I decided to modify a lesson to include exercises on describing using adjectives. After several attempts at tasting a beet salad and an apple and arugula salad, I noticed that when I asked students how they tasted, a lot of students responded using the words “weird,” “gross,” or “good.” As I explained to the students, these words don’t help describe the food at all. All they let us know is that they did or didn’t like the salad. So, we worked on describing plants using our five senses.

I first addressed the class by asking them if they knew what an adjective was. They did, so I let them know we were going to work on putting that into practice. I split the class into groups of 4 and assigned each group one of 4 senses (I left out taste). They were then in charge of going into the garden with their group and finding 3 appropriate describing words using just that sense. The results were fantastic, and all the students were eager to tell me what they had found.

Then, as our ultimate practice, I told the students that they were going to help me place worms into the garden. I handed them each a single worm and asked them to describe it. They described holding the worm as “tickly,” “wiggly,” and “slimy.” They then went on to name their worms. These red wigglers were christened Jimmy, Timmy, and Christopher. All in all, I could tell from all the high-pitched squeals of happiness, that the students had fun and got to learn.