Identifying and Using Verbs Lesson Plan
1. Objectives:
Students will show their understanding of a very through the interactive read-aloud of
Kites Sail High: A Book About Verbs by Ruth Keller. Students will be able to recognize
verbs in different texts, such as magazines, articles, flyers, and other written materials.
Students will collect different sentences that they see in everyday writing and put them in
their notebook to show their understanding of the importance of verbs. Students will be
able to use these verbs in their own sentences. Students will be able to apply the skills
that they have learned and work together in groups or individually and create their own
stories with the verbs that they have found.
2. Background:
 I will show a stuffed animal performing an action, and ask the students what the
stuffed animal is doing. You can do this with a variety of objects, and make the
objects do a lot of different things!
 The students will give you different answers (jumping, dancing, walking, etc.)
and you will tell the students that all of these words are verbs.
 Read students the book Kites Sail High: A Book About Verbs by Ruth Keller. Use
this book to create a class discussion, asking guided questions. The verbs in this
book are printed in bold, so it makes it easy for the students to identify them.
 Encourage students to participate and ask questions, and then you can go into
your lesson.
3. Activity: I will pass out different writing materials, such as magazines, articles, flyers,
etc. and have students pick out their favorite sentences with verbs. Students can work in
groups and collaborate and decide which sentences they like best, and which verbs they
want to use in their own future sentences.
4. Assignment: Using the verbs that the students found in the writing materials, have them
construct their own story. This can be collaborative or individual. The story can be about
anything; their favorite summer, a made-up superhero story, a favorite experience, etc.
The student should be using verbs correctly in relation to other words in the sentence, and
be using the verb in the right part of the sentence. Once the period for the assignment is
over, students can share a few of their favorite sentences with their favorite verbs with the
class.
5. Explanation: This lesson plan puts together what the students have learned over the first
week of the writing program. Being able to understand and recognize that verbs are a
very important part of writing helps students to want to use better verbs in their writing.
Students will start to recognize good usage of verbs in their favorite books, or even on
signs that they see every day. This activity will help students get ideas for how to
successfully use a word, and then implement it into their own writing. Students will
understand that descriptive verbs can be used everywhere, and that verbs are necessary in
all types of writing.