Material
A group of objects that are in some way related to one another, e.g. animals on the farm, a model house (dollhouse), a tea set, etc.
Box of grammar symbols.
A box of printed adjectival slips describing the objects, in a container (can be marked with adjective symbol and a #1).
The teacher’s writing tray.
Presentation
- Invite two to three children to the lesson.
- Introduce the children to the farm.
- Make light conversation about the farm.
- Show the children how to open and close the roof of the barn.
- Ask the children to place and move animals on the farm however they like.
- Return to the table.
- Write on a slip of paper the followed by an animal’s name
e.g. the cow - Ask the child to read it and bring the object.
- “Oh yes, that is a nice one! But I am thinking of a different cow.”
- Repeat these steps for the other children.
- “Put this cow away and I’ll write you another clue, so you know which cow I’m thinking of.”
- For each child, write on a separate piece of paper an adjective such as a color or size.
e.g. brown - Place the adjective at the end of the other slip.
- Ask child to read the cow brown.
- “Does that sound right to you? Me neither, it’s a little strange.”
- Cut the cow label in two pieces.
- Transpose the words, showing way that don’t make sense.
e.g. brown the cow. - “Does that sound right? I didn’t think so either.”
- Place the words in the proper order.
- “Now does it sound right? There we go!”
- Repeat this process at least twice for each child.
- Ask the child to get the object.
- Bring the box of grammar symbols to the table.
- Do the following simultaneously with all the children.
- “Which word told you what animal I wanted?”
- Tell the children that the large black triangle symbolizes the object you wanted.
- Place the large black triangle above the word cow.
- “Which word told you which cow I wanted?”
- Tell the children that the medium dark blue triangle symbolizes the word that describes the animal.
- Place the medium dark blue triangle above the word brown.
- “Which word told you there was only one brown cow?”
- Tell the children that the small light blue triangle symbolizes how many.
- Place the small light blue triangle above the word the.
- Show the children the printed slips so that they can work independently.
Exercises
Exercise 1, Children works with printed slip labels from the box that is labeled with a medium dark blue triangle with a #1.
Exercise 2, Children write their own slips that can be about anything.
Exercise 3, Child sits with a book and looks for adjectives.
Exercise 4, Ask the child to make a list of adjectives.
Purpose
To make the child aware of individual words when reading, especially the function and positions of adjectives.
Age
4 1/2 to 5
Notes
This is the introduction of the grammar symbols.
This is the only time we transpose before placing symbols.
Exercises 2, 3, and 4 are just suggestions to children to do more things with adjectives.
These grammar symbols can be paper or plastic.