Session plan 2 of 8

Who’s That? Describing words

Use shadows to practise adjectives and comparing, then write sentences that help a friend guess without saying the name.

30 minutes. Ages 5 to 8 (Years 1 to 4, Kindergarten to Grade 3). Uses Who’s That Pokémon?.

Learning objective

Pupils use adjectives to describe a shape they can only partly see, and use tall, taller and tallest correctly when they compare real heights.

Curriculum links

England, KS1 and KS2

• KS1 English: vocabulary, adjectives and expanded noun phrases
• KS2 English: comparatives and superlatives

United States, broad grade bands

• Grades 1 to 3 language: adjectives and comparing with -er and -est
• Grades 1 to 3 writing: descriptive sentences

What you need

• A projector
• The Who’s That game
• Paper and pencils
• A list of describing words on the board, to start with

The plan, minute by minute

1. Warm-up, 5 minutes: Describe the shadow. Show one silhouette. Without naming anything, pupils call out words that describe the shape: round, spiky, long, tiny. Collect the words on the board.
2. Main, 8 minutes: Who’s That, in teams. Run the game. Before teams guess, each team must give two describing words for the shadow. Press Reveal, hear the name, and give the point.
3. Main, 7 minutes: Tall, taller, tallest. Write three heights on the board: Diglett at 0.2 m, Pikachu at 0.4 m and Wailord at 14.5 m. Ask for a sentence with each form: Diglett is short, Pikachu is taller, Wailord is the tallest. Then ask for a word that is much better than “big” for Wailord.
4. Main, 5 minutes: Write a clue. Each pupil writes two sentences describing a Pokémon they know, with no name in them. They need at least three adjectives.
5. Plenary, 5 minutes: Guess my clue. Swap clues with a partner. The partner guesses, and says which word helped most.

Projector game

Who’s That Pokémon?. Use it for the warm-up and the main round. Make teams describe the shadow before they are allowed to guess.

More to use

• The Pokédex. Browse by type or colour for new things to describe.
• Lesson: Reading a stat card. Where the heights and weights come from.

Differentiation

Easier

Give a word bank with six adjectives and a sentence starter: “It is a ___ creature with a ___ tail.” Describe aloud before writing.

Harder

Ask for expanded noun phrases (“a long, spiky tail”), an adverb, and one comparison with a real animal using “as ___ as”.

Talk about it

Which describing word would help a friend guess without the name? Is there a word that would mislead them?

Numbers used in this plan

From the pokee.si Pokédex.

Previous: Say it right · All plans · Next: Type matchups as rock-paper-scissors