Teaching Grammar Through Poetry

A couple weeks ago (during our last three day weekend), Terry discovered this book. The more she read it, the more excited she became about this fun, interactive way to teach grammar concepts.



The children begin learning each new concept by reading a poem, along with a friend doing sound effects at the end of each line.
They then work on their own poem, based on the sample.

The first lesson was about active verbs and was presented as a poem about the cures for a boring school day. The children had fun posing next to their "word bubble" shaped poetry forms, so it looks like they're speaking.









It's hard to read the poems in the pictures, but some of the suggestions were, "dance to rap music", "play pranks on teachers", "watch movies", "run into walls", and "eat ice cream".

On week two, they learned how to choose the correct article, a, an, or the. The sample poem listed the items found in a very messy desk. The children then personalized a picture of a school locker and wrote a list-style poem about the things they found in their very messy locker. The sample poem we read rhymed. I did not require the children to write rhyming poems, but a few of them did, and I'm very proud of all the work they put into these.

This is our new "locker room" on the wall near the coat racks:



As you can see, they are all unique. The lists inside are equally unique.







All of the children, even the youngest, did a good job on this project. The book is really intended for children third grade and up, but for the younger children, it was great reading and write practice. They told me what they wanted to write, I wrote it on the board, and they copied it.