LESSON 3
EARTH

The Earth around Me

1. Collect materials from outside to bring into the class, such as rocks, grass, straw, leaves, pebbles, twigs, or branches.
2. Divide the materials into four or five groups. Pass out a set of materials to each group.
3. Tell students that each group needs to have one sheet of paper and a pencil. When you say “go,” each group has to write down as many adjectives as they can think of to describe natural materials.
4. Give students about five minutes to look over the materials, feel the materials, and write their lists of descriptive adjectives.
5. After you say “stop,” have one person from each group show the class each material while describing it.
6. The group with the biggest list of accurate descriptive adjectives wins!

1. Compile a class list of descriptive adjectives on the board. Each group should contribute to the list, and groups should add onto their group list any adjectives that they don’t have. Again, have students hold up the material the adjective describes. The list may include adjectives such as smooth, bumpy, rough, coarse, hard, soft, slippery, prickly, shiny, stretchy, and stiff.
2. Once the class list is compiled, have each group pick two or three adjectives they would like to explore further. Make sure each group has different adjectives.
3. Students should write each adjective on a different sheet of paper.
4. Tell students that to explore the word further they should use dictionaries and thesauruses to find the definition of the word, other meanings the word may have, collocations for the word, and synonyms for the word.
5. Students should write what they find on the piece of paper. Each group can also draw pictures to illustrate the adjective. For example, if a group is assigned the word bumpy, one student may draw a frog with bumps on its back, another student may draw a small picture of a bumpy piece of wood, or another student may draw a small picture of a bumpy road, with rocks and holes in it, all on the same sheet of paper.
6. When every group is finished, tape the adjective papers to the wall, whiteboard, or chalkboard where students can see them.
7. Have the groups present their adjectives to the whole class, giving the definitions and synonyms, and explaining the pictures if needed.
8. Students can also act out or find examples in the classroom that demonstrate the adjectives they were assigned. For example, for the adjective slippery, students could pretend the floor is very slippery or that they are holding a slippery snake that won’t stay in their hands. For bumpy, students could pretend they are riding in a car on a very bumpy road.
9. Now play “Adjective Quiz Game” with students. Students can stay in their groups, each student helping their group to come up with the correct answer. To play the game, you say the definition or synonym of one of the listed adjectives, and whichever group raises their hand first and answers correctly gets a point.
10. Students should listen to the definition you say instead of trying to read the papers on the board.

1. Now that students are familiar with adjectives that describe materials found in nature, tell students they will be making a nature materials collage.
2. Pass out a sheet of paper to every student. Instruct students to fold their paper two ways: first, fold the paper in half, widthwise, and then fold it in half the other way, lengthwise.
3. Instruct students to look at the adjective papers hanging on the wall or board and choose four adjectives. Tell students to write the adjectives small, one in each box on their paper, in order to leave room for the collage materials. (For very young learners, you may have students only choose two adjectives.)
4. Tell students the class will be taking a trip outside to find things from nature that demonstrate the adjectives written on their papers. Ask students to remember their four adjectives so they don’t have to carry their papers with them, or have students write their adjectives on a small piece of paper that they can put in their pocket.
   a. If it is not possible to take students outside of the classroom to search for things from nature, assign this part of the project for students to do at home. Ask them to find small items that demonstrate their adjectives at home or on their way to school. For example:

   Rock — Rough

   Bark — Bumpy

   Flower — Soft
5. Before going outside, brainstorm with students for things they might look for. Help students come up with ideas such as rough bark, smooth rocks or pebbles, shiny blades of grass, coarse sand, or bumpy leaves.
6. If needed, give students bags, baskets, or plastic bags to collect their items in. Tell students to only collect one or two items that demonstrate each adjective. Students should be careful to not take too much so that the natural environment is not harmed.
7. Go outside, as a group, for students to look for and collect their items.
8. Once students have collected things and items that demonstrate each of their adjectives, have students glue those items in the boxes on the paper.

1. Once students have finished their nature texture collage, play a simile game.
2. Demonstrate to students what a simile is by writing a few similes on the board. Examples might include “She is as fast as a horse,” “The shirt is as black as night,” or “He is as quiet as a mouse.”
3. Review with students the definition and structure of a simile. A simile is an expression that compares a thing or person to something else using the words like or as. Give students more examples of similes if needed.
4. To play the simile game, divide students into groups of three or four.
5. Write the beginning of a simile on the board using the adjectives students have been working with in this activity, and the objects that students have collected for their nature collage.
6. Each time you write the first part of a simile on the board the groups have to think of a noun to finish the sentence that demonstrates the adjective used in the sentence. For example, one group may come up with “The flower is as soft as velvet,” while another group may say, “The flower is as soft as a baby’s skin.”
7. Have each group say their completed sentence. Ask the class if they agree with the group’s sentence. For example, if a group said, “The rock is as rough as a piece of glass,” the rest of the class should not agree that it is correct, because glass is usually smooth.
8. Have each group think of and write the beginning of a simile on the board. The other groups then have to complete the simile.

1. Review the main components of this lesson, descriptive adjectives or similes, with students. There are several ways to do this:
   a. Hold up different nature materials used in the group work at the beginning of the activity. Each student has to say a descriptive adjective that describes a nature material before they can leave class.

   b. Say the beginning of a simile and have each student or group finish the simile with a correct noun before they leave class.

   c. Have each student write an “exit ticket.” On a small piece of paper, have students write a descriptive adjective and its definition. They have to hand you their “exit ticket” before they can leave class.

Activity Example