Explain that linking verbs show what a noun is rather than what it does. Give your child a sentence with a linking verb, such as "The dog is cute" or "The cookies taste delicious." Explain that if a verb is a linking verb, you can replace it with an equal sign and the sentence will still mean the same thing: "The dog = very cute" or "The cookies = delicious." Give your child several sentences with linking verbs and let him practice by replacing words with equal signs.
Explain that a helping verb describes how the action of the verb it accompanies is performed. Give your child the sentence "I did my homework" and ask him to identify the verb ("did"). Then give him the following sentence: "I haven't done my homework, but I . . ." Explain that any single word he puts after the sentence ("might," "should," "will," "can") is a helping verb that tells the reader how he'll do his homework. If this makes sense to him, encourage him to use this sentence to figure out whether or not a verb is a helping verb.
Teach your child songs about the helping and linking verbs so he will be able to identify them more easily, if he finds it easier to learn with music. One song puts the helping verbs to the tune of "Jingle Bells":
Helping verbs, helping verbs
There are 23
Am, is, are, was, and were
Being, been, and be
Have, has, had
Do, does, did
Shall, will, should, and would
There are five more helping verbs:
May, might, must, can, could.
Another puts the linking verbs to the tune of "London Bridge":
Am, are, is, was, were and be
Forms of be
Forms of be
Taste, smell, sound, seem, look, feel, say
Become, grow, appear, remain.
If your child only needs to know the being verbs instead of more complex linking verbs such as "taste" and "grow," another song puts the being verbs to the tune of "Camptown Races":
Am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being, being,
Am, is, are, was, were, be, been, Oh! Being verbs.
Ask your child to underline a sentence's main verb, if he understands action verbs. Once he has found it, have him underline the nouns. For instance, in the sentence "I can touch my toes," he would underline "I," "touch" and "toes." Have him look at the words that aren't underlined and ask him which underlined words they describe. If the word describes the verb, it is a helping verb. For instance, in the sentence "I can touch my toes," "can" and "my" are not underlined. Ask your child, "What does 'my' describe? 'My' what?" The answer will be a noun: "toes." Ask your child, "What does 'can' describe? 'Can' what?" The answer will be a verb: "touch." This makes "can" a helping verb.