Give your students a hands-on way to explore noun groups with our interactive Noun Groups Accordion: Descriptions of Things Activity! This engaging resource supports students in building detailed noun phrases by expanding basic nouns with adjectives and descriptive elements. Through folding, writing and revealing their ideas, students practise constructing precise noun groups in a visual and memorable way.

Each accordion strip includes a high-quality photograph cut in half, along with a matching determiner and noun. Students cut, fold and complete the accordions by writing descriptive words - such as size, shape, colour, number or texture, to expand the noun. When folded, the photo and base noun are visible; when opened, the full noun group is revealed, showing students how description transforms basic nouns into more complex ideas.

Noun Groups Accordion: Descriptions of Things Activity is ideal for use in Year 2–4 classrooms and aligns with curriculum outcomes related to grammar, descriptive writing and vocabulary development. It also provides a valuable opportunity to connect grammar to writing by encouraging students to use their completed noun groups in sentences or paragraphs. The tactile nature of the activity supports kinaesthetic learners and makes grammar more interactive and fun.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Identify the structure of noun groups in written language
• ✅ Expand simple nouns using adjectives and descriptive phrases
• ✅ Develop vocabulary related to descriptions of things
• ✅ Apply grammar understanding in sentence and paragraph writing
• ✅ Engage in hands-on learning to reinforce grammar concepts visually

What’s Included:

• Accordion strips featuring high-quality photographs split across the fold
• Pre-printed determiners and base nouns for each image
• Writing boxes for students to add descriptive words or phrases
• Instructions for cutting, folding and using the accordion structure

Materials Needed:

• Printed accordion templates (one per student)
• Scissors, pencils and colouring materials
• Glue or staplers for optional display or booklet creation

How to Use:

1. Introduce or revise noun groups using a shared model or the matching PowerPoint resource.
2. Students cut and fold their accordion strip, revealing the photo and base noun.
3. In the writing boxes, students add descriptive words to expand the noun group.
4. Encourage students to read their full noun groups aloud or write sentences using them.
5. Display finished accordions or collect them into a class descriptive writing book.

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use as part of a writing warm-up during a descriptive language unit
• 💡 Pair with a mentor text to highlight descriptive noun groups in context
• 💡 Encourage students to turn their noun group into a descriptive paragraph
• 💡 Display finished accordions as a classroom reference for future writing
• 💡 Integrate into grammar rotations alongside sentence-building activities

Top Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Laminate a few examples as models for your writing wall or writing centre
• 💛 Differentiate by providing word banks for support or challenge students to use figurative language
• 💛 Encourage peer sharing to compare different ways of describing the same noun
• 💛 Reinforce grammar vocabulary such as determiner, adjective and noun throughout the task

Noun Groups Accordion: Descriptions of Things Activity offers a practical and creative way to explore grammar in context—perfect for building confidence with descriptive language in a visual and interactive format.

This resource is ideal to use alongside the Noun Groups POWERPOINT.