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Grammar-Themed Kindergarten Activities

Should you correct your 5-year old's grammar when he says ain't? Yes. It is never too early to begin teaching children about appropriate use of grammar. The way you speak and write has an influence on your children. What they hear and see in their environment is often a far greater teacher than a formalized education. Although children are just beginning to read in kindergarten, there are activities to promote correct use of grammar and good communication skills.
  1. Sequencing

    • Part of learning grammar is understanding sequencing of words. For a story to make sense there is a certain order of events. One appropriate activity to teach sequencing is to read a simple story (three to four sentences) to your children. Then present the children with pictures that represent the actions and events of the story. Have the kindergarten kids put the pictures in the correct sequence either by arranging them or gluing the pictures to another piece of paper or cardboard. They can also color in the pictures. Reinforce the learning by reading the story again after the activity is complete. You could also have kids act out parts of the story in the correct sequence.

    Capitalization

    • Learning capital letters and when they are used is an important part of grammar and writing. Young children learn best with familiar concepts. Have them write their own name and practice using a capital letter to start and lower-case letters for the rest of their name. Tracing capital letters and coloring them is another way to teach about capital letters to young ones. Have children cut out capital letters and place them in appropriate places where letters are missing.

    Punctuation

    • Children in kindergarten enjoy singing along, making up rhymes and using musical instruments. Rhymes or chants teach children how words go together so they can eventually understand sentence structure and punctuation. Different sounds can be used to representation punctuation. For example, clapping might represent a period at the end of a sentence or verse of a song. Hitting a drum with a drumstick might represent an exclamation point. Children might be asked to keep quiet for five seconds to signify a comma or pause in the story or song. A kazoo sound might represent a question mark. Teaching children how to change the inflection in their voice when asking a question can be done by having them repeat after you. Having children in kindergarten cut out or color marks of punctuation gets them familiar with these symbols and when to use them. Play "pin the right punctuation mark" on the end of the sentence to teach when to use punctuation correctly.

    Parts of Speech

    • An effective way to introduce the parts of speech like nouns, verbs and adjectives is to sing songs that describe the parts of speech or engage in fun rhyming. Use flash cards with examples of parts of speech and let children identify the picture and then remind them whether it is a noun or verb. Create a large poster board with the word "verbs" at the top. Have children cut out magazine pictures or pick from a variety of stickers to put on the board to show examples of action words. Show children photographs of them doing things and name the verbs that describe the action. During "show and tell" identify that the objects being brought in are nouns.

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