dim moldy wrinkled smooth shiny sharp cracked fuzzy spotted frozen hazy slick

1. What do all of these words have in common? dim moldy wrinkled smooth shiny sharp cracked fuzzy spotted frozen hazy slick muted sour sweet spicy They are CONCRETE ADJECTIVES!

2. What do all of these words have in common? beautiful ugly sad anxious pretty nice mean democratic fair bad good boring They are ABSTRACT ADJECTIVES!

3. Copy this page into the grammar section of your 3 subject spiral: • ADJECTIVES are words that describe (give more information about) nouns and pronouns. • Concrete adjectives give information about things that we can see, touch, taste, hear, and smell. • Abstract adjectives give an idea about something.

4. Examples: Concrete Adjectives: The hairy troll – tells us something about how the troll looks. Abstract Adjectives: The bad troll – tells us that the person who wrote the sentence thinks the troll is bad. It doesn’t tell us what the troll looks like, etc.

5. What is an adjective? • Adjectives describe nouns or pronouns. • The beautiful princess – • The ugly troll – • The huge giant – • The princess is sleepy. • The troll is ugly. • The giant is huge. • She is beautiful. • It is ugly. • He is huge. These are Predicate Adjectives

6. What can Adjectives do? Adjectives can tell you: which one – this frog, that frog, those frogs what kind – green frog, lonely frog how many – three frogs, several frogs, many frogs *Adjectives can also work together: – this green frog, those three frogs

7. ARTICLES are a special type of adjective. Articles: A, AN, THE Definite Article: THE - The airplane specific Indefinite Articles: A - A plane not specific AN - An airplane not specific

8. Let’s practice . . . • Identify the adjectives/articles • What do they tell: which, what kind, how many • Are they abstract or concrete • The woman is smart. • All three cats were black. • Put this plastic cup on the top shelf. • Several frogs jumped onto the frozen lake.

9. Do you really need to ask if you have to copy the whole sentence??? Assignment: Adjectives 1 The creepy storekeeper rang the golden bell. Please take the stinky garbage out to the roadside curb. He is the sweetest person I know. Jack stood at the bottom of the prodigious beanstalk. Cinderella wore the glass slipper to the ball. The magical helper turned six mice into an orange pumpkin. Jack planted several beans in the black soil. We saw a magical harp, four silver coins, and a golden egg. The gray wolf growled at the young girl. The three bears ate the warm porridge.

10. Adjectives should “show” not “tell” “We went into the big, old, dark, cold, scary, empty, rotten house.” The adjectives in this sentence tell the reader what to think about. “We stepped into the house. We saw wrinkled wallpaper, shattered windows, and a gaping hole where the staircase used to be.” The adjectives in this sentence show that the house was old and falling apart; it does not tell the reader what to think.

11. Assignment: Adjectives 2 Instructions: Replace the boring adjectives in the following sentence with specific VIVID! ones. Example: We saw the pretty lake. We saw the shimmering lake. Snow White bit the bad apple. Jack hacked down the tall beanstalk. The goat sniffed the smelly ogre. The princess gazed at the nice sunset. The car is neat.

12. Alliterative Adjectives • Here are some examples: • The curious, curved caterpillar crept across the cracked branch. • The determined, dotted Dalmatian dragged the dizzy fireman to safety. • The groaning, grumpy giant grabbed the sack of golden eggs. • The tired, toothless troll tugged at the ropes of his tattered tent. Some writers adjectives in a special way. They put two or three of them together, and these adjectives all begin with the same sound. These are called alliterative adjectives.

13. Assignment: Adjectives 3 Instructions: Write two sentences that have alliterative adjectives. Example: The sluggish, slimy snail slithered around the south corner. *Tip: think of an animal and then use describing adjectives that begin with the same letter.

14. Here’s an example of how adjectives, nouns, and verbs DO NOT work together to create clear and specific pictures in writing. They are too general. My room is a real mess. There’s stuff everywhere. Things are all over the place. It doesn’t even look like my room. This description only tells the reader that the room is a “mess”; it does not describe the things in the room – it doesn’t paint a clear picture with words. Adjectives can’t work alone. They have to work with other words, especially nouns and verbs. If writing is going to be clear and specific, all three kinds of words need to work together like a team.

15. Here’s what happens when the general adjectives, nouns, and verbs are replaced with more concrete and specific ones. My room looks like a tornado hit it. Strewn on the floor are heaps and bundles of clothes. Crumpled and crinkled papers and torn and tattered candy wrappers litter the desk. Faded, dingy curtains hang like flags at half-mast; behind them a mud-spattered window filters the sun in blotches. The doors of the closet hang at deranged angles; inside, shoes and sweaters lay in piles beneath bent and twisted hangers. This description is better because it lets the reader “see” that the room is a mess, but it doesn’t tell the reader directly. (the reader infers that the room is a mess)

16. Assignment: Adjectives 4 Try creating a description of something you know. Step 1: Brainstorming Think of a list of things that you might be able to describe. Don’t try to describe something too big. Examples: a pet, a room, a favorite place, an animal, a character from a story, and so on. An animal: dragon List of details: body as large as a two-story building body covered with sharp, green scales arms as thick as telephone poles claws on the feet and hands head the size of an SUV mouth filled with rows of deadly teeth

17. Assignment: Adjectives 4 Step 2: Drafting Put your ideas together in a draft, a sloppy-copy. Begin by describing your subject either from top to bottom, bottom to top, left to right or vice versa. Also start your sentence with a sentence that lets the reader know what you are going to describe and what the general idea is. For example, “The dragon was a frightening creature.” The word frightening lets the reader know what idea you will create in your description.

18. Assignment: Adjectives 4 Here’s a way to begin a draft: The ___________________ was ___________________. The meadow was beautiful. The dungeon was terrible. The eagle was majestic. The ogre was ugly. Write a draft of the description like this: The dragon was a frightening creature. It stood up. It was taller than a two-story building. The dragon spread its wings. It opened its mouth which had rows of deadly teeth. It spit fire. Its red eyes flashed. The dragon flew away.

19. Assignment: Adjectives 4 Step 3: Revising Look at the Draft Now try to replace any weak adjectives, nouns, and verbs with stronger ones. Also try to use some alliteration. The dragon was a frightening creature. It roared and reared, whipping its slithering, slimy-scaled body to its fullest height. Taller than a two story building, the dragon spread its wide wings and beat the air with thunderous blasts and bursts. It opened its mouth, which was lined with rows of jagged teeth, and spewed a searing stream of fire. As its laser-red eyes flashed at something in the distance, the dragon launched itself into the air and blasted toward the fading horizon.

20. Assignment: Adjectives 4 Step 4: Editing and Sharing Check your revision to see that all words are spelled correctly and that proper punctuation has been used. Then share your description. Extension: Choose a piece of writing that you are working on. Try to add three or four adjectives.