Title: Adjective Hats

Grade: 4th

Subject: English

Designer: Sara Cummings

Stage 1 Desired Results

Established Goals: SOL 4.8The student will edit writing for correct grammar, capitalization, spelling,
punctuation, sentence structure, and paragraphing.
(f) Incorporate adjectives and adverbs.
Understandings:
Essential Understanding: Adjectives are important to
use when writing to express events and objects that
-Adjectives are describing words that make
need to be described to give the reader a better picture
writing more expressive and vivid.
of what the author is saying.
Essential Questions:
-Adjectives can describe many types of nouns
and verbs.
-What types of adjective can be used to describe the hat
you are making?
-Old Hat, New Hat is a Dr. Seuss book using
many adjectives to describe many different
-What adjectives can be used to describe things around
hats.
the room? What about the outfit you are wearing?
-Use adjectives in their memory stories to
-What adjectives can you use to describe your memory?
add more details to the memories they are
Think back to the type of memory you wrote about and
writing about.
think about how you felt when it was happening.
Materials
Students will be able to
-Construction paper
-Use many kinds of adjectives while writing stories and
-Markers/colored pencils/etc.
essays to make their narratives more vivid and detailed
-Scissors
and stand out more to their audience.
-Glue
-Tape
-Adjective packet
Stage 2 Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks:
Other Evidence:
-Students will either draw a hat with many
details or create their own hats that they can -Teacher scaffolding
actually wear and make them as detailed as
-Teacher observation
possible. Students will then have to write a
-Reading the paragraphs students wrote about their
paragraph (3-5 sentences) about their hats
hats and the amount of adjective and details used when
using as many adjectives a possible to
writing.
describe the hats they have created.
Stage 3 Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
1) The teacher will read a story called Old Hat, New Hat by Dr. Seuss. The story involves a bear-like
character going into a hat shop and using adjectives to describe the various hats he is trying on.
2) The teacher will get out construction paper, colored pencils, markers, scissors, glue, etc. that the
students will need to either draw their hats or create their own detailed hats. The teacher explains that
their hats will need to be goofy, flowery, spirally, colorful, etc. and have as much detail as possible to
make it easier to write their paragraph using adjectives.
3) The students get to work on their projects and continue working for about 30 minutes.

4) The teacher explains they will need to write a paragraph, using 3-5 sentences, and as many adjectives
as possible to describe the hat they made. The teacher will give each table a packet of adjectives they
could use to describe.
5) Once the students are finished, students will pack up and move on to the next activity.
Reflection
This was one of the most fun Language Arts lessons Ive taught thus far. The students loved revisiting
their childhoods when reading Old Hat, New Hat by Dr. Seuss and they could clearly see the hats that
were being described. Before reading the script, I would put the book on the document camera and ask
the students to give me ideas of words that they would use to describe the hat. They loved that and it
helped them understand the concept of adjectives more.
When doing the adjective hats project, many of my students got really into it! I did have some that
chose to draw their hats instead of making a cut out, however even they got really into the drawings.
Once the activity was finished, the ones who cut out and designed their hats wanted to wear them. They
had so much fun! The best part? In their next writing assignment, I noticed them using more adjectives
to describe the events, people, places, etc.