M10 manner adverbial
Intervention outline
You will need:
- Oval, hexagon, diamond and flag shapes and/or SHAPE CODING app
- Brown pen
- Pictures/printed text of words to be used during the session if required
- Small figures/toys for acting out verbs
- Action pictures/clips
App settings: Default
Intervention steps:
- Ask the child to act out/mime some adverbials of manner while doing an action him/herself or with toys, e.g. Show me walking slowly, quickly, fast, loudly, quietly, silently, happily, sadly.
For steps 2-3, you might like to use this PowerPoint
- Explain you are going to show them how to talk about HOW they/others do things.
Lay out a Subject+Verb sentence, e.g. Buzz is walking. Ask the child HOW Buzz is walking. Guide them to one of the adverbs used above.
Add a flag shape after the hexagon and write the adverb onto it. Underline it in brown. Show how both the triangle and hexagon have pointy ends showing they are linked. The flag tells you more about the action in the hexagon (unlike the cloud which tells you more about the oval).
Model the sentence and ask the child to say it themselves. “Buzz is walking slowly”.
- Introduce another character and, using same verb, ask the child to act out how this character is walking. Change the name in the oval and the adverb in the flag. Ask the child to produce the new sentence, e.g. “Bob is walking quickly”.
Repeat with 2 other figures/images, e.g. Scooby is walking quietly. Woody is walking loudly.
- Ask questions to reinforce that the flag answers ‘how’ / manner questions. Give explicit feedback as the child produces sentences. If the child uses an adjective, e.g. slow say: “I heard the green word ‘slow’. Slow goes in the cloud and tells you more about the person in the oval, but we are learning brown words. What is the brown word that links with ‘slow‘ and tells us HOW they are doing the action”. Elicit ‘slowly‘ and model the correct form.
If the child adds -ly in error, e.g. fastly, welly, explain that you heard them try to make a brown word but this one is special and different. When these words are brown / in a flag, they don’t need -ly – they can stay as fast, well.
- Practise changing adjective to adverbs. If more explicit practice is needed, click here
- Repeat steps 2-3 with Subject+Verb+Object sentences, e.g. Woody is eating his burger quickly / Velma is drinking her juice slowly. Show that the adverb goes after the hexagon to show ‘how‘ they are acting.
- Practise with multiple contexts and verb/manner. Introduce new adverbs of manner e.g. rudely, politely, disgustingly, beautifully to link with the chosen verb e.g. playing, singing, burping, speaking.
Practise matching adverb-verbs in written sentences example here
- Add different locations using a WHERE semi-circle and/or WHEN triangles and show that the HOW flag comes straight after the hexagon (but it can also go before the hexagon), e.g. The children are playing happily in the park today. Last week, the children played happily in the park.
Additional Resources

