The Mother Tongue, Book I: Lessons in Speaking, Reading and Writing English · Secs. 297–299 · Part 2: Part Second
84. Finding adjectives, and adjectives that point or number
Goal: Your child finds adjectives in poems and knows that some adjectives point out or number things.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and pencil (a notebook kept just for this book works well)
What's in the book
Section 297 gives four selections (from Tennyson, Lowell, Shakespeare's Brutus and Caesar, and the Pied Piper's strange figure) to find adjectives in. Section 298 asks for ten sentences with them. Section 299 shows adjectives that point out or number (many, fifth, few, three).
The lesson, step by step
Find adjectives (Section 297)
Read the four selections aloud. Your child lists every adjective they find.
His queer long coat from heel to head
The Pied Piper
Read selection 4 again. Your child draws the Piper from the describing words alone. Which words helped most?
Pointing and numbering (Section 299)
Read the four examples.
Three crows sat on the oak.
Ask: Does "three" describe the crows, or count them? Does "many" describe the men, or tell how many?
Write (Section 298)
Your child writes six sentences using adjectives from the selections, as different as possible.
Check it gently
Your child underlines the adjectives in their sentences. Check that each one goes with a noun. Fix one.
Hunt in a book
Section 299: open a story your child is reading and find words that describe, number, or point out.
What a good result looks like
Example (written for this guide, not from the book):
The frosty grass crunched under my boots.
Several geese flew over the barn. (several numbers the geese)
That red barn is the oldest one in town. (that points it out)
Answers to the book's problems
Section 297: 1. wild (bells), wild (sky), flying, frosty. 2. old, bent, frail, Holy. 3. noble, wise, valiant, honest; mighty, bold, royal, loving. 4. strangest, queer, long, tall, thin, sharp, blue, light, loose, swarthy, quaint (and "bigger", "looking bigger"). Section 299: many, fifth, few, three.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.