Descriptive Writing: Using Action Verbs

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound like what they name.

For example: The bacon sizzled in the pan.

Stand up and move to the beat as you listen to this song and watch the video, Onomatopoeia, by Michael Kronberg, Kronberg Toolbox. Take a piece of paper and pencil and write words down that are examples of onomatopoeia:

What words stood out to you? Did you say “boom” or “clap”? Those words were repeated over and over again. You can use onomatopoeia in your writing to make your writing more interesting and exciting. You can do this especially when you are doing a descriptive writing piece. Telling how something sounds adds to the overall picture of the person or place.

Before you continue, if you missed or would like to review the previous Related Lessons in our Descriptive Writing series, you can find them in the right-hand sidebar.

You are also going to review action verbs and adverbs in this lesson. Action verbs tell what the subject is doing. Use specific action verbs in your sentences to provide a highly-accurate description of the action being performed.

Example: The cat pounced on the string.

An adverb is a word that describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. An adverb answers four questions:

• How?
• When?
• Where?
• How often?

Example: The boy ran quickly to the door. In this sentence, "quickly" tells how the boy "ran."

Now, run quickly to the Got It? section to practice identifying onomatopoeias, action verbs, and adverbs.