Adverbs Lesson Plan

What is an adverb?

An adverb is a word that tell us in what way someone does something. It modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

Examples:

Maria speaks quietly. (the adverb "quietly" modifies the verb "speaks")
Paul is really handsome. (the adverb "really" modifies the adjective "handsome")
Yumi is working too slowly. (the adverb "too" modifies the adverb "slowly")

This lesson focuses on the first type of adverb (adverbs which modify verbs).

Adverb forms

Adverbs come in regular and irregular forms:

regular = adjective + ly (quick → quickly, soft → softly, loud → loudly)
irregular e.g. fast -> fast, high → high, low → low, good → well

Notes:

In this lesson students will use practice saying adverbs to modify verbs. It is an action-packed lesson with lots of action activities.

Lesson Procedure:

Warm Up and Maintenance:

See our "Warm Up & Wrap Up" page.

New Learning and Practice:

1. Introduce the adverbs – do the "Train Ride" activity
To begin, get everybody standing in a long line with their hands on the shoulders of the student in front of them – forming a train (it is worthwhile moving all desks and tables to the edge of the classroom before doing this). The teacher can go at the front of the train. Start off by choo-chooing around the classroom at a nice, easy pace.

Then stop and say, "Let's go again! This time count 1 and 2". As you snake around the classroom, everyone shouts, "1, 2, 1, 2, ..." together in time.

Now comes the fun part – introducing the adverbs. As the train is moving around the classroom, shout out the following commands and have everyone follow what you do:

"Let’s go quickly!" – speed up - also speed up chanting "1, 2, 1, 2, …".
"Let’s go slowly!" – slow right down to a very slow pace and also slow down chanting "1 … 2 … 1 … 2 …".
"Let’s go high!" – put your hands high up in the air as the train moves around the class.
"Let’s go low!" – bring your hands down low and stoop your head low as the train moves around the class.
"Let’s count loudly!" – shout "1, 2, 1, 2, …" as the train moves around the class.
"Let’s count quietly!" – whisper "1, 2, 1, 2, …" as the train moves around the class.
"Let’s stomp hard!" – stomp your feet as the train moves around the class.
"Let’s walk softly!" – walk as softly as you can as the train moves around the class.

Keep moving around the class and changing the instructions. It is great fun and an exciting way to begin the lesson.

2. Play "Follow my actions"
For this activity you are going to introduce the verbs from the song (which we'll sing next). Your students should know some of the verbs (e.g. run, jump) and the others are easy to pick up quickly.

Get everyone to stand up and find a bit of space in the room. Teacher stands at the front of the classroom with everyone facing you. You are going to shout out the verbs from the song and act out the verbs, with everyone following you (doing the actions on the spot):

run (on the spot)
walk (on the spot)
jump
crouch down (on the spot)
stomp (on the spot)
tip-toe (on the spot)
pat our heads
clap

Each time you shout out the verb, students should chorus the verb and do the action with you, for example:
Teacher: "run"
Students: "run" (everyone starts running on the spot)
Teacher: "crouch down"
Students: "crouch down" (everyone crouches down)
Teacher: "tip-toe"
Students: "tip-toe" (everyone tip-toes on the spot)
etc.

We’ll do this activity in rounds:

Round 1: the teacher does each activity with the students (until everyone can understand the verbs)
Round 2: this time the teacher shouts out each action but only the students do the actions (and chorus the verbs). Teacher watches and helps out of necessary.
Round 3: this time the teacher does the actions again and introduces the adverbs from the song – everyone must chorus each verbs + adverb and copy the teacher (e.g. "run quickly", "pat our heads softly", "jump high", etc.)

Play "Follow my actions"

Round 4: finally, the teacher shouts out the verbs + adverbs from the song without doing the actions and the students chorus and do the actions. Teacher watches and helps out if necessary.

3. Sing "Let's Have Some Fun!" song
By now, your students should have a good grasp on the target vocab which will be used in the song. To help, place the song poster on the board so that everyone will be able to see which order to sing and do the actions. Quickly elicit the vocab. Play the song and sing along doing the actions as you sing. The song speeds up for verses 3 and 4 which adds to the fun. Play 2 or 3 times.

Lyrics for "Let's have some fun!"

Chorus:
What shall we do?
Let's have some fun!

Verse 1:
Let's run, run quickly (quickly, quickly)
Let's walk, walk slowly (slowly, slowly)
Let's jump, jump high (high, high)
Let's crouch down low (low, low)

Chorus

Verse 2:
Let's stomp, stomp loudly (loudly, loudly)
Let's tip-toe quietly (quietly, quietly)
Let's pat our heads (softly, softly)
Let's clap, clap hard! (hard, hard)

Chorus

Verse 3:
Let's run, run quickly (quickly, quickly)
Let's walk, walk slowly (slowly, slowly)
Let's jump, jump high (high, high)
Let's crouch down low (low, low)

Chorus

Verse 4:
Let's stomp, stomp loudly (loudly, loudly)
Let's tip-toe quietly (quietly, quietly)
Let's pat our heads (softly, softly)
Let's clap, clap hard! (hard, hard)

(download MP3 here)

Gestures and activities for "Let's have some fun!"

The gestures for this songs are straight forward - simply have everyone do the actions as they sing them. The 3rd and 4th verses are faster versions of the 1st and 2nd verses (the song tempo speeds up).

We also have a video that you can stream in class to sing along with (Internet connection required):

4. Do the "Adverbs Match" worksheet
Give out the worksheets and have everyone match up the pictures with the adverbs. Circulate as everyone is working away, and ask lots of questions (e.g. What's this?, Can you pat your head softly?, etc.). When everyone has finished, go around the class asking everybody to do some actions from their worksheets.

5. Read classroom reader "The Haunted Hotel"
Before starting the last activity let's have story time! Before class, download and print off the reader "The Haunted Hotel". As you go through each page, point to the pictures and elicit what each ghost likes to do and also ask for the adverb to go with the action, for example:

Teacher: (pointing at the picture on page 3) What does this ghost like to do?
Students: Pat people!
Teacher: Yes, that's right! Where is he patting them? (pointing to head and shoulder)
Students: On heads and shoulders!
Teacher: Yes! That's right! Is he patting them hard?
Students: No, softly!
Teacher: Ok, let's check (reading from page 3) "I like to pat people softly on their heads and shoulders to scare them!". Yes, good job!

Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions about different objects in the pictures and have them copy the actions that the ghosts are doing.

After reading the story, give out a reader worksheet to each student and have everyone fill in the missing adverbs/words. Then go through the answers as a class.

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Alternatively, watch our video version of the reader (Internet connection required):

6. Play "Adverbs Charades"
Before class, write out the target verbs and adverbs on slips of paper and place in 2 boxes or hats: in one box place the verbs and in the other place the adjectives. You can also add more verbs that you have covered in previous lessons (e.g. dance, cook, sing, hop, eat, etc.).
Start by modeling the game: pull out one slip of paper from the verbs box and another from the adverbs box. Then mime the action and everyone has to guess what the two words are. The combinations can be quite strange but this makes it even more fun.

Play "Adverbs Charades"

Split the class into 2 teams. Each time a student mimes the verbs + adverbs students can shout out the answer with the first correct one winning a point for their team. The winning student can then do the next charade. For younger students who have trouble reading, help by whispering in their ear.