Think Grammar is Boring in 1st Grade?
If you think grammar is boring in 1st grade, you’ve got to meet a friend of mine!
Patty McGee, is a grammar coach and author of, ‘Not Your Grannie’s Grammar’, a book parents and teachers alike will find practical to lead students through interactive grammar activities with each other.
Patty thinks that teaching kids grammar should be, “less like brussels sprouts and more like birthday cake!” Kids, parents and teachers alike can buy in to this style of teaching grammar.
Patty says, “Ditch the worksheets!” Make grammar about ‘noticing’ and ‘naming’. HOW? Write two sentences on a board. Instead of telling kids what they should do, ask them what they notice. It’s like playing detective!
Thinking Kindergarten is too early to teach grammar? Aren’t kids supposed to be learning phonics? You can teach both grammar and phonics at a very basic level.
When kids ask, “What’s that dot at the end [of a sentence], this is a GREAT time to introduce the idea that a ‘period’ at the end of a sentence means the idea is complete.
When your kids think grammar is boring in 1st grade, pair them with a partner and get them to notice, “What’s different about these two sentences?” When kids can spot the difference, the concept is going to stick a lot better than if you just tell them.
Another way to keep kids from saying, “Grammar is boring in 1st grade!” is to omit punctuation in a sentence.
Get the kids to tell you if a sentence needs a period, question mark or exclamation mark. Ask your kids at school or home, “Is this an interrogative, exclamatory, imperative or simply declarative?”
An activity I did with my students for teaching WHERE to place quotation marks, was to print out a sentence with extra large font and big spacing (leaving room for quotation marks).
Then, let them work with a partner to decide where the quotation marks should go.
Like the rest of us, kids learn by doing far better by doing, rather than simply being told, “They go here.”
Interested in learning more about how to make grammar ‘less like brussels sprouts and more like birthday cake’?
- Ditch grammar worksheets
- Get students to ‘name’ and ‘notice’.
- Ask kids, “What’s different between these sentences?”
So, if you and your students are feeling that grammar is boring in 1st grade, get students to interact with you and each other through questions and partner pair-share activities.
Let’s get your kids thinking that grammar feels ‘less like brussels sprouts and more like birthday cake’!
