Ordering Adjectives and a Skull

It is hard for me to believe that the school year is halfway over... We are sending out 1st semester progress reports this week instills in me a sense of anxiety over all all the curriculum I still have to teach and so little time to teach it in.

Today we tackled one of our fourth grade Common Core standards...  ordering adjectives....  (Psssst... I have a little secret...  I didn't even realize that there was a correct "order" to adjectives! Please don't hold that against me.)

To start the mini-unit I needed something really interesting to grab the class's attention...  When I found what I was looking for I hid it under this box...   the kiddos were very curious... trying to peak under it.

To start the lesson, we did a quick review of nouns and adjectives and then I told my class I had a special "noun" hidden under the box... drumroll please....

I found this guy hiding up on a shelf in our science lab.  The class was very excited...  After a volunteer told me what this "noun" is...  a skull...  I let the class know that they now needed to work together in their groups to brainstorm adjectives to describe. it.

 After the students brainstormed, they shared the top three adjectives from their group.  We created a web of all the amazing adjectives they came up with.

 I was so pleased by the creative and specific adjectives the kids brainstormed, especially ancient and delicate.

After we had finished the web, we then worked on sorting our adjectives into categories.  I explained the categories to the class and we added the adjectives to this chart:

There were some debates about some of the adjectives.  I loved hearing my students "respectfully disagree" with each other.  "I respectfully disagree with Tim because ..."

After the modeling and group work, now groups got their own "Mystery Object" to work with.  I handed out random items I had grabbed before I left the house this morning...  a penny, a piece of raw penne pasta, a frog candle holder, a over-ripe banana, just to name a few.   Students jumped right in creating a web of adjectives for their object.

They then worked together to sort their adjectives into categories, just like we did as a class.

These charts fold in half to form booklet that the students glued into their language arts journals.  

As a closing for the lesson, I had the reporter for each table group stand and share what their noun was.  They had to use a complete sentence and use more than one adjective.  

There are several things I really loved about this lesson: the interaction between group members, the respectful dabate, and the creative descriptors students came up with for the skull and their own objects.  But I think the thing I loved the most was when I hard a group of girls talking in the lunch line...  using a list of adjectives to describe each other.  "Here is my tall, dark, curly haired friend, Cami."

Tomorrow we are learning more specifically about how adjectives are ordered.  I have another  fun group activity for them to work on to practice.   I'll be sure to post how it went.

You can grab a copy of the Types of Adjectives booklet here:

Ordering Adjectives Mini-Unit Sample.  

If you are interested in the whole Ordering Adjectives Mini-unit, you can find it at my TpT store.  Not only does it have the two interactive, engaging lessons, but it also includes a literacy center support activity and an assessment

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