Activity 6 – Mad Libs
Tuesday, October 23rd
5 points
Dean Zeller
CS10051
Fall, 2007
Objective
The student will participate in two Mad Libs activities.
Readings
Mad Libs books
Mad Libs (http://us.penguingroup.com/static/packages/us/yreaders/madlibs/)
Mad Libs (http://madlibs.org/)
Wacky Web Tales (http://www.eduplace.com/tales/)
Crazy Libs (http://www.rinkworks.com/crazylibs/)
Background: Mad Libs and Elementary Reading Education
Mad Lib is an activity aimed at elementary school reading levels. It helps students to identify parts of speech
within a sentence. This activity requires two people – a writer and an entry selector. First, the writer asks for
values for nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and exclamations, filling in missing values as defined by the mad
lib story. Then the completed story is read aloud, using the entries in place of the blanks. The enjoyment of the
activity rests in recognizing the original story, but using the entries supplied. The result is a somewhat absurd
story.
Instructions
1. Choose a partner. (Classmate, friend, sibling, child, etc…)
2. Complete one Mad-Lib activity, playing the role of the writer.
3. Complete the other Mad-Lib activity, providing the entries.
4. Write both names on the activity sheet
Grading
You will be graded on the following criteria:
Accuracy
Correctly completing the Mad Lib activities
Extra Credit
 Find and complete other Mad Lib stories
 Write and complete your own Mad Lib story.
Alternate Assignment
 Word process your own Mad Lib, similar to the examples.
Grammar Tutorial
Nouns



A noun is a word that names a person, a place, or a thing.
A noun that names only one person, place, or thing is called a singular noun.
A noun that names more than one person, a place, or a thing is called a plural noun.
Person
Place
Thing
dentists (plural) New York (singular) pears (plural)
sister (singular) zoo (singular)
fan (singular)
Julio (singular)
notebook (singular)
towns (plural)
children (plural) beaches (plural)
buses (plural)
Adjectives
 An adjective is a word that describes a noun. An adjective can tell what kind or how many.
What Kind
How Many
We have a large dog.
Our dog has five puppies.
Our dog has tiny, brown spots. Many dogs love children.
Verbs




A verb is a word that can show action.
A present tense verb shows action that is happening now.
A past tense verb shows action that has already happened.
A future tense verb shows action that will happen.
Present Tense
Bats hunt at night.
Past Tense
Future Tense
The bats hunted last night. The bats will hunt tonight.
The bats fly quickly. The bats flew overhead.
The bats will fly later.
Adverbs
 An adverb is a word that describes a verb.
 An adverb can tell how, when, or where.
How
When
I read books quickly.
Where
I read books often.
I keep my books upstairs.
I read newspapers slowly. I always read the newspaper. I buy my newspaper there.
Exclamations
 An exclamation can be a word, a phrase, or a sentence that shows strong feeling.
 It is followed by an exclamation point.
Word
Wow!
Phrase
Oh, no!
Sentence
What a terrific song!
Yippee! No way! We won the championship!
Father Goose Rhymes
Old Mother Hubbard went to the ___________
(noun)
To get her ___________ ___________a bone.
(adjective)
(noun)
When she got there, the ___________ was ___________
(noun)
(adjective)
And so her ___________ dog had none.
(adjective)
Jack and Jill went up the ___________
(noun)
To fetch a/an ___________ of ___________.
(a container)
(a liquid)
Jack fell down and broke his ___________,
(noun)
And Jill came tumbling after.
There was a/an ___________ woman
(adjective)
Who ___________ in a shoe.
(verb-past tense)
She had so many ___________,
(plural noun)
She didn’t know what to do.
(“Father Goose Rhymes”, from Sooper Dooper Mad Libs, by Roger Price and Leonard Stern, http://us.penguingroup.com/static/packages/us/yreaders/madlibs/fun.html)
Copernicus
Four hundred years ago people knew little about our
___________ universe. They thought that the Earth was the
(adjective)
center of the entire ___________ and that the sun and all of the
(noun)
___________ revolved around it. But then a/an ___________
(plural noun)
(nationality)
named Copernicus discovered the truth: the earth revolves
around the ___________ ___________ times a year.
(something round)
(a number)
Copernicus, whose last name was ___________, was born
(a last name)
in Warsaw, and he used one of the first ___________
(adjective)
telescopes, which was invented by ___________. This primitive
(person in room)
telescopes was little more than two pieces of ___________
(food)
stuck on each end of a/an ___________. In 1600, an Italian
(noun)
___________ named Galileo expanded Copernicus’___________
(occupation)
(adjective)
theories, but during the Inquisition in Italy he was ___________
(adverb)
arrested. After ___________ for six months in jail, Galileo was
(verb ending in -ing)
forced to ___________.
(verb)
(“Copernicus,” from Mad Libs From Outer Space, by Roger Price and Leonard Stern, http://us.penguingroup.com/static/packages/us/yreaders/madlibs/fun.html)