ADJECTIVES

It should take you four sessions to introduce the use of adjectives. (You could use the term descriptive words instead of the word adjective.)

Day One:

1. As you work through the following day-one exercises, ask your child to write the sentences.

2. Introduce a simple object to your child, like a pen or a pencil. Have your child write the sentence: It is a pencil.

3. Ask your child to call out in one word a description of the pencil. Your child may say things like "Yellow" and "Long."

4. Ask your child to say a sentence that contains one of the adjectives descriptive of the pencil. You might hear, "It is a yellow pencil," or "It is a long pencil." (Remember to give your child time to write.)

5. Ask your child to say the sentences again and include two of the adjectives. Your child might say, "It's a long, yellow pencil."

6. This might be a good time to introduce to your child the idea of separating adjectives with commas. The rule that guides using commas in a series can be explained by showing that the word and can be used instead of a comma. If and can be used, a comma should go in its place.

Day Two:

1. Ask your child to write the day-one sentences so that the pronoun it becomes the noun pencil. Your child might write, The pencil is yellow, or The pencil is long.