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Grammar Tales
Grammar is often thought of as a boring subject, but maybe that's just because it's associated with an endless stack of boring worksheets (unless your student loves worksheets!) teaching grammar concepts in an abstract way. If your students can't drum up any excitement for worksheets, or if they are having trouble applying what they're learning to actual writing, this unique program may appeal to them - and consequently, to you. It consists of 10 short Grammar Tales books and a teaching guide. A Grammar Tale is, well, just what it sounds like - a short story which emphasizes a particular grammatical concept. In this way, students are introduced to the concepts in context, making it easier for them to connect it to something concrete. The books fall into two main categories - five cover parts of speech, while the other five focus on mechanics and structure. Each book is fully illustrated with colorful, cartoonish illustrations and is 16 pages long. To give you an idea of what the Grammar Tales are like, here are a few examples. The Bug Book covers adjectives, and the pages are filled with bugs illustrating exciting adjectives - there is a heroic bug, a contagious bug, a silly bug, a picky bug, and even a gigantic, friendly green bug. Chicken in the City is a tale full of nouns, in which Lu-Lu the chicken decides that she is going to leave the farm. The illustrations are full of nouns with their names by them, so students can easily recognize them as nouns. In Francine Fribble, Proofreading Policewoman, Francine drives all over town enforcing the laws of grammar. The illustrations here are filled with signs, letters, and other written things for Francine to correct. However, children can try their hand at it first before flipping the page and seeing the corrected item. When Comma Came to Town is a tale telling of life without the comma - people had to connect all of their sentences with lots and lots of "ands." When the comma comes, conversation is suddenly so simple! The other six tales cover adverbs, pronouns, verbs, sentence structure, quotation marks, and capitalization. As mentioned above, these books are accompanied by a Teaching Guide, which includes an introduction and teaching tips before delving in to the lessons. Each lesson contains an explanation of the concept for the teacher and some before, during, and after reading suggestions for the tale. Then there is a worksheet to complete based on the story, plus a mini-book of the story including a crossword and word search. These activity pages are reproducible, but if you don't have access to a copier, the teaching guides can be purchased separately. - Melissa
