Tried it Tuesday: Grammar Story Books

Do you ever have those weekends when you're at home grading papers, and you notice a trend. Not a good trend, but a trend that goes throughout those little papers that makes you want to scream? You know, where it seems that ALL (of most all) your kids forgot how to use commas? Or periods? Or capital letters? Ugh. With that being said, I'm linking up for Tried it Tuesday: Grammar Story Books.

 

I read this CUTE little story to my class today and man did it grab their attention more so than any foldable or anchor chart we've ever done! I placed the book under the document camera and their eyes stayed focused on the white board while I read.

 

The idea of the story is about how AND came to town and fixed up all the comma problems their town was having. He showed the town to use commas for 4 reasons:

 

1. Making lists

2. Separating adjectives

3. Clearing up confusing sentences

4. Joining simple sentences

 Here are 2 of my favorite pages from the book! I LOVE that it shows a before and after picture, because it shows my kids how it should be done.

 

After reading the book we discussed together and made a list on the board of the 4 ways the book discussed using commas. We wrote our "I can" statement for our one focus area today:

 

"I can use commas when writing lists."

This is what the board looked like. I told the kids to make a list of 5 items they would buy if given $1,000,000. I, too, made a list and then the students helped me write a complete sentence with my list of chosen items. This was the teaching point (well, re-teaching!) where we talked over where to put the commas and the "and," and all that jazz.

Students then had to write sentences with their lists of items and got to share with the class by using the document camera. Holy moly do they feel special when they get to use the document camera!

There are several other books in the series, so check them out if you get a chance. Such a great way to teach grammar! :)

I plan on using this sheet tomorrow for morning work for my kiddos as a follow-up. Click on the picture to download it for free!

 

Happy Tuesday!