• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

February 9, 2017 Instruction & Curriculum

The Whos, Whats, Wheres, and Whens of Teaching Grammar to Younger Children

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Paula Kay Glass

Paula has a Masters degree in education with an emphasis on child development and child behavior. She has been an educator for 22 years. She founded a private elementary school in 2003 and is now working through the Moore Public School District in Moore, Oklahoma as a special education teacher. Paula is also a contributing writer to The Huffington Post and has a children's book published. Paula has three grown children and resides in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. You can contact her at glass foundations@sbcglobal.net or paulaglass@moorepublicschools.com.
  • Staying Within Law: Special Education Teachers and IDEA - September 1, 2020
  • Teaching With Minecraft EDU - April 3, 2019
  • Self-Care Is Priority One for This Teacher - February 13, 2019
  • Preparing Students For Teacher Absences - February 12, 2019
  • Respect in the Classroom: Earned, Not Expected - February 11, 2019
  • Dissing the Family Crazies: A Christmas Story - January 6, 2019
  • Band-Aiding The Mental Health of Our Children - November 23, 2018
  • We Must Love Them - November 5, 2018
  • Take One For the Team: The Need for Self-Care - August 19, 2018
  • The New Teacher Smell - August 19, 2018

I love to teach grammar to my second graders, and they are usually very eager learners when they figure out that the grammar they are learning ties in to the writing that they enjoy.

I introduce grammar by engaging students in a ‘hunt.’ We are always searching for parts of speech, punctuation and proper sentence structure in everything we do, from independent reading to when I read aloud. By the end of the year, most of my kids are pros at identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases, along with subjects and predicates. They are also great at writing proper sentences. Here’s how I start out with teaching parts of speech.

I introduce grammar by engaging students in a ‘hunt.’ Click To Tweet

Parts of Grammar

Nouns are persons, places and things. Starting off with just introducing them that way can be difficult for second graders to remember. I link the word ‘noun’ with the question ‘who or what did something?’ It’s much easier for my kids to identify this simple question than the proper definition.

For verbs I do the same thing. I link the word ‘verb’ with the phrase ‘did what’. So now we can link ‘who or what did what’ with subject and predicate.

Adjectives and adverbs are always describing words for the nouns and verbs and prepositional phrases are ‘where and when’ words. I also throw in that a prepositional is anywhere a squirrel can go, just for good measure.

Sentence Structure

One of the most difficult components of teaching grammar in my experience is proper sentence structure. I’m constantly reminding my students that a sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with some kind of punctuation, and it has a who or what word doing something. I give my kids tons of writing opportunities to practice this, from writing sentences with spelling words, to writing journal entries, to writing three sentences about whatever book we’ve just read a portion of or finished, to writing their book reports. I also carry this writing over into our science and social studies, whether it is journal entries or a few sentences home to parents about the experiment we just did.

I also will ‘quiz’ them over parts of speech. For instance if someone asks to go the bathroom I’ll say ‘It will cost you two nouns and a verb.’ I’ll do the same thing when lining up by going down the line and randomly asking kids for nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases. They actually enjoy this activity, since it is a type of game.

When I have finished reading a section of our storybook out loud I will ask for examples of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases as well. Since the kids anticipate being asked these questions at the end of our reading, they focus more on listening to what is being read to them, which helps with comprehension as well. They also will identify these parts of speech on their own when they are reading out loud, which I absolutely love to witness.

How do you teach grammar to your younger learners?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailFlat Stanley: World Traveler Default ThumbnailTeaching Creative Writing to Younger Kids Default ThumbnailThe Importance of Teaching Study Habits Default ThumbnailLeveled Reading For Young Readers
« Teach From the Heart
10 Steps to a Positive Classroom Culture »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • My Union Showed Up for Me, and I'll Never Forget It
  • Your Students Deserve a Diverse Classroom Library. Here's How to Set It Up.
  • You Don't Have to Watch the Tyre Nichols Video, But Be Ready to Talk About It
  • "Let's Make This Happen": Following Student Interests to Interest-Based Mentorships

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.