Monday, October 19, 2015

Vivid Verbs

In Mrs. Essenburg's class we have been writing personal narratives.

What is a personal narrative? 


We have been working hard to make sure our narratives paint a vivid picture in the mind of our readers so when they read our narrative they can feel like they are there with us.

One way to do that is to choose exciting verbs when we write.

Okay, so what are verbs?


Verbs show action. So to get a good understanding of what a verb is, we brainstormed a lot of examples of verbs and we acted them out! Check out the video below to see some of the verbs that we thought of.




Now that we have a good understanding of verbs we need to use them in our writing. However, when we write, we want to use STRONG verbs. 

If we say someone is going somewhere, there are probably better verbs than the word walk. How about the words trudged, or raced, or shuffled? Those verbs give us so much more information about our character and make our writing more interesting.

For example, look at the sentences below.

Kaitlyn walked to the park.

Mason looked out the window.

Ethan ate an apple. 


Third graders, now it is your turn. 

Look at the sentences above, and notice the verbs. Those verbs are boring and that makes the sentence boring.

Comment below and change the boring verbs to strong, interesting, exciting verbs. 

Make the sentence even better by giving us more details, adding interesting adjectives, or any thing else you can do to make the sentence come alive.



23 comments:

  1. Mason glanced out his window to see what the super loud noise was!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Jordan,

      I love the verb glance, because I know that it means he took just a quick look. Your sentence makes me think that maybe he heard the loud noise and he was startled. He glanced quickly to see what it was. It made a great picture in my mind! What do you think the loud noise was?

      Delete
  2. Dear class,
    Ethan was bored that he attacked the big juicy green apple then he ate it then he tossed in in the trashcan and played video games.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Omar,

      When I read your sentence I imagine that Ethan was just starving. That's why he attacked the apple! I imagine him tossing the core into the trash can and there's hardly any of the apple left. I am wondering which video game he decided to play. Which one do you think he played?

      Delete
  3. Dear Class,

    This is my example.

    Jackson gasped,the phone screamed "CALL JULIAN,"the phone yeled! ;.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Julian,

      Wow! That really makes me wonder what was going on. The word gasped is such a strong verb, it makes me think Jackson was surprised in some way. I would be surprised too if a phone started yelling at me!

      Delete
  4. Dear Class,
    Here is an example
    Shiloh leaped of the wet monkey bars
    and rushed to the bright red slide.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Shiloh,

      When I read your sentence I imagine the playground shortly after it rained, when everything outside is damp and there are still puddles on the ground and perhaps even puddles on the slide. I hope you didn't get wet when you went down the slide! I can see you leaping through the air and running as fast as you could to the slide. I love the verb rushed. What is your favorite thing to do on the playground?

      Delete
  5. Ethan had a bite of a green,juicy yummy apple.He loved it so much that he started dancing.
    Then he gave Joey one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Joey,

      I love how you described Ethan's apple. It makes me hungry just reading about it. It must have been an incredible apple if he started dancing afterward. It was nice of him to share an apple with you.

      Delete
  6. Dear class,
    My example is Mason gazed out the disgusting window and saw superman!!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Camden,

      When I read your sentence I had a picture in my head of the disgusting window. It has dirt all over it and grimy streaks of mud. There are some cobwebs on it from spiders as well. It's so dirty it's hard to see out of but it's clear enough that you can see through, otherwise Mason wouldn't have seen Superman. Now I have a question for you, what is Superman doing outside the window?

      Delete
  7. Mason spied out of the window on Selena!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Selena,

      The verb spied makes me think that Mason is peeking outside the window, crouching down, trying to make sure that Selena doesn't see him. Maybe Mason and Selena are playing hide and seek. What a great verb, it really creates a great picture in my mind. What do you think Selena is doing outside the window?

      Delete
  8. Dear Class,I have a example. Here it is. Mason gazed out of the weird shaped window and saw Elsa spraying ice all over the place.

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    Replies
    1. Dear Meredith,

      I'm sure Mason was surprised to see Elsa spraying ice outside the window. That's probably why he gazed, because gaze means to take a long look. If I saw Elsa spraying ice outside my window I would certainly be looking for a long time. That would be a sight to see! What made you think of Elsa spraying ice outside the window?

      Delete
    2. Dear Mrs.Esenburg, I love the question Here's my answer.I would think that it's kind of mean because if it was summer,like it was in the movie,what I would go out side and say can you please stop it is summer.If you saw ice in the summer what would you do?

      Delete
  9. Dear Class,

    Here is my example:
    Kaitlyn lead the awesome Halloween parade into the park. She threw candy to all the children at the parade in the park.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Dorothy,

      I can see Kaitlyn leading the parade of children into the park. She is at the front of the line and behind her are children dressed as witches, ghosts, pirates, cowboys, and lots of other great costumes. I can also see Kaitlyn reaching in her bag and tossing candy to all of the boys and girls. What a great image! What made you think of having Kaitlyn lead a parade into the park?

      Delete
  10. I love the verb video! I teach writing to college students at GVSU. I remind them often to use strong verbs in their writing!!
    I would revise the sentence to say,
    Ethan crunched a juicy red apple.

    Dorothys Mom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Dorothy's Mom

      I am glad to hear that students at the university are still working on using strong verbs in their writing. This is a skill that we can keep working on when we are kids and when we are adults. Thank you for dropping by and leaving a comment, and I love your sentence!

      Delete
  11. Dear Mrs. Essenburg's class,

    Here is my example: Kaitlyn raced to the park as fast as she could.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for your comment. What a great example. It makes me wonder why Kaitlyn was in such a hurry to get there, was she running to something? Or was she running from something? Strong verbs make such a difference in our writing!

      Delete

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