Grade 7 English SPORTS:OUTDOOR GAMES – WRITING:DESCRIPTIVE WRITING Notes
ENGLISH — WRITING: DESCRIPTIVE WRITING
Topic: Sports — Outdoor Games (for age 12, Kenya)
Descriptive writing helps readers picture a person, place or event. In this topic you will describe an outdoor game (for example: football, volleyball, athletics, rugby or a school sports day) using good English grammar so your reader can see, hear and feel what happened.
1. What to include (plan)
- Start with a short introduction (what game, where and when).
- Use the five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch and movement.
- Use strong, specific words (nouns and verbs) and lively adjectives and adverbs.
- End with one sentence that sums up the feeling or result.
2. Grammar points to focus on
- Adjectives — add colour and detail: dusty pitch, bright yellow bibs, cheering crowd.
- Adverbs — tell how actions happen: ran quickly, kicked sharply.
- Strong verbs — use active verbs instead of weak ones: sprinted, launched, thundered (not “went fast” or “was running”).
- Tense consistency — keep one tense: usually past tense for a finished event (The players ran.), or present tense for immediate description (The crowd roars.).
- Sentence variety — use short sentences for action and longer ones for description.
- Prepositional and relative phrases — add extra detail: “the striker with muddy boots” / “the ball that flew over the net”.
- Linking words — use then, while, as, suddenly, meanwhile to show time and cause.
- Punctuation — commas for lists and extra details, full stop at sentence end, exclamation for strong feeling (!), question mark only for questions.
3. Useful grammar tools and examples
- Adjective + Noun
- the dusty pitch, loud cheers, blue bibs
- Adverb + Verb
- She sprinted quickly. He kicked cleanly.
- Simile (for pictures)
- He ran like a cheetah. The net swayed like a flag.
- Relative clause
- The player who scored smiled broadly.
- Participle phrase (to add action)
- Breathing hard, he chased the ball.
4. Example paragraph (annotated)
It was the final match of our inter-school football tournament on the dusty school field. The whistle blew, and the teams burst forward — sprinted (strong verb) with determined (adjective) faces. Parents cheered loudly from the stands, their voices mixing with the sharp blasts (sound noun) of the referee's whistle. The ball flew over the heads of two defenders like a silver comet (simile), and the striker, feet muddy (adjective phrase), launched it into the net. We celebrated, hearts pounding, as the final whistle blew and the trophy glinted in the sun.
Notes: verbs in red show action, adjectives in blue add detail, similes/imagery in purple give strong pictures.
5. Short checklist before you submit
- Do I use the same tense throughout?
- Have I used strong verbs and clear nouns?
- Did I include at least three sensory details (sight, sound, touch, smell or movement)?
- Are sentences varied (short + long)?
- Is there a clear beginning, middle and ending?
6. Quick practice (try these)
- Change this weak sentence into a strong one: "The boy ran fast." — Example answer: "The boy sprinted toward the goal."
- Add a simile: "The ball flew _________." — Example: "The ball flew like a rocket."
- Write two sensory details for a volleyball game (sound + sight): Example: "The ball slapped the court" (sound); "white dust rose around the players' feet" (sight).
7. Mini assignment
Write a short descriptive paragraph (6–10 sentences) about any outdoor game you saw at school. Use past tense, include at least three adjectives and two adverbs, one simile, and a clear ending sentence about how you felt.
Strong verbs: sprinted, charged, launched, dived, blocked, volleyed, dribbled, tackled, cheered
Adjectives: dusty, muddy, determined, sweaty, bright, tired, loud, excited
Adverbs: quickly, sharply, slowly, eagerly, suddenly
Good luck — describe clearly, use correct grammar, and let the reader feel the game with you! ⚽🏃🏆