3.

21 MONSTER ADJECTIVES
Level A1.1, A1.2, A2.1, A2.2

Age 9-12

Organization whole class,pairs

Aims To notice and become aware of the order of objectives before nouns; to ask
and answer questions to practice the order of adjectives before nouns.
Language focus adjectives of size, numbers, colours, part of the body, have,
questions
Materials essential: none
Procedure
1. Ask the children to imagine a monster. Write the following table on the board:
three

big

red

eyes

six

small

yellow

ears

nine

tiny

purple

feet

2. Ask the children to secretly choose one word from each column to describe a
feature of their monster, eg three, tiny, yellow eyes / six, big, red feet and to
note the words they choose in their notebook.
3. Demonstrate the activity by getting the children to ask you up to six questions
to find out the special feature of your monster, eg Does your monster have
nine, small, purple ears? If they dont guess after six questions, tell them the
special feature, eg My monster has nine, big, yellow ears.
4. Divide the class into pairs.
5. Children take turns to ask their partner six questions and guess the special
feature of their partners monster in the same way.
6. At the end, ask the children to look at the adjectives in each column and
identify the order of adjectives before nouns, ie number- size (or other
descriptive adjective, eg hairy) - colour.
7. If appropriate, you may also like to ask the children how this order of
adjectives compares to their L1 and whether this makes it easier or difficult to
remember the order in English.
Comments and suggestions

This activity encourages children to explicitly notice feature of grammar that

they may have practiced implicitly (most probably with two, rather than three
adjectives).
Through inviting comparison with L1, children are encouraged to become
aware of similarities and differences between the two languages, which may
affect the way they learn.