Second Grade, Grammar, Set Two

• We reviewed Verbs
• I read aloud pages 56 - 57 in Child's Own English Book.
• Then it was time to Play Games:
• We pretended that we were sailors (this went well with our history studies) and took turn acting out things sailors would do. K. really enjoyed this and wanted to keep going, even when it was time for lunch! (Game #1 on page 57)
• We played "Dumb Crambo". Player 1 thinks of an action verb (something that can be acted out). They tell player 2 a word that rhymes with the verb they are thinking of. Player 2 then thinks of action verbs and acts them out. Player 1 has to guess the word player 2 is acting out. This continues until player 2 guesses the verb player 1 is thinking of. Then roles are switched. This game was a great hit, too. (Game #4 on page 58)
• We underlined the verbs in one of the stories in the book. (Game #5 on page 58, story #2 is about Columbus, which went really well with our history)
• We underlined the verbs in a story in an old reading text book, Finding New Neighbors.
• I introduced Linking Verbs
• I read pages 61 - 62 in Child's Own (linking verbs are called "copulas" in this book)
• Then it was time to Play a Game:
• I printed out pictures of sets of freight cars. Player 1 writes a noun in the first car, player 2 writes a noun in the second car -- a word that relates to the first. Then the players decide on a linking verb to put in for the coupler between the cars. (Game #1 on page 62)
• We underlined the linking verbs in a story in Finding New Neighbors.
• We reviewed Pronouns
• We practiced substituting pronouns for other nouns in sentences. Example: Sally and Fred went to the store. They went to the store.
• We practiced using "I" or "me" in sentences.
• Then it was time to Play Games:
• We played games on the computer 2Bee or Nottoobee and Balloon Pronoun Game
• We reviewed the Parts of a Book with the lapbook from first grade
• Listening and Speaking
• We practiced what to say when she answers the phone, takes a message, or makes a phone call.
• We reviewed Punctuation
• Childcraft 1969 Edition, Volume 11, page 262 -- has a short paragraph without punctuation, and it talks about the need for punctuation. We copied the paragraph out and K. put the punctuation in.
• Common and Proper Nouns
• We played the game from Set One
• Singular and Plural Nouns
• I picked a story in Finding New Neighbors. On the first page K. underlined in green all the plural nouns. Then I had her find and underline in red an equal number of singular nouns.
• We did the same thing on the next page. Then I decided to expand it by circling the proper nouns in purple and underlining pronouns in orange.

• Writing Skills
• I picked a story in Finding New Neighbors and we picked a word from each paragraph (just on one page) to find a replacement for in the thesaurus.
• We made word webs for a food (donut), activity (swinging), and place (park) -- one each day. The first day I used the words she wrote and wrote out a short paragraph. The next day we did a paragraph verbally. The third day K. wanted to write the paragraph.
• Writing Projects
• We spent a couple days writing and illustrating couplets. Sometimes we would write a complete one by ourselves, other times one of us would write the first line and the other would write the second line.
• A couplet has two lines, the last word of each line rhymes, and both lines have the same number of syllables.
• Usage
• We spent a couple days talking about the difference of can (ability) and may (permission).
• I figured the best way to practice was to use them, so I asked her which she would use if she was asking . . .