Skills / Ages 8 to 11 / Reading and writing
Identify a verb
Finding the word in a sentence that tells what someone or something does, like runs or baked, or what it is, like is or was.
Why it matters
Four lessons in the book start from the verb. Helping verbs are bracketed around it, tense is changed on it, adverbs are found by asking how or when about it, and a sentence is cut in two right in front of it. If the verb is hard to find, every one of those lessons stalls.
What it looks like when your child can do it
- Hearing "The baby slept all afternoon," your child picks out slept.
- Your child finds is in "The soup is hot" and knows it counts as a verb even though nothing moves.
- Your child checks a word by changing the time, slept, sleeps, will sleep, and hears that the verb is the word that changes.
How to teach it at the kitchen table
- 01
Start with actions you can act out
Call out jump, clap, hop and wave, and have your child do each one. Words that name an action are verbs. Then say "Dad cooks dinner" and ask which word is the thing Dad does.
- 02
Add the being verbs
Some verbs show no action at all. Am, is, are, was and were tell what someone or something is, as in "The dog is tired." These are verbs too, and they are the ones children miss most.
- 03
Use the time trick
Say the sentence as yesterday, today and tomorrow. "We walk home" becomes "We walked home" and "We will walk home." The word that changes is the verb.
- 04
Find who first, then what
Ask who or what the sentence is about, then ask what that person or thing does or is. The answer to the second question is the verb.
Try it together
Try 1
Say: "My brother kicked the ball over the fence." Ask for the verb.
Listen for Kicked. It is what the brother did, and it changes to kicks or will kick when you change the time.
Try 2
Say: "The soup is too hot." Ask for the verb.
Listen for Is. Nothing moves, but is tells what the soup is. If your child says hot, say it as yesterday, "The soup was too hot," and notice that hot stayed the same while is changed.
Try 3
Say: "Every morning the birds sing in the tree." Ask for the verb.
Listen for Sing. Morning, birds and tree name things, so they are nouns.
Try 4
Say: "We were late for the bus." Ask for the verb.
Listen for Were. It belongs to the same family as am, is, are and was.
Try 5
Say: "Mom will bake a cake tomorrow." Ask which word tells what Mom does.
Listen for Bake, with will as its helper. If your child points to both words, that is fine. Bake is the word that carries the meaning.
Watch for
- Skipping the being verbs. Is and was look too small to matter, so children pass over them. Keep them in the practice sentences.
- Words that change jobs. Walk is a verb in "We walk" and a noun in "a long walk." Let the sentence decide.
If it is not there yet
- Go back to acting out verbs. Say one word at a time and ask whether your child can do it. Jump, you can do. Spoon, you cannot.
- Keep sentences to three or four words, like "The cat sleeps," until finding the verb is quick. Then add longer ones.
A few days of this is normal, and it is time well spent. The lesson will still be there, and it will go faster.
Where this skill comes up
The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 11
Helping Verbs and Verb Phrases
Needs it because the phrase is built around a main verb, and the child has to see that verb to bracket around it.
The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 12
Verb Tense: Past, Present, and Future
Needs it because tense lives on the verb, so the verb has to be located before it can be changed.
The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 17
Adverbs: How, When, and Where
Needs it because an adverb is found by finding the verb and then asking how, when, or where about it.
The Parts of Speech, Told by the Greek Myths · Lesson 21
Subject and Predicate: The Two Parts of Every Sentence
Needs it because the cut is made in front of the verb, so the verb has to be found before the sentence can be split.