Go Wild with Language Arts Lessons
I am a word lover, so it pains me to admit … not everyone grows excited over language arts lessons. I won’t even mention diagramming sentences in fear of you not finishing this read.
If Language Arts is your students favorite subject or not, You can go wild with Language Arts Lessons!
Best Language Arts purchase: MadLibs! MadLibs have turned our boring circle the subject underline the verb worksheets into laughter, tears, and enjoyment. Granted, there are days we have to work on eliminating “stinky” from every MadLib, but you can always find interesting themed MadLibs at the bookstore!
Grow Language Arts with stories! Once MadLibs brought a little more interest into our Language Arts lessons we moved right into Superhero Stories. At first they were just drawings, so I encouraged my hero lovers to start making comics. They would draw in little boxes and then write a description under each box. Without them realizing it, they were quickly adding “colorful descriptive words” and “exciting action words” to their comics. The comics easily turned into one page papers and then short stories. Not feeling creative? Print Free Writing Prompts from WriteShop.
Are you teaching a mover and a shaker? Well shake it off and act out those short stories. Or teach adverbs by doing them. How did the gorilla walk across the jungle? “Show me how a gorilla runs … now what words describe that?” These role playing opportunities offer physical children the ability to act the movements and then write about them later! {if you have props include them}. Be sure to give clear instructions before role playing. For example my boys were devastated we had to stop light saber fighting to write about an action battle. You might also want to set a time limit on role playing.
Need a hands-on activity for your tactile learner? Try my Adjective Challenge! All you need: flash cards, clothes pins, and a sharpie marker! Your hands-on learner will literally “add” colorful adjectives (clothes pins) to a noun (flash card). You can do the same activity with adverbs.
Watch this 2-minute video for details! Hands-On Activity Adjective Challenge.