kicking Away Stilts

Kenneth Merriman Swinging on Tree Limb After Kicking Away Stilts
Kelley, Robert W.
Available at AllPosters.com

One of my favorite games to play with children to help them learn about verbs is to take them outside and let them play. Then in a playful way I run up to different children and ask them, What are you doing?

The word that answers that question is a verb!
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What are you doing? A Game of Verbs!

Verb Game

Verbs

Children demonstrate lots of exciting verbs while playing on the playground at recess time. Here is a fun game to play as you roam around noticing the children, interacting with them and incidentally teach a lesson on verbs.

Alicia may say, I'm swinging!

And I tell her, Swinging is a verb.


I make the rounds of all the children and repeat the game often. Sometimes other children will pick up on the game and pretty soon everyone knows what a verb is.

Photo Credit: Swinging by Léveillée, Hélène
Available at AllPosters.com

Singing about Verbs

The Verb changes with each Verse

Clean and Fresh


Photo Credit: Clean and Fresh Art Print by Van Dijk
Available at AllPosters

The Mulberry Bush

First Verse:

Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush, the mulberry bush.
Here we go 'round the mulberry bush,
So early in the morning.

This is the way we wash our clothes,
Wash our clothes, wash our clothes.
This is the way we wash our clothes,
So early Monday morning.

Verbs

Photo Credit: The sunbonnet babies at work, at play
Available on Amazon



This is the way we iron our clothes,
Iron our clothes, iron our clothes.
This is the way we iron our clothes,
So early Tuesday morning.

This is the way we mend our clothes,
Mend our clothes, mend our clothes.
This is the way we mend our clothes,
So early Wednesday morning.

- Traditional

The verbs in this traditional song include wash, iron and mend. Think of other verbs to describe what you do throughout the week and then make up new verses with the verbs that you found.

Farmer's Wife Sweeping, 1867

Farmer's Wife Sweeping, 1867
Millet
Buy at AllPosters.com



This is the way we sweep the floor,
Sweep the floor, sweep the floor.

This is the way we sweep the floor,
So early Thursday morning.

Photo Credit: Scrub the Floor
in the Public Domain



This is the way we scrub the floor,
Scrub the floor, scrub the floor.
This is the way we scrub the floor,
So early Friday morning.

French-Canadian Woman Baking Bread in an Outdoor Oven, c.1900
French-Canadian Woman Baking Bread in an Outdoor Oven, c.1900
Available on AllPosters



This is the way we bake our bread,
Bake our bread, bake our bread.
This is the way we bake our bread,
So early Saturday morning.

After teaching this song, help children find the verbs. We like to use highlighter tape. Now think up new verses by changing the verbs in the song.

Tell us your favorite Verbs:

What do you like to do? Anything you do is a verb.

Verbs

Photo Credit: Verb Cards
By sharonart on Photobucket


A verb is a word (part of speech) that usually denotes an action (bring, read), an occurrence (decompose, glitter), or a state of being (exist, stand).

-Wikipedia

Please add to the list of favorite verbs:

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Read

5 points

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Squidoo

5 points

3

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Sleep

5 points

4

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Procrastinate

4 points

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Write

3 points

6

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Eat

3 points

7

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Walk

I love to walk with nordic poles. Poutine3 points

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Bake

2 points

9

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Sing

2 points

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Design Graphics

2 points

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swim

2 points

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Play

1 point

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Hike

aka walk, trek, tramp1 point

Write an Instant Verb Verse Poem

Verbs link the rhymes together

Writing is a Verb

Photo Credit: Child Writing at a Desk
from tHE bROkeN WOrds Blogspot



Verbs can be used to create interesting poems. Here is an online instant Verb Verse Creator to help children write poems of verbs:

You could use this Verb Verse Creation activity as one of your literacy centers. Have the computer loaded with the Verb Verse site and explain to the children how the site works. Two children at a time can practice writing Verb Verses. When they have created a poem that they like they can print it and let others have an opportunity.

Be sure to allow time for the children to share the poetry they have written later in the day during Writing Workshop.
Write an Instant Verb Verse Poem
1. First think about something you do.
2. Then brainstorm six verbs that go with that action.
3. Then just fill them in the blanks below to make your instant verb verse.

Action Verbs

Verbs tell What's Going On

Action Verbs

Visual Verb Cards
Available on Amazon



1. Color and laminate these pictures and have children make patterns with them on the chalk tray.

2. One child points to the pictures while the rest do the action shown.

3. This activity encourages reading left to right, understanding of verbs, mathematical patterning and physical activity.

Variation: Write the words on large pieces of paper. Post them around the playground. Children use the movement described by the verb to demonstrating the meaning of the verb as they go to the correct word.
Verbs and other Worksheets
Language Worksheets for Speech & Language Therapists & Teachers. Suitable for Early Years and KS1 English. by Helen Rippon, Black Sheep Press
Verb Worksheets
Worksheets for teaching basic verbs

Writing Verb Books

Put some Verbs to Work for You

Writing with Verbs

Photo Credit: Kindergarten Writing with Verbs
on Flickr, Creative Commons.



Children can write their own Verb books.

Ask your child to draw things they like to do and then help him or her to label each page with a verb or a sentence emphasizing the verb. Be sure to finish your Verb Book with a hard cover and place it in the classroom library for everyone to read.
Ruth Heller Verb Book
Vigorous Verbs, illustrated by 10-year-old

Verb Worksheets

Working with Verbs

Verbs
Verb Cards
Available on Amazon


Pictures from this site could be turned into cards for teaching about verbs in any language. Make two copies of each card and write a title for each picture at the bottom to turn them into Verb Concentration or a Verb Go Fish Game.
English worksheets:
Here you can find worksheets, lesson-plans, flash-cards, exercises and activities for a ESL learners. Downloadable worksheet about verbs.
Spanish Verbs in the Present Tense and Conjugations
Spanish verbs in the present tense.
Teach Verbs with Christmas Songs:
Create new Christmas songs by identifying verbs and replacing them with new ones. Students create silly songs which could be performed for the class. You might ask the audience to tally the number of verbs they notice as they listen to the song a second or third time.

Read about Verbs

Books about Verbs

Evelyn Saenz's book recommendations, reviews, favorite quotes, book clubs, book trivia, book lists

What can you do with the word IT? In the book Add It, Dip It, Fix It: A Book of Verbs you will find a whole alphabet of things to do with IT.

These are some of my favorite picture books for teaching about verbs. They have colorful pictures, few words per page, large illustrations to capture children's attention and large print for easily finding verbs written in the text. Besides all that, they are fun to read.
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Mr. Morton's Verbs

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Verb Games

Games for Verb Centers

Playing games are one of the best ways to keep kids focused on learning. Be sure to teach the kids the rules. I like to play the games with a small group while others are at other centers or looking over our shoulders. When several children know how to play the game fairly well they start teaching the others.
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Multisensory Games for Learning Verbs

Musical Motions

1. Make a set of cards, half with nouns and half with verbs.
2. Form a circle.
3. Shuffle the cards in the middle.
4. Each child pulls out a card and reads it to himself.
5. If you have a noun, stay seated.
6. If you have a verb, stand and weave around the circle until the music stops.
7. When the music stops. Join hands with the nearest seated person.
8. Take turns reading your sentences.
Musical Motions: A Verb Game
Write the words for verbs like run, jump, howl, stomp, shake, jiggle, sway and bounce in large print on sheets of white copy paper. Place them on chairs or on the floor and turn on the music. When the music stops, instead of sitting, kids are to perform the action written on the card. Another version of this game has children imitating the animal whose name is written on the card. For very early readers, they could simply read the word aloud.

Name the 23 helping verbs

Helping Verbs

Verb Dice
Bag of 12 Interrogatives, Being & Helping Verbs Dice


Roll the helping verbs and create a game of creating sentences while learning the helping verbs. The more children play with verbs the more they will become aware of the roll these words play and be able to understand grammar.
Can you name the 23 helping verbs? - sporcle
* Enter a verb in the box below
* Correctly named verbs will show up in the table below
* Answers do not have to be guessed in order
* This game was contributed by Sporcle user: Ben
* Helping verbs are verbs that help the main verb in a sentence by extending the meaning of the verb.

You have 4 minutes to guess after you click the button below.

Song of the Helping Verbs

Sing about Verbs

Music brings a fun and creative aspect to the study of verbs. Look for songs that incorporate verbs in a way that children can replace the verbs to create new meanings in the verses. Here is a song that will reenforce the concept of what verbs are:
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Bill The Brickie Teaches Verbs ending in -ing

Bill was a Brickie who made word walls and taught children words such as these verbs with -ing endings.
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The ABC Verb Book

Make an Alphabetical Verb Book

Brainstorm a verb for each letter of the alphabet. Have each child choose a page to illustrate and create a book in alphabetical order showing action verbs. Bind the book and cover it with a hardcover and place it in the classroom library for children to read. Books that are made by the children themselves are often the most read books at silent reading time. What verbs will your children decide to illustrate this year?

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Action ABC's: Learning Vocabulary With Verbs - ReadWriteThink

Reinforce the definition of verbs by creating an illustrated alphabet book of action words. What a delightful way to stretch and expand your children's vocabulary.1 point

Verb Editor!

Circle the Verbs!

Wilbur Sutton, Editor of the Press Newspaper, Working at Desk in His Office
Wilbur Sutton, Editor of the Press Newspaper, Working at Desk in His Office
Bourke-White,...
Available at AllPosters


Become a Verb Editor searching out verbs in any newspaper or text. All sentences need verbs or they are not sentences. Your task is to circle the verbs in each sentence.

Hand your child a newspaper and a red marking pencil. They might like to dress in a button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up and an optional tie so that they look like newspaper editors. A pencil behind one ear also helps.
Fisher Space Pen, Bullet Space Pen, Red Cherry, Gift Boxed (400RC)

Fisher Space Pen, Bullet Space Pen, Red Cherry, Gift Boxed (400RC)

Amazon Price: Too low to display (as of 02/15/2012)Buy Now

A bright red editing pen is a delightful addition to the job of Verb Editor.

Dress up as an editor of a newspaper, pull out your red pen and begin the search for verbs. Each sentence should have a verb. Sentences without verbs, as we all know, are not really sentences. Does every sentence in a chosen article in the newspaper have a verb?

Verb Activities for Literacy Centers

Lliteracy Center Rotation Activities

Verbs

Photo Credit: Essential Verbs
on Flickr, Creative Commons


Here are some fun literacy center rotation activities to help your children work on verbs. Do you have a link to an activity you have posted online? Please add it here. Let's share fun, hands-on, creative ideas for teaching about verbs.

To make Picture Wonders Center more accessible for younger children, brainstorm with the children two or three verbs that are shown in the picture and write them on the back. Children can use these verbs in their writing or make list of favorite verbs.

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Action Verbs - Ideas for Teaching, Resources for Lesson Plans, and Activities for Unit Planning

If you are trying to liven up your grammar lessons, try some of these creative ideas for action verbs.2 points

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Pocket Chart Grammar - Second Grade Literacy Centers

Students use a pocket chart to put fractures sentences back together. They have to divide the sentences by subject and predicate and use colored transparency cards to highlight nouns, verbs, and adjectives.1 point

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Picture Smart Literacy Center - Multiple Intelligences

Writing Wonders: In Picture Smart, students use photos and drawings as an inspiration for their writing. They can also be given specific tasks, such as writing five verbs they see, ten adjectives for a picture they think is pretty or interesting, creating captions or headlines, a dialogue with quotation marks for two people in an ad, etc.1 point

Games to Teach Verbs

When you want a child to get excited about learning, turn it into a game. Today we will be playing verb games. We will be thinking about all the things we can do and verbs are the words that describe them.
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Inventing Verbs

Suffixes that turn Nouns into Verbs

Verbs often have suffixes added to them. Sometimes you can add a suffix to a noun and turn it into a verb. What happens when we take the noun "frog" and add "-ing"?

frog becomes frogging

Well, what does frogging mean? It may not be a very common word but we can surmise it to mean going to the pond to catch frogs.

Try this game for fun with your children as you explore verbs. Can you invent more verbs? How does that change the original meaning? Can you act out your newly formed verb?

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VERBS

Verbs have traditionally been defined as words that show action or state of being.1 point

Eat your Words!

Snack on a Verb

Pass out Graham Crackers and squeeze bottles of cheese, honey, chocolate syrup, or whatever squeezable your child likes to eat. Now have fun squeezing out verbs in smooth, curly cursive letters. Yum!

Want to make this a healthier cursive snack? Why not puree your child's favorite vegetable and add it to a squeeze bottle for writing? My kids loved squeezing sweet potatoes onto their Graham Crackers.

Variation: Spread your Graham Crackers with cream cheese or peanut butter and write your verbs with toothpicks.
Honey Maid Grahams Cinnamon Crackers, 14.4-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 12)

Honey Maid Grahams Cinnamon Crackers, 14.4-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 12)

Amazon Price: $53.45 (as of 02/15/2012)Buy Now

Kids love Graham Crackers. Let's turn snack time into learning time with this hands-on, creative grammar activity will also creating a delicious and nutritious snack.

Halloween Verbs

What's happening on Halloween?

You can use verbs to describe what's happening on Halloween. Just think about what you are doing. The word you use to describe what you are doing is a verb. The word you use to describe what your friend is doing is a verb. Even the words you use to describe what the monsters, goblins and fairies are doing is a verb. Here you can list some of your favorite verbs for Halloween.

What will be happening on Halloween?

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haunting

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trick or treating

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scaring

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spooking

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screaming

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enjoying

0 points

Bucket of Verbs Game

Magnet Verb Words stick to the Outside of the Buckets

Fun, hands-on game for sorting verbs.
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Verbs, Nouns, and Adjectives

Other Gramatical Lenses

Valentine Verbs
One Heart to Another, Art Poster by Tom n Ellie Photography
Available on Amazon


Be sure to check out the game Swat the Verb Flies in the Frog Unit Study!
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Tell me about your favorite verbs:

What do you like to do?

Add It, Dip It, Fix It: A Book of Verbs


Telling us about what you like to do naturally involves verbs. Which verbs describe your favorite activities?

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Evelyn's Hands-On Learning Blog.

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Find out about all the other things I'm doing and the verbs I use to tell what's going on:
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Verbs in the Kingdom!

Verbs on Wizzley

Grammar Games & Activities That Boost Writing Skills: Dozens of Engaging Grammar Manipulatives, Games, and Activities to Teach and Reinforce Parts of Speech, Capitalization, Punctuation, and More



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