ADJECTIVE HIKE
Before the Hike:
This is one of my favorites! I have conducted this hike in the fall and the spring, but I find that the fall is the best time of year for it. Give each student a piece of duct tape that can fit around his/her wrist loosely. Keeping the sticky side out, have the students make a bracelet out of the duct tape. Set the ground rules you expect while on a hike around the school grounds.
During the Hike:
During the hike, the students find nature items that they find unique, interesting, and/or pretty. They place the items on their sticky bracelets. The students usually share with each other what they are finding along the hike which causes excitement. I encourage them to find items that have already fallen from the stems/trees. However, if they want to pick a leaf or flower, they need to pick just one from the plant.
This is where I observe what the students are finding, what they are focusing on, and how they organize their bracelets. One year, I learned so much about a young girl who really struggled in class academically. On this hike, she was in her element. She noticed all the little things that every other student was just walking right past. As I watched her, I realized a couple of things. One- she is a nature kid. She loved being outdoors and appreciated and respected everything she saw and touched. Another thing is the attention to detail she demonstrated. This helped me understand how she was reading content. When I had her in a support reading class, I was able to ask her questions about what she is visualizing while she was reading and what details she was focusing on. Through these new conversations, I found out that she focused on small details that were not the most important ones to help understand the main idea. She would get distracted and hung up on these details, thus missing the main points. Knowing this about her, I could then help her in a different way while reading the content in her assignments. Going on this hike with her, helped me understand her as a reader at a deeper level.
Back to the Classroom:
When the students arrive back into the classroom, they cut off their bracelets and lay them on their desks/tables. (I usually have the students sitting in small groups.) Their bracelets look like pieces of artwork. The students compare their bracelets. Some students will have a very organized and specially designed bracelets. Other children will have no organization and their items just crammed everywhere. I usually take note of these observations.
At each station of desks/tables, I place a large piece of white board. (I buy these at the hardware store and have someone cut them for me. I purchase a shower board.) The students write the different categories for adjectives on these board in columns. Some examples are the following: Size, Shape, Colors, Texture, Quantities & Appearance. The students then pull their items off the duct tape and place them into the right category. They soon find out that one item can be placed in multiple categories.
For a worksheet to use for the students to write adjectives in categories click here.
Have the discussion of why we use and need adjectives in writing and speaking. Pose the question, "What would it be like if we didn't use adjectives in our conversations and writing?"
I like to take pictures of the students while they are on the hike, and their individual bracelets. I then print these to use in a class book on adjectives. The students love to take turns taking this book home to share with their families. I also post the pictures on my class website for the parents to see what we have been doing in class.
I hope you try this adjective hike. It is such a fun day of teaching!
Before the Hike:
This is one of my favorites! I have conducted this hike in the fall and the spring, but I find that the fall is the best time of year for it. Give each student a piece of duct tape that can fit around his/her wrist loosely. Keeping the sticky side out, have the students make a bracelet out of the duct tape. Set the ground rules you expect while on a hike around the school grounds.
During the Hike:
During the hike, the students find nature items that they find unique, interesting, and/or pretty. They place the items on their sticky bracelets. The students usually share with each other what they are finding along the hike which causes excitement. I encourage them to find items that have already fallen from the stems/trees. However, if they want to pick a leaf or flower, they need to pick just one from the plant.
This is where I observe what the students are finding, what they are focusing on, and how they organize their bracelets. One year, I learned so much about a young girl who really struggled in class academically. On this hike, she was in her element. She noticed all the little things that every other student was just walking right past. As I watched her, I realized a couple of things. One- she is a nature kid. She loved being outdoors and appreciated and respected everything she saw and touched. Another thing is the attention to detail she demonstrated. This helped me understand how she was reading content. When I had her in a support reading class, I was able to ask her questions about what she is visualizing while she was reading and what details she was focusing on. Through these new conversations, I found out that she focused on small details that were not the most important ones to help understand the main idea. She would get distracted and hung up on these details, thus missing the main points. Knowing this about her, I could then help her in a different way while reading the content in her assignments. Going on this hike with her, helped me understand her as a reader at a deeper level.
Back to the Classroom:
When the students arrive back into the classroom, they cut off their bracelets and lay them on their desks/tables. (I usually have the students sitting in small groups.) Their bracelets look like pieces of artwork. The students compare their bracelets. Some students will have a very organized and specially designed bracelets. Other children will have no organization and their items just crammed everywhere. I usually take note of these observations.
At each station of desks/tables, I place a large piece of white board. (I buy these at the hardware store and have someone cut them for me. I purchase a shower board.) The students write the different categories for adjectives on these board in columns. Some examples are the following: Size, Shape, Colors, Texture, Quantities & Appearance. The students then pull their items off the duct tape and place them into the right category. They soon find out that one item can be placed in multiple categories.
For a worksheet to use for the students to write adjectives in categories click here.
Have the discussion of why we use and need adjectives in writing and speaking. Pose the question, "What would it be like if we didn't use adjectives in our conversations and writing?"
I like to take pictures of the students while they are on the hike, and their individual bracelets. I then print these to use in a class book on adjectives. The students love to take turns taking this book home to share with their families. I also post the pictures on my class website for the parents to see what we have been doing in class.
I hope you try this adjective hike. It is such a fun day of teaching!
