Verb Lesson Plans

Vivacious Verb Lesson Plans: Part 1

Start with the following explanation: "You use sentences with many verbs daily. Let’s see if you can identify the verbs in the following sentence."

Provide a definition on the board. For example:

Verb Defined: A verb is a word that defines action – an actionword. It will tell what the subject of a sentence is doing or what will happen.

Example A: “Terry ran upstairs.” (ran tells what Terry did – Terry is the subject.)
Example B: “Katie eats her lunch.” (eats tells what Katie is doing – Katie is the subject.)

Give students an example, such as “James throws the ball and laughs with his friends after he falls trying to catch it.” Have them identify the verb.

Objectives: Students will

Recognize different types of verbs
Identify verbs in various sentences
Use present, and past tense verbs

Suggested Grade Levels:

3rd Grade – 5th Grade

Materials:

Create a “Snap, Crackle, Pop” verbs worksheet by writing popular verbs on the left side of the page:

Plan:

Hand out “Snap, Crackle, Pop” verbs worksheets to the class. Tell them on the left side of the page there are various popular verbs used in books, and magazines that are infused throughout each paragraph which they may recognize.
Have students identify the verbs within each paragraph and write them on the right side of the page.

To continue to reinforce verb recognition and identification, try having students prepare sentences of their own and identify the verb(s) in each.

Verb Tense

Explain to your students that:

There are two types of verb tenses, past and present.
A past tense verb describes something that has already happened.
A present tense verb describes something that is currently happening

Examples

Provide the following examples:

Past Tense: I ran with Jaime. Lacy ran with Jeff. Jeff ran to me. We all ran away.
Present Tense: I am walking. Lacy is walking with Jeff. Jeff is walking with me. We all walk together.

Have students form their own past and present tense sentences. Teachers can also have students share their sentences with the class and identify which verbs are past tense and which verbs are present tense.

The Two Paragraph Infusion Activity

Have students write a two paragraph story using common verbs, as well as past and present tense verbs. These paragraphs should infuse noun usage from previous grammar lessons with verb usage from the current lesson. Have students take turns reading one of their paragraphs to the class and identify the verbs within each paragraph.

Writing Your Own Lesson Plans

Above was a prime example of how a verb lesson plan should be structured and organized. While it may seem tedious, it is important to set up a lesson plan like this when there is a topic that may be challenging to students. The notion of verb tenses can get tricky for some students. This is why the lesson plan encourage teacher-student interaction.

Regarding vivacious verbs, feel free to come up with something engaging that the students will enjoy. Having a simple worksheet set up that you can draft up on your own, will make learning verbs that much easier for the students involved.

Encourage students to write a brief narrative where they are to indentify common verbs, as well as verbs in the past and present tense will prove exceedingly helpful when the teacher tries to discern what learning level each student is at. The two paragraph infusion activity will show teachers if students have successfully learned how to use verbs and nouns in a sentence.