Materials:

• Linking cube guide (blank or color)
• Sentence strips (or paper)
• Linking cubes
• Sharpie (or marker)

The idea:

First, I color coded each part of speech to a corresponding color in our linking cube set.  If your linking cube set contains the same colors as mine, simply print out the color guide.  If your set has different colors, print the guide with the blank squares and use crayons or markers to fill in the squares according to the colors of your set. I suggest laminating your guide.

Using this color code, the first thing we used the cubes for was identifying parts of speech.  I wrote sentences on a sentence strip and had my son place a cube on top of each word identifying it’s part of speech. Once each word was identified, he linked the cubes together to represent the sentence.

Color coding each word

When we first started this activity, he did not know all of his parts of speech. After a few times doing this activity, he knew them all.  I used a simple assessment to determine what parts of speech he already knew.  As we worked, I concentrated on discussing/explaining the parts of speech that he did not know yet.

An interesting thing happened as we worked, my son began to notice patterns in the colors, which of course correlate to patterns in the sentences. It was a visual representation of how the words are often found together in sentences.  On top of that, some of the words were a little tricky to ascertain it’s part of speech.  Naturally, many words can be more than one part of speech depending on how it is used in the sentence. It’s not also so cut and dry, he really had to think! This led us to research certain words and understand the grammatical uses of the word to help us determine what part of speech it was in that particular sentence.  By doing this, we got into some great discussions. I never thought I was be discussing grammar so critically with a nine year old!

Noticing patterns

Once my son learned all nine parts of speech, we turned our focus to other aspects of grammar, such as prepositional phrases, compound sentences, etc.

To illustrate a prepositional phrase, he first determined the part of speech for each word in the sentence and put down the corresponding cube.  Next, he had to find the preposition and figure out which words were working together to make the prepositional phrase. Once the words were identified, he linked just the prepositional phrase to show the relationship of the words. At first, this was new to him so we worked together. It only took one example, and he was able to do this independently with new sentences.

Example:

Color coding each word

Linking the prepositional phrase

Combing the beginning of the sentence

Putting it all together

This same idea can be used to illustrate compound sentences. Using two sentences with their corresponding cubes, you can show how two sentences can be put together using a conjunction.

You can illustrate how a pronoun takes the place of a noun. Locate  pronouns in a sentence and determine what word the pronoun was referring to.

You can connect the subject or predicate. You can connect clauses. You can connect appositives.  The list goes on and on.  You can use the cubes to show so many different language patterns and parts!

Naturally, you will want to incorporate the things that you teach your child about grammar into their writing projects. When your child goes through the editing process in writing, have him or her look for grammatical errors.  Help your child recognize the elements that you’ve taught with the linking cubes in his or her own writing. Can s/he use what was learned to improve his or her writing? You can also point out great examples of grammar usage in books and stories that you read together. Reading is continually essential in your child’s education. It is through reading that your child hears proper grammar.

Read, write, and link to better grammar.  

The post Teaching Grammar With Linking Cubes appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

This contest is now closed. The winner has been contacted and the prize was mailed.

As a thank you for being such a wonderful part of the Empowering Parents to Teach community, I’m giving away one package of these adorable story telling cards made by eeboo to one lucky winner.

The illustrations on these cards are perfect for children of many ages. Your child can tell you a story orally or create a written tale based on the pictures.  You can even use these with toddlers describing what you see in the illustrations!  I love open ended materials like this.  As an added bonus, they are not a bug, bulky toy adding clutter to your toy room!  They are small enough to put in a purse or bag, perfect for times when you need something handy, like in a restaurant, waiting in a doctor’s office, going on an airplane, or entertaining a little one at a sibling’s soccer practice!

How to enter:

There are two ways to enter:

1. Visit Empowering Parents to Teach on Facebook.   “Like” the Give Away status with the picture of the cards and leave a comment saying, “Just entered to win.”  You must leave a comment, or I can’t tag you to let you know if you’ve won!

2. Follow us on Twitter and tweet the phrase, “@EmpoweringPTT, Enter me to win!”  You must use include @EmpoweringPTT in your tweet or I won’t see your message!

These social media outlets are not in any way responsible for or in endorsement of this contest.

Details:

The contest begins on Wednesday, Feb.18, 2015 at 7am PST/4am EST and ends at 8pm PST/11pm EST on the same day.  A winner will be chosen at random and notified via Facebook, Twitter, or email. The winner must respond to this notification within 48 hours. If the winner does not respond within this time frame, the prize is forfeited and a new winner be will chosen at a random. Open to United States residents only.

Good luck and thank you again for being so awesome

The post eeboo Tell Me A Story Cards- Give Away appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.

Coloring is obviously a great fine motor activity because it requires the child to hold a pencil, crayon, marker, or colored pencil and control their movements to the best of their ability.  If your child resists practicing writing their letters (been there!), try encouraging your child to color them instead.  The best part of all, you can easily create your own coloring pages with letters, numbers, words, or sentences!

It takes time, practice, and developmental ability to move from writing and coloring with big movements down to small ones.  Typically, the younger a child is the bigger you want to make the letter or words. You can gradually make the open space smaller as the child’s writing and coloring matures.  However, if you have a little one that totally rocks at handwriting and coloring, make the opening space small for them. Or, if you have a big kid that struggles with coloring, keep the opening a little larger.  That’s the beauty of making your own pages, you can make it to suit your child’s needs!

Here’s how to do it:

• Go to Microsoft Word
• Click “insert” tab
• Click on Word Art
• Select the first type of word art
• Type anything you want- letters, numbers, words, sentences
• Choose your font
• Drag the text box to the desired size
• Print it out

Things to make:

Letters

This example has one letter taking up the whole page.  This would be good for young ones still learning to control a crayon.  You can make it smaller if needed.

Numbers

Sight words or Spelling list words

Display the sight words on a word wall!

Child’s Name

Sentence or Journal Page

Your child can color in the sentence and then illustrate it!  If they are old enough, you can even teach them how to make to sentences in Word Art.  In this example, the open space is a lot smaller.  Older kids or young ones with good control would find this a better fit.

You can use this for so many things and you can adjust the pages to your child’s ability! The possibilities are endless

This post is linked to:

The post DIY Printables For Coloring appeared first on Empowering Parents to Teach.