Helping Kids be more Descriptive

(Graphics by Ashley Hughes, Creative Clips and Tiffany Teaches)

Who wants their students/clients to speak and write more descriptively? I know I do. I created the Nacho Sentence Builders as an engaging activity to do just that!

This fun game helps students learn to build more detailed sentences using adjectives and adverbs.  Aligned with Common Core Standards (Speaking and Listening 2.4, 3.4, 4.4, 5.4), there are at least three different levels of play(more if you use your imagination).

Research tells us that solid syntactical skills rely on understanding and use of correct word order and organization. By providing these written and oral examples of sentences you are helping your student move from simple sentences to richer, more detailed sentences. As we know (and studies prove), repeated modeling and opportunities for practice are needed for students to solidly acquire these new grammatical forms (Gummersall & Strong, 1999).

While playing the game, take the opportunity to talk about how the adverbs and adjectives change the meaning of the sentences. Use examples such as how is “big” different from “humongous”? Use a white board and make a scale starting at “teeny” and incrementally moving up to “giganitic” (Nippold, 1998).

Nacho Sentence Builder includes all the fixin’s you need to make simple or loaded nachos.

24 Nacho Chip pronouns                     24 Black Bean verbs

27 Guacamole adverbs                         27 Melted Cheese prepos./article

27 Jalapeno location nouns              6 Blank Nacho Chip pronouns

9 Blank Black Bean nouns                   9 Blank Guacamole adverbs

9 Blank Melted Cheese prep./article   9 Blank Jalapeno location nouns

6 different colors of Nacho platters     8 bowls of salsa

Mmmm, hungry yet? I also included three leveled writing/homework sheets.

This game is perfect for small groups and is geared toward 2nd – 5th graders.  Now available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

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