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Skills / Ages 8 to 11 / Reading and writing

Identify an action verb

Finding the verb that tells what someone or something did, like carried, washed or waited, including quiet actions where nothing moves fast.

Why it matters

The book's Linking Verbs lesson teaches the verbs that show no action, like is and seems. A linking verb is defined by what it does not do, so your child needs a firm sense of what an action verb does before that lesson can make sense.

What it looks like when your child can do it

  • Hearing "Grandpa fixed the fence," your child asks what Grandpa did and answers fixed.
  • Your child counts quiet actions like waited, listened and thought as action verbs.
  • Your child notices that is in "The fence is old" does not show anyone doing anything.

How to teach it at the kitchen table

  1. 01

    Find the doer first

    Ask who or what the sentence is about. In "The dog chewed a sock," the doer is the dog.

  2. 02

    Ask what the doer did

    Now ask what the dog did. The answer, chewed, is the action verb. This one question is the whole method, and it is the same one the book uses.

  3. 03

    Include the quiet actions

    Actions do not have to be loud or fast. Sat, waited, listened, thought and planned are all things a person does, so they are action verbs too.

  4. 04

    Compare with is and was

    Say "The sock is wet" and ask what the sock did. It did nothing, because is only tells what the sock is. That is a different kind of verb, and the book's Linking Verbs lesson is about exactly that kind.

Try it together

  1. Try 1

    Say: "My sister painted a picture of our cat." Ask what the sister did.

    Listen for  Painted. That is the action verb. Picture and cat are nouns.

  2. Try 2

    Say: "The baby watched the rain for a long time." Ask for the action verb.

    Listen for  Watched. Nothing moves much, but watching is something the baby did.

  3. Try 3

    Say: "The wind shook the tree." Ask for the doer and the action verb.

    Listen for  The doer is the wind and the action verb is shook. A doer does not have to be a person.

  4. Try 4

    Say: "The dog is sleepy." Ask whether this sentence has an action verb.

    Listen for  No. Is is a verb, but it shows no action. It tells what the dog is.

  5. Try 5

    Say two sentences: "Dad tasted the soup" and "The soup tasted salty." Ask which one has someone doing something.

    Listen for  The first one. Dad did the tasting, so tasted is an action verb there. In the second, the soup is not doing anything, and tasted only tells what the soup is like. This is the stretch question.

Watch for

  • Picking a noun that sounds busy. In "The dog chewed a sock," sock can feel like part of the action. Ask the question again: what did the dog do?

If it is not there yet

  • Act sentences out. Your child does the action, then says a sentence about it, like "I hopped," and names the action word.
  • Stay with loud, clear actions like jumped and threw until the question "What did the doer do?" comes on its own. Then add quiet 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 10

    Linking Verbs

    Needs it because A linking verb is defined by what it is not doing, so the action kind has to be solid first.