Our children need to know how to read and write well in order to succeed in other areas.To do so, they need to understand the mechanics of the written and spoken language, and they need to be familiar with examples of good literature. They also need plenty of practice writing, editing, and rewriting, striving to make their writing the best possible.
Here are just a few fun activities designed to liven up your language arts class.
Creative Book Reports
Dress up as favorite character
Prepare a newspaper complete with articles, pictures, comic strip, ads
Make a diarama of a favorite scene
Write a poem about the book
Write a letter to the author
Create a game
Present a commercial
Film a video
Put on a puppet show
Make up a test
Do a book review
Make a poster
Make a timeline
Design a character t shirt
Write a song
Dictionary Skills
"Dictionary Drill". Call out a word. Students must find the word in the dictionary and then call out the entry words found on that page.
"Name That Word". Call out a page of the dictionary and a part of speech. Students must find an example of that part of speech on that page of the dictionary. For variation, look for words with prefixes, suffixes, or plural words.
Parts of Speech
"Noun Sort". Sort a list of nouns into categories - people, places, things.
"Noun Search". Go on a scavenger hunt through the house. Make a list of nouns that you find.
"All About Nouns". Use noun search noun list. Beside each noun write a word that describes it.
"Proper Parts". Make a set of cards for each child. In each set include cards for each of the parts of speech covered so far. Call out words. Students hold up correct card.
"Story Parts". Read a story from a children's magazine. Circle nouns in red, verbs in blue, adjectives in orange...
"Add to a Verb". Call out verb commands. Students think of different ways to do the verb. They should add an adverb to the verb and then complete the command. Example: walk - walk slowly, walk quickly, walk funny, walk happily.
"Prepositional Phrases". Write simple sentences. Have students enhance the sentence by telling when and where using prepositional phrases. Example: The boy ran. Where? The boy ran under the tree. When? Before breakfast the boy ran under the tree.
"Proper or Common". Write a list of sentences that include a mix of proper and common nouns. Students circle nouns, then recopy sentences replacing proper nouns for common nouns and common nouns for proper nouns.
Antonyms and Synonyms
"Meaning Change". Write a story (or use an existing story) that includs plenty of descriptive words. Rewrite story by replacing words with synonyms. Repeat with antonyms.
Punctuation
"Punctuation Plus". Make a set of cards for each child. In each set include a period, question mark, and exclamation point card. Call out sentences. Students hold up proper punctuation mark card.
"Punctuation Change". Call out a basic statement. Students must change each statement into a question, then an exclamatory sentence. Copy new sentences. Punctuate properly.
Subject/Predicate
"Silly Sentences". Use sentence strips to make a matching game. On half of the strips write sentence subjects. On the other half write sentence predicates. Put subjects in one stack and predicates in another stack. Shuffle each stack. Draw one strip from each stack. Copy complete sentence on paper.
© 2003 Sharon Wilharm. All rights reserved. Re-printed with permission.
|
Homeschool educator Sharon Wilharm is a former classroom teacher and the author of over 150 published articles.
Her work has appeared in such publications as Jack and Jill, ParentLife, Living With Teenagers, Brio, and Young Salvationist.
She has written curriculum for Group Publications and the Southern Baptist Convention.
Sharon received the Woman's Day Friends and Neighbors award in the July 10 issue.
Sharon and her husband and daughter live in historic DeFuniak Springs, Florida. You can visit Sharon's web site, Patchwork Primers, which offers a unit study homeschool curriculum for elementary grades.
|
Would you like to contribute an article on a homeschooling topic? Contact us.
