Parts of Speech Activities We Did: Watched theSchoolhouse Rock
Grammar Rock Videosthat went with each part of speech. They are
oldies, but goodies. I learned parts of speech from them when I was
a kid and I can still sing you every song. Now my kids join in with
me too. Brainstormed a word list on our white board of example
words for each part of speech. Played with a lot of mad libs and
then even wrote our own. The kids started by writing aone page
story. Then they erased key words out of each sentence, filling in
a blank line and an appropriate part of speech label under the
blank. Then we supplied our own words according to the label, and
the author of the mad lib got to read them out loud to everyone. We
laughed our heads off. They were hilarious. Read paragraphs from
some of our favorite books, picking out instances of that part of
speech. Had a race. I wrote various words on index cards and put
them in piles in the middle of the room. I hung signs for each part
of speech up on the walls around the room. Each kid had to deliver
all their index cards to the correct part of speech and race to the
finish line first. Diagrammed Mother Goose Rhymes. I underlined
certain words from the rhymes, and they rewrote the verse and
labeled each underlined word with the correct part of speech. Made
a flip book that listed each part of speech. When you flip the page
up, you can see the job it does and some example words.
The biggest sheet is a full size sheet of construction paper.
Each page was reduced by one rulers width from the one underneath
it. We just put our rulers down along the bottom edge, traced the
edge with pencil, and then cut along the line. We sharply creased
each page so it would easily flip up along the crease mark. Then we
hole punched the top and attached it together with brads. Here you
can see what the flip sides of the pages look like.
Of course, well keep adding to these as we come across
interesting words, and my kids now have their flip books by their
side as they write so they can get ideas for vivid words and
remember to use lots of description and full sentences as they
write. We also use the flipbooks to quiz ourselves as we review
parts of speech.All in all, learning about the parts of speech has
been really fun. We took a normally dry topic and put some life
into it. It has also given me a foothold for asking my kids to
improve their writing. Now when I come across The cat sat in their
writing, I can say, Throw in a preposition, an adverb, and an
adjective in there and youll have a good looking sentence. And by
golly, they can do it.More From Layers of LearningLove these ideas?
Check out more like this on our Writers Workshop page! Youll find
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his post is about a chart I created with my friends over a three
day period. It was really review for us, so the lessons were sort
of quick hits. We did a section of the chart, they practiced in
their writer's notebook with a quick share. My goal was just to
review some areas in writing and grammar that I've seen they need a
little reminding about. This is what the chart looked like at the
end of day three:
As you can see, it's a busy chart. That's why I really suggest
doing it as a quick lesson over a few days. I will explain how I
did it and give you some changes you might make so that it's a
better fit for your friends.
Day 1Learning Goal: Using more descriptive verbs that relate
mood
This was the chart at the start of the lesson. We started with a
simple sentence: The boy went up the stairs. I then focused my
friends on the first column, the different moods I might want to
create as a writer. We discussed how our simple sentence just
doesn't do it. As a class, we brainstormed some different verb
choices that better suited the moods. I charted these, and then we
read the sentence again, substituting the new verb choices each
time.
To practice, my friends then worked with a partner for a minute
or two to brainstorm their own verb choice for the same sentence
and write it in their writer's notebook. We did a quick share of
some and then off they went for independent writing.
Modifications: This could be the extent ofyour entire chart. You
don'thave to go on and do the other sections. For younger friends,
working on verb choice alone may be enough. You could also focus
this lesson on synonyms for verb choice. How many verbs can you
think of that would show someone going up the stairs in a happy
mood? Bounced up? Jumped up?Pranced up?Skipped up? Danced up?
Day 2Learning Goal: Using adjectives or more descriptive phrases
to relate mood and stronger visual images
For Day 2, we briefly reviewed the previous day's lesson and
then discussed how we could add adjectives or descriptive phrases
to help relate mood and create a more powerful mental picture for
the reader. We brainstormed together to fill in the last column.
Notice that for our happy and carefree mood, we didn't really
change anything. It was important for them to see that sometimes
you just may not be able to think of a way to change the sentence.I
come back to this at the end of day three, so I'll explain
then.
For independent practice, my friends followed the same procedure
at Day 1 using the same sentence in their writer's notebook.
Modifications: To simplify it, you could focus on just adding
one adjective in front of the word stairs in the original
sentence.
Note:I'm a little embarrassed!It wasn't until I was looking at
the chart after school on day 3 that I realized I wrote "creeped"
when "crept"is grammatically correct. I did go back and correct it
with my friends, but it's not in these pictures. Oh well, it's
probably good for them to see that even teachers (this teacher
anyway) need to proofread!
Moving on. . .
Day 3Learning Goal: Correctly using and punctuating dependent
clauses and creating vivid, descriptive mental images
Dependent Clauses have been a stickler for some of my friends,
especially using commas correctly with them. For this section, we
worked on adding dependent clauses that related mood. As you can
see, we also threw in some adjectives for the boy. I also
highlighted the use of the comma.
For independent practice, my friends went on to add a dependent
clause to the sentence they had been working on in their writer's
notebook. We did a quick share, and then I had them write their
"Power Sentence" on a sentence strip. We hung them up in the room,
and of course I forgot to take a picture of them! But, I think you
get the idea.
Modifications: Dependent clause is definitely an upper
elementary focus, so you might want to simplify this section. In
all, this would be a great chart for a simple adjective lesson.
Your friends could focus on simply adding adjectives for the boy.
You could also remove the "mood" section altogether if you wanted
to just focus on adjectives, but I do think the mood really guides
this lesson no matter how you modify it.
So, as you can see from the chart, we went from the simple
sentence, "The boy went up the stairs" to: With a gleam in his eye,
the boy race up to the top of the staircase. Head bowed, the boy
sighed and dragged himself up the long staircase. With a nervous
glance up, the timid boy crept up the dark and shadowed stairs.
While humming a silly tune, the boy bounced up the stairs. With a
scowl on his face, the boy stomped up each step of the staircase.As
I noted, these were quick lessons each day. They were meant to be a
quick, meaningful review, not take up our whole writing period.The
new sentences are complex sentences that create mood and vivid
mental pictures. This is a skill my friends can always use practice
with.
On day 2, we never changed "the stairs" section of the sentence.
One of the reasons I let this go was to point out to my friends
that every part of a sentence doesn't need to be bedazzled. We
sometimes use that term in class. I will tell my friends that their
writing needs some bedazzling! It's a silly way for them to see
that they have fallen backinto the habit of using only"simple"
writing.
It's also important to point out that every sentence shouldn't
be so involved. We have done lessons on varying sentences for
structure and length, so my friends know not to "over bedazzle"
their writing.Does that make sense to anyone but me?!!
So, that's my chart that I call the chart that just keeps on
giving. :-D I like charts that you can go back to over time. I find
that my friends tend to get those lessons better when we are able
to go back to the same chart a couple of days in a row. It just
seems to imprint on their brains a bit more than the anchor charts
you hit for one day only and then hang up.
Hopefully there is something in this chart you can use. Have a
happy weekend! See you tomorrow!36 comments:
