It’s February! February may be the shortest little month, but who says February can’t be BIG on DESCRIPTION!

February is all about ADJECTIVES.  *28 days of Adjectives.  Now, don’t let this frighten you.  There will be no sentence diagramming, quizzes or words such as pronominal, positive, comparative, superlative, predicate adjective, prepositional phrase or subordinate clause to memorize.  No, no.  These ADJECTIVES will be fun, easy & completely do-able.  These ADJECTIVES will give your children (of all ages) a little flair, a little flavor and a little color to add to their language and writing.  A couple of minutes a day… that’s all it takes.  A couple of minutes a day to focus on achieving variety and oomph that will build great confidence in your children as they maneuver the wonders of language and language development and LITERACY.  February will bring 56 Adjectives to your children.

Let’s begin with the first 2 Adjectives…

Oh, wait.  I know I promised no quizzes, memorization and all that, but allow me to define exactly what an ADJECTIVE is and what it does.  You probably haven’t talked about adjectives lately, and in order to impress your children, you certainly want adjective information to roll right off your tongue.  So here goes:  **Sometimes we wish to describe, or make more definite, a noun or pronoun we use.  We then modify the word by using an adjective.  To modify a word means to describe the word or to make its meaning more definite. An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by answering one of these questions:  What kind? Which one? How many?

With our 56 Adjectives, we’ll be focusing on the What kind question? Get ready to use this question a lot!

Now back to our first 2 Adjectives:

1.  agile – able to move quickly; nimble. What to love about this word? agile is a lively word that is used to describe people and/or parts of the body;  agile legs, arms, fingers, feet;  agile is used to describe a person’s wit, humor, speech, intellect;  agile is used to describe animals, birds, insects and even clouds.  Talk about the word agile with your children. Discover agility today in people/body parts, animals, insects all around you.  USE the word. Encourage your children to use the word agile in their speaking and writing.  Watch what happens when your child’s teacher sees the word agile used properly in a sentence!   Example:  The little boy’s agile fingers zipped across the piano keys.

2.  azure –  a light to medium blue; a soft, clear blue of the unclouded sky. What to love about this word? azure gives such a pure, clear blue image; azure sounds intense and lovely; azure adds great dimension and definition to the word blue.  Talk about the word azure.  Use the word.  Hear how lovely it sounds.  Look at the sky.  Is it azure today?  Tell your children that poets use the word azure.  Encourage use of the word in speaking and writing.  Example:  After the storm, a brilliant rainbow appeared in the azure sky.

agile.  azure. Meet them.  Get to know them.  Introduce them to your children.  Use them.  Remember that LITERACY is all about WORDS – Written, Spoken, Felt. Words are your children’s great friends!

*My original objective was to present 2 Adjectives each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon… but several readers/teachers asked that I give both words in the morning,  to give kids a chance to use the words throughout the day.  Great idea!

**Right from the pages of the good ole’ Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition text!