Free Basic Grammar Practice and Lessons
It's important for kids to have basic grammar skills because poor grammar can make them difficult to understand and cause frustration throughout school. If your child loses points from his or her English papers, provide extra grammar review at home. Read on for some free grammar practice activities and lesson plans.
Where to Find Free Grammar Help for Children
If you want your son or daughter to improve upon grammar skills gained in the classroom, there are several options for extra practice that you can provide. In addition to the numerous free online guides and worksheets, you can create your own activities that will appeal to your child. Before getting started, find out from your child's teacher what's being taught in school and where your child struggles. This information will give you a good jumping off point for basic grammar practice plans.
Three Online Grammar Resources
Informational Guides
While informational guides are less focused on fun, these grammar tools can help your son or daughter get a firm grasp on the parts of speech, subject/verb agreement, punctuation, capitalization, abbreviation and more. Additionally, these guides can act as resources for your child as he or she completes homework assignments.
Although your child may only be in elementary or middle school, several colleges and universities offer comprehensive study aides for students of all levels. For example, the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) covers various grammar topics that can help your child improve in specified areas (http://owl.english.purdue.edu). The Capital Community College Foundation's Guide to Grammar and Writing focuses on word-, sentence-, paragraph- and essay-level grammar topics with a variety of quizzes and PowerPoints available for practice (http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu).
Interactive Quizzes
Frequent practice and repetition are helpful as your child learns more about language and grammar. One way to increase your son or daughter's interest in at-home practice is to use interactive online quizzes. Free resources like Houghton Mifflin's Education Place give your child the chance to select grammar challenges by grade and topic, including sentences, nouns and pronouns, capitalization and punctuation, verbs and adjectives (www.eduplace.com).
Mad Libs
Although Mad Libs and similar fill-in-the-blank word games are commonly found in puzzle books or on the back of food packages, they can also serve as an educational resource. Mad Libs provide a fun way for your son or daughter to review the parts of speech while creating a final product that he or she can enjoy reading.
There are a few different ways you can set up this activity. You can take a short story that your child has already read, type it up and eliminate certain parts of speech for him or her to fill in. Reading both the original version and the new version can be funny! If you'd rather use a story that's already created, several websites offer free printable worksheets (www.teach-nology.com).
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