Focus on present and past tense in verbs, irregular verbs, and contractions. Create adjective puzzles, perform adjective sorts, and practice comparative adjectives.
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Verbs and Adjectives (Gr. 1-3)Use the Mad Libs® books to supplement your lower elementary teachings about verbs and adjectives with these activities. |
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Verbs (Gr. 1-3)Review that verbs are words that show action, and give several examples. Have several children demonstrate actions for classmates to identify. List these verbs on a word wall. Then point out the list of verbs in a Mad Libs® word list and ask volunteers to act out several. |
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| Color Coding Verbs Have children hunt for verbs in a Mad Libs® stories and use a pencil to circle each action verb they find. Then give children two colors of markers and have them use them to highlight present-tense verbs in one color and past-tense verbs in the other. |
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| Verb Switch Review rules for adding -ed to verbs to tell about the past. Then give each child a two-column chart headed Now and In the Past. Have children select at least ten present-tense verbs (some of which end in e) from a Mad Libs® word list and story and write them in the Now column. Invite partners to exchange lists and write each verb in the past tense. |
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| Irregular Verb Concentration Remind children that not all verbs add -ed to tell about the past. Give examples of irregular verbs, such as run/ran or see/saw. Have children find six irregular verbs in Mad Libs® stories and write the present and past tense for each on separate index cards. Partners can combine their cards and use them to play Concentration. |
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| Contraction Climb Draw a ladder on the chalkboard and model how to "climb" it by writing a contraction and the words that form it on the bottom rung. Have partners draw a similar ladder and work together to find contractions in Mad Libs® stories. Challenge them to "climb" to the top with a different contraction on each rung. |
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Adjectives (Gr. 1-3)Review that adjectives are words that describe or tell more about a noun. Give examples by describing people, places, or things in the classroom. Then have children name other examples. Record these adjectives on a word wall. |
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| Adjective Puzzles Have children find five adjectives in a Mad Libs® word list or story and use them to create a puzzle. Tell children to write a clue for each adjective and draw a short line for each letter in the word. Then have children exchange puzzles and solve them. |
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| Adjective Sort Challenge children to look through Mad Libs® word lists or stories for adjectives that tell how many. Have them write each one on a separate index card and then sort the cards into two groups: adjectives that give an exact number and adjectives that do not. |
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| Picture This! Review rules for adding -er and -es to show comparisons. Then post a list of comparative adjectives from Mad Libs® word lists or stories. Have children pick an adjective and use it to write and illustrate sentences that compare. |
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More Mad Libs®Teacher Guide's
