Back again today to wrap up the “Nouns Around Town” play set. This isn’t the end, though … it’s only the beginning, because you now have all the pieces to create hilarious, beautiful, meaningful, creative sentences with your future grammar king or queen.
If you’re joining us for the first time today, you can find the previous downloads for the play set HERE and HERE. Those free printables include the following: nouns, verbs, articles, suffixes, punctuation, and sentences, plus colorful backgrounds and figures that let your child build interesting scenes while he plays. With today’s final installment, we are going to cover adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and prepositions. (Don’t worry, we’ve included flashcards in the download, to help kids memorize the new terminology.)
What are adjectives? An adjective is a word that describes a noun. Imagine them like this: if our words were painting a picture in someones mind as they read, adjectives would be the colors in the art of language. Without them, our words would be drab and dull. Adjectives bring our nouns to life; they give them their character and personality.
As an example, compare these two sentences:
- The snail ate.
- The tiny, brown snail ate a gigantic, juicy blueberry.
The descriptive adjectives paint a vivid image, where as the first sentence just barely stenciled in an idea (and a not-very-interesting one, at that).
What are adverbs? An adverb is a word that describes verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Let’s say you want to write about a skunk in your garden. So you write, “The skunk walked into the garden.” It informs me of what happened, but it’s boring. But if you were to add an adverb and say, “the skunk timidly walked into the garden,” now we have a deeper understanding of the skunk. This isn’t a big bad skunk storming into forbidden territory, but perhaps a skunk who’s just hungry, smells something yummy, and is cautiously sneaking in for a quick bite. When we choose our words carefully and sprinkle in aptly-selected adverbs, we help paint that vivid imagery we spoke of earlier.
Next, how about pronouns? Pronoun tasks are a little easier to remember. A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun. As I write about the skunk in my garden, instead of using the word “skunk” each time and getting repetitive, I can refer to him or her (or even just use “it”).
Prepositions however, are a little trickier. A preposition is a word that tells when something happened, or shows where something is located compared to something else. Take our snail from above. Remember the tiny, brown snail that was eating the gigantic, juicy blueberry? Throw in a preposition, and all of the sudden you know that the tiny brown snail was eating the gigantic juicy blueberry under the porch. You pretty much have to memorize the most common prepositions. Teach your kids to always ask themselves if the word is truly being used as a preposition, though. Every prepositional phrase begins with a preposition, but has to end with an object (typically a noun, pronoun, or a gerund).
We hope this play set will be a tool to start introducing elements of grammar and vocabulary in a fun, engaging way. Simply print this new download with all the new adjective, adverb, pronoun, and preposition cards to expand your grammar-learning set, and get your word town busy! If you’d like a neat storage case to store it all in, a small fishing tackle box works well. 
Keep your lessons short, creative, and fun, and watch your little word Picasso begin to paint masterpieces with his new language skills.
Download the third set of “Nouns Around Town” grammar teaching printables:
Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns, & Prepositions for “Nouns Around Town” Play Set
