RIC-20234 Primary Grammar and Word Study Year 3 – Parts of Speech

Parts of speech
Adjectives
Focus
Common adjectives
Definition
• An adjective is a describing word. It adds meaning
to or changes the meaning of a noun or a pronoun.
Example:
I’m wearing leather shoes. (describes the noun,
‘shoes’)
The fog is thick. (describes the noun, ‘fog’) Note:
The adjective does not always come before the
noun.
She is careless. (describes the pronoun, ‘she’)
Explanation
• The use of suitable adjectives not only makes
written or spoken language more interesting, it gives
the reader or listener a clearer understanding.
Worksheet information
• Discuss adjectives with the students. Ask them to
think of suitable adjectives to describe classroom
objects or class members. Encourage them to use
the adjective in context in a sentence.
Example:
Tanya has straight hair.
The blackboard ruler is long.
• Discuss the explanation at the top of the worksheet
and the information and hint in Activity 1 about
identifying adjectives.
• Students read the paragraph, identifying the
adjectives and highlighting them. Point out that not
all nouns will have a word that describes them.
• After completing the activity, discuss how the choice
of adjectives helped students to imagine what a
dragonfly looked like and learn about some aspects
of its nature.
• Students then use adjectives to answer the
questions in Activity 2.
• Students are required to think carefully about their
choice of adjectives to complete Activity 3.
Ideas for further practice
• Identify the adjectives used to describe characters
in books. Some of these adjectives may be found in
a phrase and not necessarily in front of a noun. They
may also be describing a pronoun.
• Use the paragraph about the dragonfly to brainstorm
a list of suitable adjectives to describe an animal
being studied in science.
Answers
1. Adjectives are in bold print.
A dragonfly is a flying insect. It gets its scary
name because it looks like a tiny dragon. However,
a dragonfly is a gentle creature and does not bite
or sting people. It can have a blue, red or green
body and white, yellow or black markings. A
dragonfly has compound eyes, large wings, and
strong jaws and sharp teeth for crunching up
other insects. It is most likely to be found near
damp places.
2. (a) flying
(b) scary
(c) blue, red, green
(d) white, yellow, black
(e) strong, sharp
(f) damp
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3. (a) (i) long (ii) warm
(iii) local (iv) icy
(v) lazy (vi) chilly
(b) (i) lazy, long, local
(ii) chilly/icy, chilly/icy, warm
Primary grammar and word study 12
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