Adjective brainstorming challenge

Students work in small groups to brainstorm as many adjectives as possible for a list of different nouns.

At the beginning of the activity, divide your class into small groups of 2-4 students, ensuring that the groups are well-balanced in language abilities.

On the whiteboard, create a list of five nouns for each group of students. Select nouns from categories the students are familiar with or have recently studied. They should consider the noun's appearance, size, colour, texture, or any other characteristic that can be described using adjectives. 

Explain to your students that they will work in their groups to brainstorm as many adjectives as possible for each noun on their list.

Set a time limit for the brainstorming session and encourage students to collaborate and share their ideas within their group. Use a timer to ensure the activity stays within the allotted time. Monitor the groups as they work, providing support and guidance as necessary.

Once the time is up, ask each group to share their adjectives with the class. Write the adjectives on the board next to their corresponding noun. Encourage students to explain their choices and compare the different adjectives used by each group.

Adjective chain

For this activity, students take turns providing adjectives that begin with the last letter of the previous adjective, practising vocabulary, listening, and memory skills as they complete a full round of the class.

Start the activity by providing the first adjective. After saying it, turn to the student next to you and ask them to think of an adjective that begins with the last letter of the adjective that you offered up. For example, if you said the adjective 'big', the next student should say something like 'green'.

Depending on the age and level of your students, repeat the activity as many times as you feel is valuable. The goal is for every student to add an adjective to the chain. You could even time them with a stopwatch to add some excitement.

Adjective charades

The students have to mime different adjectives for their teammates.

Introduce the activity to your students by explaining that they will be given an adjective to act out while their classmates try to guess it based on their nonverbal cues.

Select a student to start the activity and discreetly show them a flashcard or piece of paper with an adjective written on it. Make sure the other students do not see the card. Ask the student to act out the adjective without using words, only their facial expressions, body language, or gestures.

Encourage the other students to guess the adjective they are trying to convey. Students can call out their guesses or raise their hands.

Once a student has correctly guessed the adjective, praise the acting student for their performance and the guessing student for their correct answer. Then, select another student to act out another adjective. 

Continue the activity this way until all students have had a chance to participate.

Adjective category race

Students work in teams to list as many adjectives as possible within specific categories.

Divide the class into teams of 3-4 students. Ensure that the teams are well-balanced in terms of language abilities.

Explain to your students that you will give them a category, and their task is to list as many adjectives as they can within that category in a given timeframe.

Write the first category on the board and set a timer for a specific amount of time (e.g., 2-3 minutes) depending on the students' proficiency level and the difficulty of the category. Encourage the students to work collaboratively within their teams to come up with as many adjectives as possible.

Once the time is up, ask each team to share their list of adjectives with the class. Write the adjectives on the board, grouping them by category. Discuss the adjectives that each team came up with, clarifying any unfamiliar words or concepts.

Repeat the activity with any additional categories relevant to their age, level and recently covered material.

Synonym challenge

In this classroom activity, students work in pairs to find synonyms for a list of given adjectives.

We can adapt the Synonym challenge whiteboard game and create a fun warmer to test your students' knowledge of adjectives.

To prepare, add a list of adjectives to the board. Make sure to use adjectives that the students are already familiar with. Depending on the level of your students, 5-10 should be enough.

Divide the students into pairs or small groups and have them come up with a synonym for each of the adjectives on the list. Clarify that a synonym is a word with a similar meaning to another word.

As this is warmer, try to set a short timeframe for the activity but allow students sufficient time to think of examples for each adjective. Monitor the students as they work, offering guidance and support when needed.

Once the activity is complete, ask students to share their solutions with the class. Write the adjectives and their synonyms on the board, discussing any unfamiliar words and clarifying their meanings.

Adjective antonyms

In this classroom activity, students work in pairs to find antonyms for a list of given adjectives.

Similar to the 'Synonym challenge' challenge, but this time students must find words with the opposite meaning for each given adjective.

To prepare, add a list of adjectives to the board. Make sure to use adjectives that the students are already familiar with. Depending on the age and level of your students, 5-10 should be enough.

Divide the students into pairs or small groups and task them with coming up with an antonym for each of the adjectives on the list. Clarify that an antonym is a word with the opposite meaning to another word.

As this is warmer, try to set a short timeframe for the activity but allow students sufficient time to think of examples for each adjective. Monitor the students as they work, offering guidance and support when needed.

Once the activity is complete, ask students to share their solutions with the class. Write the adjectives and their synonyms on the board, discussing any unfamiliar words and clarifying their meanings.

Noun match

The students practise associating adjectives with the nouns that the teacher provides, promoting quick thinking and vocabulary recall.

Start the activity by turning to the first student and providing them with an adjective. Choose adjectives suitable for your students' proficiency level and related to the topics you have been teaching in class.

The student should respond with a noun that the adjective could be used to describe. Encourage students to think quickly and creatively.

Continue moving around the class, providing each student with a different adjective.

Show and tell

In this speaking activity, students practise speaking skills by presenting an object or concept to the class.

This classic activity idea is not only a great way to get younger students talking, but it can also provide the perfect context to encourage students to start using adjectives.

You can use this activity idea with many themes and adapt it to revise and practise different target language areas. It also serves as a fantastic homework activity.

To prepare, choose a topic relevant to your students' learning level and recent lesson content.

Some examples:

• My favourite book
• A piece of technology I can't live without
• An activity I hate
• My lucky object
• My first pet
• My car
• My house

Assign the students a homework task to prepare a description related to the chosen topic for the next class. You should provide the students with a list of questions they should answer during their presentation.

Start the activity by having each student present their object or concept at the front of the class. Ask the student to describe it using the list of questions as a guide. Encourage them to speak clearly and confidently, using complete sentences and relevant vocabulary.

As each student presents, provide support and encouragement, and give guidance on pronunciation and grammar as needed. Allow other students to ask questions or make comments after each presentation.

Adjective expansion

In this creative writing activity, students work in pairs to enhance simple sentences by adding adjectives that modify the nouns.

Before the class, prepare a list of simple sentences suitable for your students' proficiency level, such as "The dog is running" or "She is eating an apple."

Explain that they will work in pairs to expand the simple sentences provided by adding adjectives that modify the nouns in the sentences.

Write the list of simple sentences on the board, ensuring they are clearly visible to all students.

Divide the class into pairs, and have them work together to expand the statements. Monitor the teams as they work, and ensure that the students understand the role of adjectives in modifying nouns and adding descriptive detail to sentences.

After the students have finished expanding the sentences, ask each pair to share their statements with the class. Add the best ones to the board next to the original simple sentences.

Adjective flashcard match

Students work in pairs to match images with their corresponding words.

To prepare for this activity, you'll need to print multiple flashcard sets for each pair of students. You can use the free ESL flashcard set on adjectives and descriptions available in our flashcard library. Follow the printing instructions provided on our website to print these flashcards as playing cards. Print one set of images and one set of words for each group.

You can also use these cards to play the 'Flashcard memory game' described in the games section of this article.

To begin the activity, divide your students into pairs. Hand each duo their flashcards, one with images and another with words.

Explain to your students that their task is to match each image with its corresponding word. They should work collaboratively, discussing their choices and the meanings of the words.

While the students work on the task, walk around the room to monitor their discussions and provide assistance when necessary.

After everybody has matched all the cards, review the correct pairings with the whole class.

Adjective detective

Students work in pairs or small groups to identify and discuss the adjectives within a short text.

To prepare for this activity, select a short text suitable for your students' language level. The text could be a paragraph from a story, a newspaper article, or an excerpt from a novel. It should contain a good number of adjectives.

Distribute the text to your students and divide them into pairs or small groups. Explain to them that their task is to identify all the adjectives in the text. Encourage them to underline or highlight the adjectives they find.

As the students work on identifying the adjectives, move around the room and assist as needed. Encourage them to discuss their findings within their groups and to look up any unfamiliar adjectives.

When they are ready, initiate a class discussion about the adjectives found. Ask the students to share the meanings of the adjectives and discuss why they think the author chose those specific adjectives.

Adjective order

Students individually unscramble sentences and then pair up to compare and discuss their corrections.

Before doing this activity, prepare a list of sentences that contain adjectives. Ensure the sentences are challenging enough to suit the proficiency level of your students.

Begin by adding your sentences to the board in such a way that the words are in the wrong order.

Explain to your students that their task is to unscramble these sentences and write them correctly. Emphasise that they should pay close attention to the adjectives in the sentences and how they modify the nouns.

Allow students sufficient time to work on unscrambling the sentences individually. Encourage them to think critically about sentence structure and the role of adjectives in a sentence.

Once students have written their corrected sentences, pair them with another student to compare and discuss their answers.

To conclude the activity, review the solutions with the whole class, ensuring that all students understand the placement of adjectives and other sentence components.

The writer's room

In this collaborative writing activity, students work in groups to craft a unique story incorporating a list of adjectives written on the board.

To start this activity, begin by writing several adjectives on the board. Make sure these adjectives are diverse and interesting and choose adjectives suitable for your students' proficiency level.

Explain to your students that they will work in groups to create a story that uses all the adjectives listed on the board.

Divide the class into small groups. Each will need to brainstorm and craft their own unique story that includes every adjective from the list on the board.

Encourage students to be creative in their storytelling and think carefully about how they can incorporate each adjective to enhance their story.

Once each group has completed the task, have them present it to the rest of the class. Encourage the other students to listen for each adjective and how it was used within the story.

Picture this

Students prepare and deliver a presentation where they have to describe an image using as many adjectives as possible.

Begin this activity by selecting a variety of interesting images. These could be landscapes, scenes from a city, or photographs of people engaged in different activities. Ensure that each one has enough elements to generate a detailed description.

Hand out one picture to each pair of students. Explain to the students that they will prepare a short presentation describing their assigned image to the rest of the class using as many adjectives as possible.

Give the students sufficient time to examine their pictures and prepare their presentations. As the pairs work on their descriptions, walk around the room to monitor their progress, answer questions, and provide assistance.

Remind the students that during their presentations, they should take turns speaking. This ensures that each student has an opportunity to practise their speaking skills and contribute to the description.

After the preparation, have each pair present their description to the class and encourage the rest to listen attentively.

Adjective hot seat

Teams compete to accurately guess adjectives based on their teammates' descriptions.

Prepare the game by splitting your class into two teams. Make sure each team has a similar number of players.

For each round, select a player from one of the teams to be in the 'hot seat'. This student should face their team and have their back to the board or the teacher.

Write or display 3-5 adjectives on the board (depending on your students' level). During the round, team members must describe each adjective to the 'hot seat' player using synonyms, antonyms, or other creative clues without saying the adjective itself.

Set a time limit for each round—say, one minute—to keep the game moving. Once the time begins, the team starts giving clues. If the 'hot seat' player can guess all adjectives within the time limit, the team gets a point for each adjective.

After every student has had a turn in the hot seat, or once a predetermined number of rounds have been played, tally up the scores and declare a winner.

Snowball darts: Adjective challenge

Students have to complete a challenge to earn a throw of the snowball and a chance to win points for their team.

You can quickly adapt this idea from our article on whiteboard games for English language learners to revise many language focus areas. Let's do it for adjectives.

To prepare the game, draw a circular target on the whiteboard with several concentric layers of score values, with the highest score in the centre. Also, crush some old paper into a ball shape for a snowball. 

On each turn, give a student an adjective challenge. For example:

• Describe an object on a flashcard.
• Ask for a synonym of an adjective(similar).
• Ask for an antonym of an adjective(opposite).
• Give them an adjective and ask them for an example of something it could describe.

If the student completes the challenge, they can throw a snowball at the board and try to win some points.

Depending on the class size, play as an individual or team game. Tally up the scores at the end and declare a winner.

Flashcard memory

In this memory match game, students flip over pairs of adjective flashcards, aiming to find matching pairs.

You'll need to print multiple sets of flashcards for each group to prepare. Again, we encourage you to use our free ESL flashcard set on adjectives and descriptions. To save paper, we suggest you use the print settings of '9 pages per sheet' described in our printing instructions. This makes the cards the perfect size for the game. You can also print one set of images and one set of words as detailed in the same print instructions.

Next, lay the flashcards face down on a table, ensuring they are all mixed up.

Briefly explain the rules of the game to your students. For each turn, a student will flip over two flashcards. If the two cards match, the student keeps the cards and takes another turn. If they don't match, the cards are flipped back over, and play continues with the next student.

Divide your class into small groups or pairs to play the game. Encourage students to say the item's name out loud when they flip over a card.

As the game progresses, monitor your students and assist them if they have difficulty pronouncing or remembering any vocabulary.

Adjective Taboo

Students must guess adjectives based on their teammates' descriptions without using synonyms or antonyms.

Divide your group into two or more teams, depending on your class size. Ensure each has an even number of players for a fair competition.

For every round, select a student from one of the teams. Privately show this student an adjective. You can write it down or whisper it to them. Make sure the other students cannot see or hear the adjective.

Explain to the student that they must describe this adjective to their teammates without using any synonyms or antonyms for the adjective. They also cannot use "rhymes with" clues. The challenge is to provide a description that leads the team to guess the correct adjective.

Set a time limit for each round, thirty seconds to a minute, depending on the age and level of your students. This adds a bit of pressure and keeps the game moving.

If a team guesses the adjective correctly within the time limit, they earn a point. If they fail, the other team has one guess to steal the point.

After each round, rotate the role of clue-giver to another team member to ensure that all students get a turn at describing an adjective.

The team with the most points at the end of the game is declared the winner.

Adjective Pictionary

Players have to draw images on the board that communicate a given adjective while their teammates guess what they are.

Start by splitting the class into two teams. On each turn, show one of the students an adjective on a piece of paper. They must then represent this on board using only images and symbols.

Set a time limit for the rounds based on your students' age and abilities.

As a fun twist, you can make it so each team has only one guess per player. When a player makes an incorrect guess, mark it as a lost life. If they use all of their lives, the round is over. 

After each round, rotate the role of the 'artist' to another team member to ensure that all students get a turn at the board.

Adjective Blockbusters

A challenging team-based game where students compete to form a chain of hexagons on a grid by correctly answering adjective-related questions.

To start the game, you'll first need to prepare a 5x5 hexagon grid on the board. You should also number each hexagon for easy reference.

Split your class into two teams. Explain to them that the aim of the game is to form a continuous chain of hexagons from one side of the grid to the other.

Starting with the leftmost column, a player from the first team selects a hexagon, and the teacher asks a challenge question related to adjectives. 

This question could be anything from defining a specific adjective, using it correctly in a sentence, or finding a synonym or antonym for a given adjective. It's a good idea to prepare a list of adjectives appropriate to your students' level beforehand.

If the player answers the question correctly, the team claims the selected hexagon, and you can mark it with the team's colour. If the answer is incorrect, they fail to capture that hexagon.

Continue the game by alternating turns between the teams. Players can select any unclaimed hexagon with each turn, but strategic choices can help a group form their chain quicker.

The game ends when one team successfully forms a chain of hexagons from one side of the grid to the other or when all paths are blocked, at which point, the team with the longest chain wins.