The Importance of Teaching Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives
First things first, let's talk about why parts of speech like nouns, verbs, and adjectives are so important for first-grade success. In short, the biggest reason is that it impacts many other areas of the curriculum. Children with strong grammar skills have success in reading, writing, and oral communication. In first grade, this is a pretty big deal! After all, we're laying the academic foundation in all of these areas. Let's take a closer look at some of the key benefits.
1. Enhanced Language & Communication Skills
This benefit is hugely important for first graders and probably the one that comes to mind most quickly when thinking about why grammar is important. When we take the time to ensure students fully understand topics such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives, we're ultimately helping them gain a better understanding of the English language. This will translate to success in speaking, reading, and writing, so I'd say it's a pretty impactful benefit!
2. Robust Vocabulary
Another fun benefit to teaching and reviewing nouns, verbs, and adjectives is that you'll inadvertently be expanding vocabulary in your classroom. Every time you add new parts of speech to your lessons, there's a chance that you'll also be adding new words to your students' vocabulary. I love this benefit because it feels like a two-for-one deal! We learn new words AND how to use them in sentences with parts of speech activities.
3. Builds Confidence in Reading
The final benefit I want to highlight is my favorite. Academic confidence, especially in reading, is so, so important in the first-grade classroom. When we spend adequate time on nouns, verbs, and adjectives, I see confidence and excitement bloom in my students. This is such a wonderful feeling as a teacher and absolutely something I want to cultivate! Not only does this translate to success in my classroom, but it also means that my kids will continue to thrive when they move up.
Why Review is a Must for Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives
Now that we understand the benefits of teaching nouns, verbs, and adjectives, let's focus specifically on review. You likely already know that review is the secret sauce in the first-grade classroom. Our kiddos need to be exposed to new concepts many, many times throughout the year to really settle in and get comfortable with them.
I find that when it comes to this topic, review is even more important than usual. The reason for this is that I find my kids can easily forget what each part of speech does and how to apply them if we don't review enough. It can get really confusing! Not to mention, students can even forget what we learned altogether if there's too much time between the initial lesson and the review activities.
So, take it from me. . . building some strong review practices in your room keeps the momentum going as you teach this topic. So long as you're mindful to sprinkle in different types of meaningful review activities, I know your students will be successful with this topic! And we all know that success with grammar means success in many other ELA areas, so this is a win-win!
How To Review Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives
So, how do we make review meaningful and fun? So glad you asked, friend! I have a few things that I know will help when it comes to reviewing nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Here's my tried and true method:
1. Start with a Review of the Terms
The first few times you review nouns, verbs, and adjectives, you'll want to revisit what each of these terms means and how they behave in sentences. This doesn't have to be a lengthy lesson, just a quick recap! If your students utilize grammar journals to keep notes and mini anchor charts, this would be a good time to pull them out and find the pages on these topics.
You may also consider using some word flashcards for a "lightning round" review. This is just a simple game where you pull words out of a hat, read them off, and have students raise their hands to help sort them into categories for nouns, verbs, and adjectives. The first hand up gets to answer. You can also ask how they know it's a noun, verb, or adjective to help drive home the definition of these terms.
Another option is a quick and fun video that will get your kids excited to review. I love this one that uses a catchy song to describe nouns, adjectives, and verbs. You and your students will be singing along in no time at all! This video provides plenty of examples as well, which is super helpful for review.
2. Use No-Prep Practice Pages for Easy Review
When it comes to review, I am such a big fan of having some go-to, easy activities on hand. This takes the stress out of reviewing and makes it super simple to sprinkle these activities into our daily routine. These Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives Review Worksheets are my favorite ones to use. This resource includes 21 worksheets to review this topic in a variety of ways.
Some of the pages have students identify parts of speech in sentences, sort by type, cut and paste, label, write words, and even find them in hidden pictures. I find that this variety of activities is really great for keeping kids interested. Rather than doing the exact same thing every time we review, they get something new and fun to try!
These pages are great to use as a morning work activity, a simple center time assignment, homework pages, or activities for your fast finishers. I love to print these ahead of time and store them in a place where I can easily grab them and incorporate them into our day. They make review simple and ensure my kids aren't getting bored along the way!
3. Try Write the Room as a Review Activity
I absolutely love Write the Room centers. You can use them for just about any topic you can think of, and they offer an opportunity to connect movement to the review activity! They also can be played as a whole-group Scoot game, so really, what's not to love?!
Write the Room is a great way to review nouns, verbs, and adjectives quickly and efficiently. I have two resources in my shop focused on this topic, one with a spring theme and one with a summer theme, so you can use these at different times of the year to review nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Each set includes 24 task cards and 6 recording sheets. The variety in recording sheets allows you to decide how many task cards to use for the activity as well as the format for their answer. Students will choose a card, read the word, and decide if it's a noun, verb, or adjective. Then, they find the matching space on their recording sheet and fill in their answer.
Bonus tip: These cards can be used for a verbal "lightning round" review, as I mentioned in #1. I like to laminate them and store them in a photo box. Then, you can use them for traditional Write the Room, Scoot, or as a tool for your verbal review. The versatility of these activities makes them winners in my eyes!
4. Use Engaging Centers to Review in a Fun Way
Another super effective way to review nouns, verbs, and adjectives is to include them in your center rotations. By incorporating a grammar center into your center rotation, you have a space for an engaging grammar review activity all year long.
Center time is usually everyone's favorite in my classroom because it means hands-on activities and games. I try to choose things that engage my kids and are a bit different than typical pencil and paper desk work.
For example, these Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives Poke Cards are a great way to sneak in some practice! To use, students will choose a task card, read the word, and use a straw or stick to "poke" the correct answer. Then, they can flip the card and check their answer. I like the self-correcting nature of these cards because they help students identify where they are making mistakes. I've also included a recording sheet for additional accountability.
Want to know the BEST part? You can grab these for FREE! Yes, really!
Head on over here and enter your email to grab these Free Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives Poke Cards. They're a fun way to review this topic and one that you can use again and again. I know your students will love them!
Have Fun Teaching Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives
I hope this post gave you some new ideas for how to teach and review nouns, verbs, and adjectives in your room. It really is worth the time investment since it will help set your students up for success in many other ways. Don't forget, if you need more help with this or other grammar topics, you can find tons of fun resources in my store!
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