Adjective Activities Improve Writing With A Caterpillar & Butterfly

Here’s a quick, easy and super-fun way to practice and review adjectives, and the importance of using descriptive words in your writing.

Teacher Comments:

• "Love it! Great way to practice adjectives. Great lead to a writing activity."
• "Absolutely wonderful & such a fun way to practice writing. The kids LOVED it! The photographs were such a nice bonus, as they really helped inspire them."
• "This was a nice tool for using with ESL learners because it introduced a ton of great vocabulary words that centered on two familiar creatures!"

What's in the packet?

• I’ve included 28 photographs of real caterpillars, along with an assortment of 32 butterfly photos.

There are 4 on a page. Choose your favorites, print, laminate & trim, then have students take a look and pass them around.

• Afterwards, discuss what an adjective is, and brainstorm a list of words that describe caterpillars and butterflies. Students then write as many words as they want on each of the worksheets.

Remind students to color the pictures, then include those words on their worksheet as well.

• For more word work practice, after students complete their worksheets, have them write some sentences on the 8 choices of “stationery” provided, using the adjectives that they thought of.

Students can also select one of the butterfly or caterpillar photographs and write a few descriptive sentences inspired by the picture.

After everyone is done, have a discussion about the differences between the caterpillar and butterfly. Were the words they used to describe them similar (synonyms) or opposites (antonyms)?

• I’ve also included a trace, cut and glue option, with 56 adjective “word boxes” for younger kiddos.

Students trace the words and trim. They sort the words into two piles: words that describe the butterfly, and words that describe the caterpillar.

Children choose their favorites and arrange them on the pictures. When they are satisfied with how things look, they glue them down.

Because students have a choice, each butterfly and caterpillar worksheet will be a bit different.

Completed projects make an interesting bulletin board. Sprinkle some of the photographs on the display too.

FYI:

As you know, adjectives can be tricky. Yes, they describe nouns, but some adjectives when used in other sentences are verbs and adverbs. i.e. flying & crawling.

I used these words as adjectives as in: A butterfly is a flying insect; I see a crawling caterpillar.

The same is true of the words slow and fast, which can also be used as adverbs.

I used them as adjectives as in: This is a slow caterpillar and a fast butterfly.

Remember to take advantage of these "teachable moments of trickiness” to review other parts of speech and challenge older students.

I’m Diane from Teach With Me. I really appreciate that you stopped by, and hope you found a few things that bring a bit of excitement to your day.

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