Language Arts Archives - Look! We're Learning!

Delicious Donuts ELA Activity Set

October 31, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Donuts are life.

Okay, maybe not life-sustaining. But definitely life-enriching.

Nothing gets my kids up and out of the bed faster than me shouting “Alright, let’s go to Krispy Kreme!”

So when I wanted to share a fun ELA activity set to keep them practicing creative writing, parts of speech, and more, I knew this Delicious Donuts Activity would be a winner!

This is a fantastic activity pack for National Donut Day, which is usually in early June. But it’s a good fit for winter time, since most of us (myself included) start baking as soon as the weather turns cold.

Since these activities are low-prep, you can just print them once, laminate them, and use them at centers if you like!

Read on to see how to get your copy! And for more ELA fun with donuts, take a look at our Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity!

Delicious Donuts ELA Activity Set

To use this donut themed ELA activity set, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Printer Paper (I like Astrobright paper)
Pencils

This product includes five different donut-themed writing activities, plus an answer key.

On the Donut Adjectives page, students can brainstorm adjectives they’d use to describe donuts.

On the Delicious Donuts page, kids can try to find as many individual words in the phrase as possible.

The Design A Donut page allows students to create their own confectionery masterpiece!

Then they can practice unscrambling donut-related terms too!

Finally, there’s a donut code breaker activity students can complete to decode donut flavors!

Scroll down to get your copy of our Delicious Donuts ELA Activity Set!

Take a look at these other ELA activities for early grades!

See more ways to teach ELA on my Fun Language Arts Ideas for Kids Pinterest board!

To get your copy of this Delicious Donuts ELA Activity Set, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Delicious Donuts! ELA Activity Set <<<

Vowel Houses! Short Vowel Sounds Activity for Kids

October 28, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Learning about short vowel sounds is part of a great foundation in early literacy.

After all, when we teach early readers to decode CVC words, the short vowel sound in the center is what separates the two consonants.

But early learners tend to remember concepts best when they get to incorporate movement in each lesson.

So these interactive vowel houses make a wonderful short vowel sounds activity for increasing phonics skills!

This is a fantastic activity for literacy centers or morning tubs! You can reuse the vowel houses and let students practice matching up the correct sounds again and again.

Read on to see how to get your copy! And for more fun with short vowels, don’t miss our printable short vowel flashcards!

Vowel Houses! Short Vowel Sounds Activity

To use this Vowel Houses! short vowel sounds activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This product includes five different vowel “houses” – one for each letter.

Each house contains four CVC words with short vowel sounds, as well as matching pictures for each word.

Students can color the houses and pictures and then practice placing each picture above the correct CVC word.

You can use these with scissors and glue if you’ll only be using this activity once.

Or you can laminate the houses and pictures and attach hook and loop sticky dots for a reusable phonics activity!

Scroll down to get your copy of this Vowel Houses! CVC Short Vowel Sounds Activity!

Stop by to see these other fun activities for ELA!

See more ways to teach language arts on my Fun Language Arts Ideas for Kids Pinterest board!

To get your copy of this Vowel Houses! CVC Short Vowel Sounds Activity, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Vowel Houses! CVC Short Vowel Sounds Activity <<<

Travel Tales! Vacation Creative Writing Activity for Kids

July 22, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

It’s already back to school season. Can you believe it?

Personally, I’ve had a wonderful summer break and I am not in any way ready to get back to class. I have a pretty strong hunch my kids feel the same way.

But, like it or not, summer is coming to an end. So, I thought it would be a little easier to get back to ELA with this easy creative writing activity about summer vacation!

We usually take a vacation each summer. This year, we went camping for the first time. And we didn’t die!

My kids had a lot to say about that trip, but I also wanted to encourage them all to write about it, including my younger learners.

This simple vacation-themed creative writing prompt is great, because it’s a bite-sized lesson. So if you have reluctant writers, they won’t be intimidated by it at all.

Read on to see how to get your copy for free! And, for more fun with ELA, don’t miss my Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity!

Travel Tales! Vacation Creative Writing Activity for Kids

To use this vacation creative writing activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Cardstock
Pencils
Child-safe scissors (optional)
Colored pencils (optional)

This activity includes five pages of prompts: four with different colors and a line art version.

I found it best to print it on cardstock, because I wanted kids to be able to cut out their finished writing and hang it up on the wall.

If you use the line art version, kids can color in the suitcase themselves!

Students can use this activity to describe their actual vacations or to write about places they’d like to go. And, since it’s evergreen, you can use it any time there’s a school break, including, fall, winter, and spring.

Scroll down to get your copy of our Vacation Creative Writing Activity!

Take a look at these other ways to learn with ELA!

Follow my Language Arts for Kids board on Pinterest for more ideas!

To get your free copy of Travel Tales! Vacation Creative Writing Activity for Kids, click the image or the text below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store!

>>> Travel Tales! Vacation Creative Writing Activity <<<

Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity for Kids

June 3, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

I’ve never actually sat down and written a list of my favorite things.

If I did, though, I think donuts would be near the top.

Down here in the South, Krispy Kreme reigns supreme as the best place to get doughnuts. While I’m a stickler for the unadulterated goodness of glazed, my kids love frosted donuts.

So I thought this fun Donut Colors sentence writing activity would be a neat way to get some basic sentence writing practice in!

These are fantastic for early writers who are just learning about simple sentence structure!

Read on to see how to get your copy. And, for more fun with sugary sweets, don’t miss our Big and Small Cupcake Worksheets for preschoolers!

Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity for Kids

To use this donut themed sentence writing activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This writing activity includes eight worksheets. Each features a different colored donut with a different sentence.

Students can practice reading each sentence, coloring each sentence, and tracing each sentence.

Then can write them on the lines provided – all by themselves!

Since each sentence uses two words that describe each donut, this is also a fantastic introduction to adjectives!

If you use literacy centers or morning tubs with your students, you could also use a laminator to laminate each worksheet.

Then hand them out or place them at centers, along with dry erase markers, for writing practice students can use again and again!

Scroll down to get your copy of our Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity!

Take a look at these other sweet treat posts!

$Build basic AABB and ABAB math patterns with this fun ice pop math patterns activity for early grades! Perfect for use in centers and morning tubs!$

And see more ways to teach ELA on my Language Arts for Homeschoolers Pinterest board!

To get your copy of this Donut Colors! Sentence Writing Activity, click the image or the link below to get it from my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>>> Donut Colors Sentence Writing Activity <<<

Simple Green Eggs and Ham Inspired Poetry Activity

February 4, 2019 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Since we’ve been working through BookShark Level 1 with our youngest, we’ve gotten to read plenty of wonderful stories. When I looked at the bookshelf and noticed we had yet to read Green Eggs and Ham, though, I wanted to jump for joy.

As a child, I read The Cat In the Hat first. But Green Eggs and Ham is, by far, my favorite Dr. Seuss book. I love it so much.

With the help of our BookShark program, we turned this classic story into a simple Green Eggs and Ham poetry activity. My first grader loved it!

Take a look at how we extended this story into a super easy creative writing lesson! And for more practice with ELA, don’t miss our printable Construction Contractions Language Arts lesson!

Disclosure: I am a BookShark brand ambassador and am receiving free curriculum as part of my role.

Easy Green Eggs and Ham Poetry Activity for Kids

To do this simple Green Eggs and Ham poetry activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Green printer paper
Black marker
White Posterboard or Giant Wipe Off Index Card
Dry Erase Marker (only needed if you’re using the wipe off index card)

We began by reading Green Eggs and Ham. Our little one read it to me while I sat and looked on. She found the story and the illustrations hilarious.

At one point, after Sam-I-am offered the green eggs and ham again, she actually said “He just told you he doesn’t like it!”

In our BookShark Level 1 lesson, the curriculum guide encouraged us to work on writing our own poem based on a food that we would not like to eat.

So I pulled out our giant laminated index card and started a couple of sentences. Then it was up to our first grader to fill in the blanks with her own ideas for yucky food and where she wouldn’t eat it.

Then I thought it would be a little more fun to let her write her answers on some “green eggs” of our own. So I just cut out some wiggly shapes from green paper.

She started by choosing a strange food color – “gold”. Then the food she added was noodles. Incidentally, she’d just had noodles for lunch that day. It’s entirely possible she was trying to tell me something.

When we started thinking of words that rhymed with noodles, she got to “doodles” and decided that would work.

Then it was time to think of a place she wouldn’t like to eat her strange food. She choose “at home”.

Which definitely made me think she was trying to tell me something.

And, naturally, if you won’t eat them at home, then you won’t eat them with a gnome either.

And her rhyme was done!

I asked her what she thought the lesson of the story was. She said “Don’t say you don’t like something just because it looks weird. You should try it.”

Score! Now let’s see if she remembers that little lesson the next time I serve dinner.

This Green Eggs and Ham poetry activity was just one of the activities in BookShark Level 1 for this book. Take a look at BookShark’s curriculum to see more ways you can use it to bring stories to life with your kids!

Check out these other reading activities for children!

And see more ways to make story time fun on my Reading for Kids Pinterest board!

Snow Globe Grammar: Parts of Speech Sorting Activity

December 13, 2018 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

I am a huge grammar nerd. I’ve always loved learning about language and how we use it.

My oldest is a fellow ELA junkie, but my middle kids are…less enthusiastic about learning the rules of lexicon. Plus, I just wanted to make a basic ELA lesson more fun, especially for our rising second grader.

So we came up with this hands-on parts of speech sorting activity: Snow Globe Grammar! This is a perfect way to introduce different parts of speech to young learners – with a fun winter theme.

If you use literacy centers, this would be an excellent prep and reuse activity. Or if you wanted to make it into a one-time lesson, you could use it as a cut-and-paste activity for early grades.

Read on to see how to get your copy of this parts of speech sorting lesson! And, if you’d like more practice with ELA and foreign language, don’t miss our printable Spanish verb flashcards!

Snow Globe Grammar: Parts of Speech Sorting Activity

To use this parts of speech sorting activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This activity includes sorting mats for three of the basic parts of speech: nouns, verbs, and adjectives – two sets for each.

Two parts of speech cards are included, which feature winter-themed words (24 in all).

If you’d like to use this activity once, you can have students cut out the parts of speech cards and glue them on the correct mat.

If you’d like to use it over and over, just laminate the mats and the parts of speech cards. Then add hook-and-loop dots to the mats and the backs of the parts of speech cards.

Kids can place the cards on the correct sorting mat and then remove them for use with the next student!

If you introduce one part of speech per lesson, just cut out the cards and introduce the nouns in one lesson, the verbs in another, and the adjectives in another.

Let students sort them for themselves to review at the end of the week!

A full answer key is included.

Plus, there’s a line art version if you need to save on ink. Or if you just want to let the kids color the pictures on their own!

Scroll down to get your copy of our Snow Globe Grammar: Parts of Speech Sorting Activity!

Stop by and see these other ELA learning ideas!

Follow my Winter Activities for Kids Pinterest board for more winter weather learning fun!

To get your copy of our Snow Globe Grammar: Parts of Speech Sorting Activity, click the image or the link below to visit our Store!

>>> Snow Globe Grammar: Parts of Speech Sorting <<<

Printable Back to School Noun Practice for Second Grade

July 19, 2018 by Selena Robinson 12 Comments

Early elementary grades are some of the most critical times for developing language arts skills. Kids are learning how to read fluently, how to identify parts of speech, and how to create clear sentences on their own.

As part of second grade language arts standards, children often learn how to form and use both singular and collective nouns. And that’s why I wanted to share a simple language arts lesson: a printable noun practice for second grade activity with a fun back-to-school theme!

This simple cut and paste activity is perfect for early grades. And you can challenge the kids to use collective nouns in more than one setting!

Read on to see how to get your copy. And don’t miss our complete ELA lesson Construction Contractions for even more early grades language arts learning!

Printable Back to School Noun Practice for Second Grade

To use this printable noun practice for second grade activity, you’ll need the following: (This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This noun sorting practice pack is a cut and paste activity featuring common nouns, plural nouns, and collective nouns.

Collective nouns are nouns that look like singular nouns but refer to a group, such as “team”, “group”, “class”, etc. Learning to distinguish between these types of nouns is a critical language arts skill for second grade.

In this activity, the collective nouns include pair, group, team, pack, while the common nouns include backpack, lunchbox, bus, and student. There are also plural nouns such as children, sandwiches, lunches, and apples.

Kids can cut out the nouns from the Noun Word Bank and then match the correct noun to the correct picture. Since some of the nouns work with multiple pictures, this can be a bit tricky!

Once kids decide which picture goes with which noun, they glue them into the box below.

Like so.

All done!

The first Noun Word Bank includes all of the words that match up with the pictures in the pack.

The second Noun Word Bank includes singular or plural versions of the same nouns – just in case you want to give your kids a bit of a challenge.

Scroll down to get your copy of our Back to School Noun Practice for Second Grade activity!

Don’t miss these other ELA resources!

And see more ways to teach Language Arts at home on my Homeschool Language Arts Ideas Pinterest board!

Want more early grade back to school learning fun? Get a look at these resources from my fellow bloggers!

Melting Crayons Science Experiment from Creative Family Fun

Free Addition Facts Game from Life Over C’s

Number Ordering Activity 0-999 from Sallie Borrink Learning

Interest Based Learning Project from Still Playing School

What I Love About School Art Project from Planet Smarty Pants

All About Me Flag Project from School Time Snippets

{Free!} Getting to Know You Back to School Game from Preschool Powol Packets

FREE All About Me Worksheets (Lego style) from 123 Homeschool 4 Me

Me Llamo – Simple Spanish Game from Rainy Day Mum

Setting up a homework station from Crafty kids at home

To get your copy of our Back to School Noun Sorting Practice for Second Grade, pick up our Second Grade Learning Bundle! This printable lesson is inside, along with three other early elementary ELA and math resources!

To check it out, click the image or the link below to visit our Store!

>>> Second Grade Learning Bundle <<<

Construction Contractions: Construction Themed Language Arts Contractions Lesson

February 20, 2018 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

We have two very active boys in our family. They are not big fans of language arts. But they ARE big fans of anything related to construction.

So I thought I’d make a language arts contractions lesson that lets them learn how to “build” basic English contractions: Construction Contractions! It’s a complete construction themed language arts lesson on how to make and use standard English contractions that’s perfect for construction fans!

Read on to see how to get your copy of Construction Contractions and what’s included in this ELA resource!

If you’re looking for more language arts learning ideas, don’t miss our printable Punctuation Mark Flashcards! And be sure to share these fun construction picture books with your construction fans too!

Construction Contractions: Construction Themed Language Arts Contractions Lesson

Inside Construction Contractions, you’ll find 66 pages of language arts learning fun! This is truly a complete lesson for teaching kids about how to form common English contractions.

The product includes “building” activities for 24 basic English contractions, such as:

aren’t
isn’t
I’m
they’d
should’ve
you’re
And 18 more!

With each English contraction, kids learn which words are used to form it and how they should spell and write the contraction.

Along with writing and spelling practice, kids can get to practice rewriting sentences using the contractions they learn.

There are three matching activity quizzes included as well, which offer a simple way to review the concepts after you complete the pack.

Plus, ALL of our construction contraction flashcards are included! There are 48 contraction flashcards in this product!

One set with word pairs and the matching contraction, and another set without the contraction so that you can quiz your little learners.

Scroll down to pick up your copy of Construction Contractions: Construction Themed Language Arts Contractions Lesson!

Check out these other language arts resources for homeschoolers!

And find more ELA tips on my Homeschool Language Arts Ideas Pinterest board!

Did you know that email subscribers get exclusive learning printables? Sign up using the widget below for access to our special Subscriber Library!

To get your copy of Construction Contractions, click the image or the link below to visit our Store!

>>> Construction Contractions – A Language Arts Contractions Lesson <<<

Constructing Contractions! Basic English Contractions Flashcards

February 6, 2018 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

Remember when you first learned how to form contractions?

I remember learning that in about first grade and thinking “It’s so cool that you can stick two words together and make a shorter word.”

I started looking at contractions as their own special code language, because you had to know what the original two words were to understand what the contraction meant.

It’s easy to see why I ended up becoming an English major, right?

Time has passed, but it’s still important to teach students how to “build” basic English contractions. Which is why I thought a construction theme would be perfect for these printable contractions flashcards!

My boys are deep into a construction phase right now.

Our youngest son, in particular, is obsessed with earth movers, bulldozers, cranes, dump trucks, and just about anything related to building.

He told me last week that he intends to be a firefighter, a builder, and a policeman.

I told him that was good, because he could build a house. Then if the house caught on fire, he could put it out and take the person who caused the fire to jail.

To this he replied, “And then I’d build it all over again!”

So, I made these flashcards to help him learn about language arts in a fun way.

Read on to get your set!

And for more language arts fun, check out Construction Contractions – our complete English contractions ELA lesson!

Printable Construction-Themed Contraction Flashcards

To use these contractions flashcards, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links provided below. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Printer Paper
Scissors
Laminator (optional)

This product features flashcards that show how to “build” eight basic English contractions, including:

he’d
I’m
they’d
And five more!

There is one set of cards with the base words plus the contraction, and another set with just the base words.

That way, you can go over how to build the contraction and then quiz the kids on which contraction each pair of words forms.

These would be an excellent ELA review for early elementary students!

As you go over each contraction’s root words, show students how the final contraction is altered (missing letters are replaced with an apostrophe).

Then let students flip through the blank word flashcards and try to remember which contraction is formed by the root words on the construction sign!

Scroll down to get your copy of our Printable Contractions Flashcards!

You might have noticed that there are more than eight English contractions on the cards in these pictures.

Want the full set of TWELVE English contractions flashcards, plus printables for learning how to build and use these contractions in writing?

Grab your copy of Construction Contractions: A Printable Language Arts Lesson!

It’s loaded with 60 pages of language arts printables for recognizing and using all of these contractions with kids!

Don’t miss these other printable flashcards for kids!

To get your copy of these basic English contraction flashcards, click the image or the link below to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

>> Construction Contractions Flashcards <<<

Free Printable Flashcards: Short Vowel Flashcards

February 1, 2018 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

We’re back with another set of free printable flashcards! This time, we’re talking about short vowel sounds.

Personally, I didn’t learn to read with phonics and neither did our oldest daughter. Our oldest boy, though, really needed help with phonic sounds, so we focused on long and short vowel sounds pretty early.

I thought I’d make a set of short vowel flashcards to share with my lovely readers today! These are really simple to use and what makes them even better is that they’re FREE!

Read on to see how to get your set! And if you like these, don’t miss these long vowel flashcards as well!

Free Printable Flashcards: Short Vowel Flashcards

To use these flashcards, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are provided here for convenience. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

Printer (with ink)
Printer paper
Scissors
Laminator (to reuse the cards later)

Like our long vowel flashcards, these short vowel flashcards include words that help kids practice recognizing and differentiating short vowel sounds.

In this flashcard pack, you’ll find cards for the following short vowel words:

Alligator
Egg
Igloo
Octopus
Umbrella

The pack includes a set of cards with the pictures and words, a set with only the pictures, a set with only the words, and a set of each with pictures and vowels only.

Kids can practice matching up the long vowel cards with the word cards. Or use the picture cards to quiz them on their short vowel sounds!

Scroll down to get your copy of our free printable flashcards: short vowel flashcards!

More Resources for Teaching Short Vowel Sounds:

Looking for more short vowel resources? Try these!

Don’t miss some of our other reading flashcards!

And for more resources to use with your kids, check out my Free Printable Flashcards board on Pinterest!

Plus, get exclusive learning printables and teaching ideas when you subscribe to our email newsletter!

To get your set of our free short vowel flashcards, click the image or the link below to visit our Store!

>>>>>>>Short Vowel Flashcards<<<<<<<

Learn with Diagrams: Online Sentence Diagramming for Kids

June 5, 2017 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

My middle schooler is a total grammar nerd. I can’t imagine where she might have gotten that from…*cough* it was me *cough*.

I remember loving Language Arts in school. I was totally into learning parts of speech, creative writing, poetry, and all the things that make English great.

But by the time I got to diagramming sentences, I was being homeschooled. And my mom had no idea how to do it, so I never learned to do it. That was…a certain number of years ago now, but I always regretted never learning how to diagram sentences. It looked like it would have been fun.

So now that my daughter is at the age to learn how to diagram sentences, I was a little apprehensive about how to teach her. Which is why I was so thrilled to have a chance to review the wonderful online sentence diagramming program Learn with Diagrams!

See how this online grammar program makes it easy (and fun!) to learn how to diagram sentences!

Disclosure: I received access to this product in exchange for this post and I was compensated for my time. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.

How Online Sentence Diagramming Works

Learn with Diagrams is a fully online grammar program. While it’s awesome for homeschoolers, it also works for afterschoolers or even public school families that want to give their kids a bit more practice in ELA.

Since the program is completely online, there’s no textbook (which saves storage space). And it’s a cinch to use!

We started off with Level 1, which is a nice introduction to how diagramming sentences can help kids learn grammar. It’s also a good, quick review of the parts of speech.

Each level of the program begins with a brief video that explains a set of grammatical concepts and how they are used in sentences. So kids are really getting a set of grammar lessons with coordinating grammar games.

Basically, when you diagram a sentence, you break up the words according to the part of speech to which they belong. When you diagram correctly, you show that you understand each word’s role in the sentence.

After the introductory video, which is short, kids get to try navigating the game through a guided level. This helps them learn to play the diagramming game correctly before the grammar lessons get too difficult.

The sentences begin at a very basic level: just nouns and verbs. As students progress, though, the sentences become a bit more complex.

Like so. So the program builds on itself, gradually increasing the parts of speech used in each sentence once students show they understand the previous lessons.

When kids complete a level successfully, they can unlock the next lesson. This is fabulous if you have a “skip-arounder” student who likes to just click all over the place. They can’t really do that in this program.

How to Use Online Sentence Diagramming to Teach Grammar

Since my middle schooler loves all things ELA, I didn’t have much trouble getting her to continue using Learn with Diagrams. But I was surprised at how much she learned in just a few lessons.

She has a nice grasp of grammar, because she reads a lot. But I also want to make sure that she learns the correct terminology for each part of speech she uses.

In the early lessons, she had no trouble at all. As the lessons progressed, though, she started to pay closer attention to the section videos.

After she watched the lesson video, she would start to practice diagramming the sentences based on that lesson.

The tips at the bottom of the screen were very helpful for remembering what each part of speech meant and how to use it. And the first few examples are guided, showing students where to place their newly introduced words.

She was moving on to prepositional phrases in no time!

I don’t want to make it sound like she got every question right. She didn’t. But when she incorrectly identified a part of speech, the online sentence diagramming game would let her know and she’d try again.

In some cases, we’d rewatch the lesson video to grasp exactly how each part of speech is used and to note some examples to watch for in the exercises.

She learned so much about grammar (that she didn’t know already) in just the first several lessons!

And I (finally) learned how to diagram sentences! Woohoo!

Visit Learn with Diagrams to start helping your child learn how to diagram sentences the fun way! Plus, score $10 off with the promo code Grammargame!

Learn more about Learn with Diagrams by following the company on social media!

And see even more tips for teaching ELA in your homeschool on my Homeschool Language Arts Ideas Pinterest board!

Free Printable Flashcards: Punctuation Flashcards

December 29, 2015 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

Punctuation is one of those concepts that’s kind of boring, but you just have to learn it.

We start talking about the use of periods, question marks, and exclamation marks in the early grades, but when kids get into their upper elementary years, it’s time to introduce other marks (colon, semi-colon, quotation marks, etc.).

So I thought I’d make a batch of punctuation flashcards for our collection of free printable flashcards to make learning this language arts skill a little more fun!

These are a simple way to add hands-on learning to grammar lessons, which can be a huge help if you have active learners like we do. Plus, they’re just plain old fun!

If you like these, try our Construction Contractions language arts lesson! It’s full of writing practice for learning about contractions with a fun construction theme!

Free Printable Flashcards: Punctuation Flashcards

To use these printable punctuation flashcards, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are provided here for convenience. For more, see our Disclosure Policy.)

This flashcard set includes cards for eight different punctuation marks:

Period
Comma
Question Mark
Exclamation Mark
Quotation Marks
Apostrophe
Colon
and Semi-Colon

Try using the unlabeled cards to quiz kids on which punctuation mark is which. Once the children learn to identify each mark, write sentences without punctuation and ask which mark belongs in each sentence.

If you’re teaching punctuation to younger kids, you can probably skip quotation marks, colon, and semi-colon. But those would be excellent review concepts for upper elementary and middle school children!

Once the kids learn the correct names for each punctuation mark, try the unlabeled cards to give them a little quiz!

You can also use them to play a fun matching game – as a review!

Scroll down to get your free printable punctuation flashcards!

More Resources for Learning Punctuation:

If you want to teach your kids even more about how to use punctuation, try these great resources!

Don’t miss our other language arts learning ideas!

And be sure to follow our Homeschool Language Arts board on Pinterest for more inspiration!

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Fifth Grade Creative Writing: Brave Writer Review

September 7, 2015 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

Creative writing is one of the most difficult subjects I’ve ever had to teach in our homeschool. I was an English major in college and I love the writing process, but letting go of what English “should” sound and look like has been a real issue for me personally, so it’s hard for me to teach my kids to write freely.

So I was thrilled to get a chance to post a Brave Writer review after trying the program’s Faltering Ownership for fifth grade creative writing! In fact, I loved Brave Writer so much that it’s going to be our creative writing program for this homeschool year!

Check out our review to see how we used Brave Writer to make creative writing accessible and fun!

*Disclosure: I received access to this resource in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review.*

The Faltering Ownership Philosophy

For fifth grade, we used “Faltering Ownership”, the Brave Writer program that’s geared toward 11-12 year olds. I was a little puzzled by the title until I read the introduction to the program, but it turns out that the title fits the program perfectly!

As Julie explains in the intro, middle school is the time when children begin to “take the wheel” of the writing process. It’s kind of like giving your child the keys to the car for the first time and riding in the passenger seat as they drive.

They make turns you’re not expecting and the loss of control can be unnerving for parents, but the experience is essential for kids so that they can take ownership, even if it’s faltering, over their own direction. And Julie applies that analogy to writing.

In middle grades, kids need to develop more confidence in their writing ability. As parents, we shift from teachers to consultants, giving our children direction but also instilling them with confidence to write what they feel. And that means letting them learn to look at language differently.

Once I read the introduction to the program, I had a new outlook on what it means to teach creative writing, even though I’ve already finished a degree in English! So Brave Writer taught me quite a lot as well. 🙂

Fifth Grade Creative Writing: Brave Writer Review

We jumped right in with the activities in month 1 – Word Collecting and Building.

One of the first monthly exercises in “Faltering Ownership” is to collect words and learn to use them as building blocks for writing prompts and expressions. Tigger started off by listening to television shows and conversations, as well as by reading signs, snippets of books that were lying nearby, and product labels in stores.

Once she filled several pages of paper with various words, she copied them onto trimmed pieces of index cards.

As you can see, we ended up with quite a lot. She really liked collecting those words.

When we had all of our index cards completed, it was time to group the words into piles. In Faltering Ownership, the instructions are quite liberal, so Tigger could group the words however she wanted: alphabetically, adjective/noun pairs, similar topics, or any other way she could think of.

We aimed for about six or seven words per pile.

Then she started matching them up to create two-word phrases. Faltering Ownership suggested pasting the words on household objects, so we started with our homeschooling space: the dining room.

Fifth Grade Creative Writing: Brave Writer Review - Look! We're Learning!

From the random word pairings, we got some great phrases, including “fuzzy television”,

“teetering library”,

…and “beautiful friendship”. Awww… 🙂

After creating another phrase “cheeky station”, Tigger wrote a short story:

A Land Where Objects Talk

“You should go to Weirdoland. Objects talk, flowers and trees dance, and MUCH MORE. For instance, one day the sun said, “I will shine.” The clouds said, “We will glide.” A grumpy train pulled in. “You’re the grumpiest object I’ve ever seen!”, laughed a cheeky station. “STOP!” snapped the grumpy train. (Psst…they’ve never gotten along.)”

Faltering Ownership recommended asking students how their perspective on language has changed after completing the word building activity. When I asked Tigger, she wrote down her answer:

“Before when I learned language, especially in school, I used to think that language was easy. Now I’m learning that sometimes you have to think about some things. And guess what? IT’S NOT BORING!”

She’s absolutely right. Creative writing is not boring, especially when you can learn to look at words differently and free your mind to use them in new ways.

How to Use Faltering Ownership

Faltering Ownership is designed to be used along with The Writer’s Jungle, the focal point of the Brave Writer curriculum. The Writer’s Jungle is a homeschooling creative writing course that is geared toward parents.

It’s a complete overview of language arts in general – from narration and freewriting to editing and publishing. If you’re unsure where to begin when you’re teaching creative writing, The Writer’s Jungle is basically a guided journey through teaching language arts to your kids.

Since Faltering Ownership is a year-long curriculum, there are exercises for an entire year of creative writing. Naturally, we began with Month 1: Wild Words, but the program continues for 9 months more, covering topics such as historical writing and composing reports. There are also two bonus activities, in case you teach year-round or just want to round out your program with more activities.

Faltering Ownership is based on three core segments: language arts, oral language, and writing projects. One of the things I’m truly enjoying about the program is its emphasis on appreciating language in general before beginning to write. So children can learn to use copywork, narration, and dictation (core components of the Charlotte Mason approach) as keys to examining literature. These are great stepping stones to building their own creativity for what they’ll write later.

Plus, the ebook is beautifully laid out, complete with pictures, diagrams, and prompts. All of the instructions are included for each activity, so you don’t have to be an expert on teaching English before you begin. I can’t tell you how much of a help that was, especially when you’re teaching kids with ADHD and you need to get a lesson done before their attention span goes out the window. 🙂

We can’t wait to use Brave Writer for our fifth grade creative writing program to see how much further we can stretch our writing muscles! If you’re interested in trying Faltering Ownership or another one of the Brave Writer programs, you can save 10 percent on your purchase with the code iHomeschoolDiscount. This code is valid through September 21, 2015 only.

To learn more about Brave Writer, visit the program’s website or keep up with Brave Writer on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram!

Making Creative Writing Fun for Reluctant Writers: Writeshop Junior Review

March 9, 2015 by Selena Robinson 4 Comments

This is a conversation on behalf of WriteShop. Opinions are 100% my own.

Do you have any reluctant writers in your family? We do. Tigger is an avid reader, but a hesitant writer. I understand. I’m exactly the same way. 🙂

So I was thrilled when we got a chance to try the homeschool writing program: Writeshop Junior! It’s a comprehensive creative writing program for upper elementary kids!

Check out our Writeshop Junior review to see how the program helped us make creative writing fun!

One of my favorite things about the WriteShop curriculum is that literally everything is explained for you. What to print, how to assemble it, and how to teach each section. It’s super simple to use.

The curriculum has a unique way to introduce the basic concept of writing a letter. Kids can color code each section of the letter to help them remember the basics: body, date, salutation, closing, and signature.

Then we made a fun parts of a letter robot, which Tigger assembled (in order) and then colored. After that, she understood where everything goes on a letter without having to write an endless amount of letters herself. 🙂

WriteShop also includes plenty of reading work to help kids concentrate on reading good literature. I always feel that grammar is learned by lots and lots of reading. Since Tigger loves books, she found the reading logs and took off running! (The book she read for this assignment was “Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One” by Judy Blume.)

I’ll tell you – there’s no better sound than hearing your child ask, “Can I go and read so I can complete my reading log, Mama?” That’s the sound of a bookworm developing!

Another part of WriteShop that both Tigger and I loved was the Grammar Folders. All of the templates (and assembly instructions) are provided for you. And they are a great way for kids to get involved in their own lessons and take responsibility for studying.

Whenever Tigger was confused about when to use which quotation mark, she could just consult the folder herself for a quick reminder. The folder templates even come with detachable bookmarks!

After a few weeks of introductory work, it was time to actually begin creative writing! Since the program opens with such a gentle introduction to the concept, though, Tigger was ready and not overwhelmed at all!

As we got further along into the program, the assignments became longer, which I thought was a great thing. During Unit 3, Tigger got to use several words from a noun bank to write a story based in the Amazon jungle. Here’s her story:

Maria and Julio live in Brazil. They decided to explore the Brazilian rainforest. They packed up and headed for the Amazon jungle first. They got a chance to swing on lots of vines. They packed hammocks for the nights they traveled. As they set them up, Maria pointed out a bat family flying across the night sky.

The next morning they headed for the Brazilian rainforest. Julio found a diamond. He put it in his backpack. Maria and Julio also discovered maggots on the ground. They rode a boat down a waterfall. They even picked up a tarantula! They also climbed up a tree and found a sloth!

Before they went to sleep that night, they sat up in their hammocks looking at the pictures they’d taken. They both agreed it was the best time they’d ever had!

The end.

Personally, I think it’s worthy of a Pulitzer. 🙂

We really enjoyed using WriteShop. The curriculum is a great way to motivate kids who are reluctant writers to jump in with both feet!

Are you on Instagram? Show off your creativity with a photo writing prompt. Use nature, toys, kids, whatever. Or, make a collage like a comic book. Follow WriteShop on Instagram and then share your image with the hashtag #writeshopwriting. Be sure to tag @WriteShop in your photo. Their team will be choosing from your photo writing prompts to share in their social media!

And now, it’s time to host the awesome giveaway!

Giveaway product provided by WriteShop. Winner will be selected and notified by email on April 4, 2015. Winner has 48 hours to respond or another winner will be selected. If the winner is a US resident, a physical product will be provided. If the winner lives internationally, only a digital product will be provided. Void where prohibited.
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Interested in learning more about how WriteShop can be used in your homeschool? Check out these awesome reviews!

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How to Improve Academic Writing with Grammarly

November 16, 2014 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

I’m nearing the end of my third semester in college and I’m an English major, so it goes without saying that I write A LOT of academic papers. A LOT. Fortunately, I actually enjoy writing papers, although I realize that I’m in the distinct minority on this. 🙂

When you’re in college, you don’t really get to spend a lot of time studying grammar. Naturally, professors assume that you already know the basics of English grammar long before you begin college courses. My problem is that I had been out of high school for over a decade when I enrolled, so I was rather rusty.

Recently, I got the chance to try the online grammar application Grammarly and it really makes it easier to write with proper grammar, whether you’re writing an academic paper, a business report, or even a personal letter. Here’s a quick look at how to improve academic writing with Grammarly.

Disclosure: I received free limited-time access to this program in exchange for this review. My opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review.

There are a lot of online proofreaders around, but one of the things that sets Grammarly apart (in my opinion) is that it offers a far more customizable set of options.

When you first log into the program, you have the option to explore the it by examining a demo document. Or you can get right to work on something of your own. Which brings me to one of my favorite features of Grammarly: You can either upload an existing document you’ve already written OR you can write something new directly in the program.

You can even download Grammarly as an add-in for Microsoft Word and use it right from within Word. Awesome.

While I love the flexibility of editing a completed document or writing it within the program, Grammarly really shines in the editing and revising arena. You can check for plagiarism, which is great to do before you submit a paper. (It’s amazing how many of the same words and phrases are used in academic writing, without any intent to plagiarize.)

But you can also ask the program to look at your document according to its specific type. For example, if you’re writing a college paper, you can choose “Academic” and then the type of paper (“Essay”, “Case Study”, “Dissertation”, etc.). Grammarly will then look at the document and offer revision and proofreading remarks based on that type of submission. You can also choose from several other types of documents, including “Business” (letter, report, proposal, etc.), “Technical” (end-user documentation, marketing), and “Creative” (novel, script, short story). Wowzers.

If you want to add a little “something” to your work, Grammarly can offer you suggestions through the Vocabulary Enhancement tool. Click the magic wand to get a list of more polished words or phrases that can make your work stand out.

Once the program finishes looking at your document, you’ll get a report containing a list of all of your errors. As you can see, Grammarly examines the document in several areas, including “contextual spelling”, “sentence structure”, and “style”. You don’t have to try to remember what a dangling modifier is! Grammarly will fix it for you. 😉

I really enjoyed using Grammarly and I’d highly recommend it if you plan to do any type of professional writing on a regular basis. If you’d like to try Grammarly, you can get a free seven-day trial to see if the service is right for you!

Language Arts for Homeschool with Family Fun Friday!

October 9, 2014 by Selena Robinson 6 Comments

We’ve been enjoying co-hosting Family Fun Friday! This week we’re featuring our favorite posts from last week’s linky and they’re all about language arts for homeschoolers!

We’ve mentioned a few homeschool language arts curriculum options before, but this week’s posts include fun activities, stories, and writing ideas to get kids excited about learning!

Be sure to read our co-hosts’ favorite picks from the past week and link up your own posts below!

Keep Reading…

5 Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum Resources

August 21, 2014 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Language arts is one of the most important aspects of a good homeschooling education. Since we’re eclectic homeschoolers, we tend to mix and match resources for most subjects, including language arts.

Today, I’m sharing five homeschool language arts curriculum resources to help you put together your own language arts program! Trust me, it’s easier than you think. 😉 I hope you find these suggestions helpful!

Resources for Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum

How to Choose “Just Right” Books: Helping Kids Grow as Readers – Becky Spence

I’m a huge enormous bookworm, but that doesn’t mean that my kids will automatically love reading. A big part of helping kids love to read is choosing books that are a good fit for their age and comprehension level. We don’t want to set them up for frustration by handing them books that are above their reading ability. Becky Spence shares excellent suggestions for choosing books that are “just right” for your kids in How to Choose “Just Right” Books: Helping Kids Grow as Readers.

Designing Your Language Arts Curriculum – Jimmie Lanley

What’s involved in a good language arts curriculum? Ideally, we should be including grammar, reading, literature, spelling, and penmanship. If you’re wondering how you can possibly include all of those subjects in your lesson plan, Jimmie Lanley explains how you can in Designing Your Language Arts Curriculum.

Understanding Copywork – Amy Maze

Copywork is a grammar concept from the Charlotte Mason style of education. It involves having children practice penmanship and grammar by copying excerpts from examples of excellent writing. If you’re wondering just why copywork is beneficial and how to include it in your homeschool, Amy Maze’s Understanding Copywork is a perfect primer on the subject!

Essay Tune Up – Jimmie Lanley

Writing an essay doesn’t have to be a difficult assignment for kids. In Essay Tune Up, Jimmie Lanley offers printable worksheets to help students break essays into sections: introduction, details, and conclusion. She also includes prewriting organizers, cheat sheets for better transitions, and a peer editing checklist!

Writing a Biography – Valerie McClintick

Since writing about a real person can involve lots of research and preparation, it’s important that students learn how to look up information, find good sources, compile their thoughts into an outline, and express them fluently. In Writing a Biography, Valerie McClintick takes elementary-aged students through the step-by-step process of writing a biography for the first time.

Do you have any great homeschool language arts curriculum resources to share? Tell us about them in the comments!

Review: Hands-On Language with Lego Writing Prompts!

July 8, 2014 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

Note: I received a free copy of this product in exchange for this review. See our Disclosure Policy for details.

Our kids, like just about all kids, love LEGO blocks. Love them. But I never had the idea to combine LEGO building with writing. Renee Brown from Great Peace Academy did, though, and she’s put together some adorable LEGO writing prompts printable packs for just $1 each! We got the chance to try them out with the kids and they had so much fun building and writing their own stories!

Keep Reading…

Learning about Poetry with Shel Silverstein

April 30, 2014 by Selena Robinson 1 Comment

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy for details.

Hi all! We’re co-hosting the Poetry Celebration and Contest over at Preschool Powol Packets today! All month long, the co-hosts have been sharing great tips for introducing poetry to kids and we’re wrapping up the series today with a look at the work of Shel Silverstein. We decided to examine poetry with the Shel Silverstein book A Light in the Attic.

As we read the book, we noticed that some of the poems followed a certain rhythm pattern and some did not. For example, in the poem “How Many, How Much?” every other line rhymed. In the poem “Fancy Dive”, though, every line rhymed. We spent a little time writing two-line poems as a family using the section on poetry in Brain Quest Workbook: Grade 3.

We ended up with these:

“There once was a flea

Who wanted to ski” (Pooh)

“There once was a crow

Who played with Play-Doh” (Roo)

We also discovered that poems can change patterns. The Shel Silverstein poem “Tired” changes patterns from every other line rhyming to every line rhyming. Tigger used one of the poetry planning pages from the School Zone Second Grade Big Workbook to design a poem of her own that changed patterns. Here’s her poem called “My Family”.

“Friends don’t know about my family

And they don’t know about me.

My family is so cool!

It is probably better than being in a pool.

Love and hugs and kisses galore!

You know, they’re so kind. They even help me when I fall on the floor!” (Tigger)

We also learned about how poetry can make use of onomatopoeia. On page 58 of A Light in the Attic, we read the poem “Eight Balloons” and noticed the use of the sound effect “POP!” as a sound effect and a rhyming word. We talked about how onomatopoeia allows us to use sounds as words, and then we made our own poem using onomatopoeia.

We jotted down the sound effects first and then put them into a poem called “The Wind”.

“With a roar,

The wind went WHISH!

The kites went WHOOSH!

And the leaves went SHISH!”

The kids spent most of the rest of the day inventing their own rhymes, so I’m counting this as a successful creative writing lesson. 🙂

During the Poetry Celebration and Contest, you and your kids can submit original works for a chance to win some great prizes! If you’d like to enter to win some of the great prizes in the Poetry Celebration and Contest, you can enter via the Rafflecopter widget below!

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The following companies are sponsoring the Poetry Celebration and Contest!

Discover With Dr. Cool:

Little BLAST:

Corey Rosen Schwarz:

Brave Writer:

Homeschool Encouragement:

Word Traveling:

Preschool Powol Packets:

Be sure to stop by and visit all of the co-hosts of the Poetry Celebration and Contest!

Preschool Powol Packets ~ Homeschool Encouragement ~ Brave Writer’s Life in Brief ~ Word Traveling ~ The Measured Mom ~ Wildflower Ramblings ~ Line Upon Line Learning ~ Teach Beside Me ~ Living to Learn ~ Vicky Arnold Blog ~ School Time Snippets ~ Creekside Learning ~ Are We There Yet ~ Look at What You Are Seeing ~ Look! We’re Learning! ~ Our Homeschool Studio

How I Teach Language Arts to My Kids with ADHD

January 13, 2014 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.

Good morning! Today we’re beginning a five-day series on teaching school to kids with ADHD. As you might know, we’re homeschooling at least one child with ADHD (and possibly more), so we try to accommodate their learning styles throughout our lessons.

In fact, one of the biggest reasons why we stick with homeschooling is that we don’t want to use ADHD medication (yet), so we really work to adapt our curriculum to make it more ADHD-friendly. That means short lessons, variety, and lots and lots of movement. Throughout this series, we’ll be mentioning those three factors again and again.

Regular Reading

A big part of our language arts curriculum is reading. We read to and with our kids every day. We’ve shared our homeschool reading list for this year previously. Our 9-year-old, who has been diagnosed with ADHD, began reading at age 3. Our boys, ages 5 and 4, are also reading, though they started a little later than her.

Honestly, we haven’t used many structured reading programs with our children, at least not to get them started reading. We do, however, use some reading programs to help them improve their skills.

Phonics Practice

One program we’ve used this year is Reading the Alphabet, which we reviewed a while back. It’s a great, affordable program that lets kids practice phonics while completing lots of sight word activities, which makes it perfect for ADHD learners! You can pick up the entire program for just $10 below!

Reading the Alphabet Early Reading Program

Visiting the Library

Another way that we try to make reading fun for the kids is by regular visits to the library. All of the kids love going inside, picking out their own books, and bringing them home. In fact, on occasion, we’ve gotten to attend live storytelling sessions, such as an African storytelling performance we got to experience a while back.

Hearing books read aloud with feeling and movement seems to help the kids get involved in the stories and “see” the events as real life, not just words on a page. When we engage more than one sense with our kids, they seem to stay interested for a longer period of time. (A big issue for most people with ADHD)

Physical Movement

As I mentioned earlier, movement is a big part of our homeschooling lessons. With Roo, we did a Sight Word Stomp activity last summer that involved reading, running, and writing with sidewalk chalk. It was a huge hit! But really, any time we can add a physical activity into a lesson, we find that the kids remember it better.

Unit Studies

Unit studies are a huge part of our homeschooling lessons. And a big reason why we love them so much is that they are perfect opportunities to add art, crafts, music, movies, and play into our curriculum. When we cover a chapter book on our reading list, we turn it into a unit study that involves a craft project, a movie (if possible), and some food. We did something like this with our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory unit from earlier this school year.

Games and TV

On a day when a structured language arts lesson just isn’t cutting it, we are not above resorting to games. We’ve used MadLibs to teach parts of speech and the kids were so excited to come up with outlandish verbs, adjectives, and nouns that they forgot we were having class!

Super Silly Mad Libs Junior

Kid Libs (Mad Libs)

We also love to use songs and television programs to reinforce language arts skills. Our three oldest kids have memorized several of the grammar songs from SchoolHouse Rock and we use them to remind them of their essential grammar concepts. One of their favorites is the “Verb Song”. (I have been known to sing along to this one myself.)

Schoolhouse Rock! (Special 30th Anniversary Edition)

And that’s a look at how we teach language arts to our kids with ADHD! With these and other resources, we manage to keep them interested and engaged in our lessons, which is a big help to their comprehension. Be sure to stop by tomorrow to see how we teach math to our ADHD learners!

This post is part of the 2014 Winter Hopscotch hosted by iHomeschool Network! Be sure to stop by and visit our fellow bloggers to learn how they teach language arts in their families!

ABC Letter Hunt for Preschoolers

January 14, 2013 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Today ended up being ABC day in our house. While I didn’t set out to work on letter recognition today, it just kind of…happened. But that’s homeschooling for you! 😉

Pooh and Roo, in particular, are at the age where they’re interested in learning the alphabet. And I’ve been wanting to teach them to “spot” letters, so it was a fine day for an ABC letter hunt!

Our ABC Letter Hunt

At the library last week, Roo picked out the book “The City ABC Book” by Zoran Milich and we read it last night before bed. It’s a really cute book, showing how you can find the ABCs in common city signs and buildings.

I don’t think I would have ever looked at a bicycle path marker and seen an uppercase “Q”.

Naturally, we had to spend today looking for letters in our house. Tigger spotted this uppercase “O” right away.

Pooh found a lowercase “r” – the nozzle on the lotion bottle. (That was a pretty good one, if I say so myself.)

Tigger noticed an uppercase “X” in our bookcase.

I found lots of uppercase “H”s in the crosshatches of our board game chest.

And Roo found an uppercase “C” in our nursing pillow.

Have you had an ABC letter hunt with your kids? What letters can you find around your home? Let us know in the comments!

Keep on learning!