Unpack Your Adjectives
Schoolhouse Rock Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴  Line by Line Meaning ↴Got home from camping last spring.
Saw people, places, and things.
We barely had arrived,
Friends asked us to describe
The people, places, and every last thing.
So we unpacked our adjectives.

I unpacked "frustrating" first.

Reached in and found the word "worst."
Then I picked "soggy" and
Next I picked "foggy" and
Then I was ready to tell them my tale,
Cause I'd unpacked my adjectives.

Adjectives are words you use to really describe things.
Handy words to carry around.
Days are sunny, or they're rainy.
Boys are dumb or else they're brainy.
Adjectives can show you which way.

Adjectives are often used to help us compare things,
To say how thin, how fat, how short, how tall.
Girls who're tall get taller.
Boys who're small get smaller,
Till one is the tallest and the other's the smallest of all.
We hiked along without care.
Then we ran into a bear!
He was a hairy bear!
He was a scary bear!
We beat a hasty retreat from his lair,
And described him with adjectives!

Woah! Boy, that was one big, ugly bear!
(You can make even adjectives out of the other parts of speech like
Verbs and nouns. All you have to do is tack on an ending like "-ic" or "-ish" or "-ary."
For example: This boy can grow up to be a huge man, but still have a boyish face.
Boy is a noun, but the ending "-ish" makes it an adjective,
boyish, that describes the huge man's face. Get it?)

Next time you go on a trip,
Remember this little tip:
The minute you get back,
They'll ask you this and that.
You can describe people, places, and things.
Simply unpack your adjectives.
You can do it with adjectives.

Tell 'em about it with adjectives.
You can shout it with adjectives.

Overall Meaning

The Schoolhouse Rock's song Unpack Your Adjectives is a playful and informative piece that teaches the audience about the importance of adjectives in describing things. The lyrics describe a situation where the singer and their friends returned from a camping trip, and they were asked to describe their experience. They then proceed to unpack a variety of adjectives to describe the people, places, and things they encountered on their trip.

The first verse introduces the situation, where the singer and their friends are asked to describe their trip. The second verse explains the importance of adjectives and how they can be used to describe things like the weather, people, and objects. The third verse demonstrates how adjectives can be used to compare things and provide more detail. The final verse provides a summary and encourages the audience to use adjectives when describing their own experiences.

The repetitive nature of the song allows the audience to easily follow along and learn about the various ways adjectives can be used. It also incorporates some humor with the "hairy" and "scary" bear encounter. The song is a great tool for teaching children about the importance and fun of using adjectives in their writing and language.

Line by Line Meaning

Got home from camping last spring.
The song begins with the singer describing how they came home from camping last spring, and upon their return friends asked them to describe everything they had seen.

Saw people, places, and things.
The singer saw a variety of people, places, and things while on their camping trip.

We barely had arrived,
The singer emphasizes that they had just barely arrived home from their trip.

Friends asked us to describe
Upon their return, the artist's friends immediately asked them to describe the people, places, and things they had seen.

The people, places, and every last thing.
The artist's friends wanted them to describe everything they had seen on their camping trip.

So we unpacked our adjectives.
To help them with their descriptions, the singer and their friends used adjectives to describe the various things they had seen on their trip.

I unpacked 'frustrating' first.
The singer begins their own description by unpacking the adjective 'frustrating.'

Reached in and found the word 'worst.'
Next, the artist selects the adjective 'worst' to use in their description.

Then I picked 'soggy' and
The artist continues to select adjectives to describe their experience, including 'soggy.'

Next I picked 'foggy' and
Another adjective the artist selects is 'foggy.'

Then I was ready to tell them my tale,
Having selected a variety of adjectives, the singer is ready to tell their story to their friends.

Cause I'd unpacked my adjectives.
The artist emphasizes that the use of adjectives helped them to properly describe their experience to their friends.

Adjectives are words you use to really describe things.
The song breaks down what adjectives are, stating that they are words used to describe things in detail.

Handy words to carry around.
The song emphasizes that adjectives are useful words to have when trying to describe something in detail.

Days are sunny, or they're rainy.
The song uses a simple example to illustrate how adjectives can be used to describe the weather as either 'sunny' or 'rainy.'

Boys are dumb or else they're brainy.
Another example given in the song is how adjectives can be used to describe boys as either 'dumb' or 'brainy.'

Adjectives can show you which way.
Adjectives can also be used to show direction or orientation.

Adjectives are often used to help us compare things,
The song notes that adjectives are often used to create comparisons between things in order to describe them more accurately.

To say how thin, how fat, how short, how tall.
When comparing things, adjectives can be used to describe differences such as size, such as thin or fat.

Girls who're tall get taller.
Adjectives can also be used to describe things that change over time, such as the height of a girl who continues to grow taller.

Boys who're small get smaller,
Similarly, adjectives can describe a decline in something, such as the size of a boy who is getting even smaller.

Till one is the tallest and the other's the smallest of all.
Adjectives can be used to create superlatives that compare the extremes of a particular characteristic, such as when one boy is the tallest and one is the smallest.

We hiked along without care.
The song describes a carefree hike that the singer and their friends took during their camping trip.

Then we ran into a bear!
The mood of the song changes quickly as the artist and their friends unexpectedly come across a bear during their hike.

He was a hairy bear!
To describe the bear, the singer uses the adjective 'hairy.'

He was a scary bear!
The singer continues to describe the bear, emphasizing that it was scary.

We beat a hasty retreat from his lair,
After encountering the scary bear, the singer and their friends quickly retreat from the area where it was located.

And described him with adjectives!
The song emphasizes that adjectives were used to properly describe the scary bear to others.

Woah! Boy, that was one big, ugly bear!
The artist concludes their story of encountering the bear with an exaggerated description of how big and ugly it was.

Next time you go on a trip,
The song concludes with advice for listeners to remember to use descriptive adjectives when describing their experiences on trips or adventures.

Remember this little tip:
The song encourages listeners to remember the importance of using adjectives to properly describe something.

The minute you get back,
Upon returning from a trip or adventure, the artist suggests immediately beginning to describe the experience while it is still fresh in the mind.

They'll ask you this and that.
Others will likely ask questions about the adventure, encouraging the use of adjectives to properly describe it.

You can describe people, places, and things.
Adjectives can be used to properly describe a variety of things, such as people, places, and things.

Simply unpack your adjectives.
The song once again emphasizes the importance of using adjectives to properly describe something, advising listeners to 'unpack' their adjectives in order to do so.

You can do it with adjectives.
The song encourages listeners that they too can properly describe their experiences with the help of adjectives.

Tell 'em about it with adjectives.
Finally, the song concludes by emphasizing once again that the use of adjectives is essential to properly describing an experience and encourages listeners to use them to tell others about it.

Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS

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