# English for grade school, ideas?



## bluefish (Jan 27, 2006)

What do you all do for english for an 8 yr old? My dd reads voraciously, and talks like it. Seriously, she uses vocabulary and phrasing that just blows my mind. I don't want to mess with that, but it has been 'accidental' on my part, we don't actually do anything for english at the moment. So, I'm looking for ideas for the subject that won't take away her joy in reading or in using the language. She will actually correct people on tv. :huh: And she's usually right! 

I always hated english, so am not really a help to myself, ya know? 

Thanks!


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## okiemom (May 12, 2002)

scrabble great for spelling and finding new words

new word for the day/week (throw a dart at the dictionary to find it)

readers digest definitions page

Have her start writing her own stories/journal



have her make an advertisement for a new made up product. She has to come up with the product and made a sign/billboard for it. Gets the arts involved as well. My imagination is not great but I remember having to do something like that.


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

When teaching parts of speech, have her look through her book for nouns, verbs, etc. Make a list and then take it further to separate the nouns by singular, plural, concrete, and abstract.
Also, since she loves to read, she can do summaries of the story, focusing on using new vocabulary words from the story. Maybe a story map putting the events in sequence.
Have her keep a vocabulary journal to include new words in her reading. Possibly define and illustrate new words to make her own word dictionary.
Have her look for declarative, interrogative, exclamatory and imperative sentences. 
Have her locate diologue and have her tell you which part is the dialogue and what is the speaker tag.
I love her age!!! I taught 3rd grade for 8 years and it was the best!!!

Good luck and pm me if you need more ideas!


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## jmtinmi (Feb 25, 2009)

Learning Language Arts through Literature is pretty good. Currently we are using A beka 3rd grade Language Arts and we have done the following...

*What is a sentence? Needs a capital letter and punctuation.
*When do you use periods & commas? (i.e with initials, abbreviations, after days & dates, after Yes/No at a beginning of a sentence.....etc.
*Use of quotation marks

Hope this helps. 


It might be helpful to have the 'rules' for her to go over. She sounds very bright and will probably see how the rules apply with minimal review.


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## bluefish (Jan 27, 2006)

shanzone2001 said:


> Make a list and then take it further to separate the nouns by singular, plural, concrete, and abstract.
> 
> Have her look for declarative, interrogative, exclamatory and imperative sentences.


You realize that I have to look half of those things up, right?:help::sob:


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

You'll be surprised how much your own English will improve once you have to _teach_ it.


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## Michele of MI (Jul 8, 2009)

We really like Emma Serl's Primary Language Lessons, and Intermediate Language Lessons. They both focus more on the literature side of English, lots of descriptive writing, some grammar, dictation, poem memorization, and much more.


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## shanzone2001 (Dec 3, 2009)

thermopkt said:


> You realize that I have to look half of those things up, right?:help::sob:


Clean your room. Feed the dog. Imperative
Are you going to the game? Interrogative
I love ice-cream! Exclamatory
Dogs are furry creatures. Declarative


Concrete noun-dog, cat, house
Abstract noun- kindness, friendship, happiness

Mom asked, "Are you going to the store after lunch?"
The speaker tag is _Mom asked_

Hope this helps!


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## UUmom2many (Apr 21, 2009)

Alex is 7 and doing 4th grade LA. We use Exercises in English (covers grammar) Wordly Wise which is vocabulary (we're on book 3) an analogies book which we only do 1x a week, a nonfiction reading comprehension workbook and 4th grade spelling through Evan-moor. 

He gets bored easily so we mix it up.


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## pheasantplucker (Feb 20, 2007)

Mad Libs. Once he learns the fun of that...have him create his own "Mad Lib" stories and have others play as well.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

I googled 'free printable grammar worksheets' and get tons of grammar sheets.. adverbs, adjectives, homonyms etc... anything you can imagine! Even proper pragraph writing etc... (I do the same for math etc... tons of stuff out there for the taking)

And DH found 'The Little Brown Handbook" in a box of OLD college stuff. It covers absolutely everything that you forgot about diagramming sentences etc.. 
Great book and they have it at Amazon and I bet you could find it on used textbook sites too.

We have yearly testing in this state and I am making sure that I get the same type of exercises that he will see on the tests to get him used to thinking the way they expect him too..
But, I like grammar..so I am a freak.


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## bluefish (Jan 27, 2006)

Thanks for all the ideas! I need to sit down and think it out a bit, I think. I want to keep things fun and, since I always hated english, I think I'll start slow and easy. I want to try to keep my dislike from leaking through to her. You all have given me lots of ideas, and I'm sure I'll be back with more questions! 

Shanzone2001, thanks!


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

If that's your plan, go with Mad Libs.


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

Michele of MI said:


> We really like Emma Serl's Primary Language Lessons, and Intermediate Language Lessons. They both focus more on the literature side of English, lots of descriptive writing, some grammar, dictation, poem memorization, and much more.


I love those too, but aren't they out of print? I'd like to get my hands on a copy. I had it once... sold it or let someone borrow it.... bummer. :-(

Cindyc.


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## Michele of MI (Jul 8, 2009)

Cindy,
Lost Classics carries both Emma Serle books, and there is a newer Catholic version which is available through Emmanuel books.


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## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

I use both Growing with Grammar and Voyages in English for my 8 year old. GwG is simple, short, grammar worksheets. Voyages is much more focused on writing, although incorporates a lot of grammar rules. We like them both; use GwG daily and do sort of "unit studies" with writing from Voyages but not every day.


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## Roamschooler (Mar 29, 2008)

We do tons of literature, and I can usually find a unit study on ebay to go w/it. Right now, for example, we're reading Where the Red Fern Grows (sob) and I have a study guide written by Calvin Russo (I think!?) that we use for comprehension questions, vocabulary list, and composition. I got it on ebay for less than 6.00.

Another vote for mad libs btw!!

Andrea
www.hopefulhousewife.com


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## HOTW (Jul 3, 2007)

http://oldfashionededucation.com/spellingandgrammar.htm

look at the books by Brainard very good ones


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