Worksheets?

There's nothing wrong with occasional worksheets!  I prefer to use them to briefly review a concept the student already knows well.

Some good sources for grammar worksheets:

http://www.k12reader.com

Verbs 3 - State of Being and Linking

Many verbs do not convey action.  They are called state of being or linking verbs.  They link the subject to the predicate without any action.

State of Being Verbs
(these are all forms of the word "be")
am
is
are
was
were
be
being
been

Examples:

State of being verbs are considered linking when they appear in these forms:

State of Being + Noun*
The dog is a beagle.

State of Being + Pronoun
The dog is hers.

State of Being + Adjective
The dog is fast.

State of being verbs are NOT considered to be linking** when they appear in these forms:

State of Being + Adverb
The dog was here.

State of Being + Prepositional Phrase
The dog was in the yard.

*The nouns following a linking verb is NOT a direct object (DO).  It is called a predicate noun (PN).

**This point is in dispute even among grammarians.  Many texts choose to simplify and called them all linking verbs.

Besides the state of being verbs, there are other verbs that are linking.

Other Common Linking Verbs
appear
become
feel
get
grow
sit
look
prove
remain
seem
smell
sound
taste
turn

Examples:

The dog smells stinky.
The dog appears friendly.

Many of these linking verbs can also function as action verbs; be aware as you look for them!

The dog smells his bone.
The dog appeared at the door.

Teaching Ideas:

• Make a poster of State of Being Verbs
• [Game for identifying linking v action verbs]

Copywork Ideas (Older):

• Music is the universal language of mankind. (Longfellow)
• The end of government is the happiness of the people. (Macaulay)
• The true and good resemble gold. (Jacobi)

Subject/Object Switch

This game uses humor to show the difference between subjects and direct objects.

Choose two or more pictures from the links below; print them out. Allow children to color them if desired.  Create small cards for each word (see template below).   Have your child try to create the sentence that describes each picture; do the first one as an example.  Next, ask them to find the verb and the nouns.  Show them what happens when you switch the two nouns; explain the difference between subjects and direct objects.  (For an older child who enjoys drawing, ask them to draw the picture; then ask them to draw the picture when the nouns are switched).

Refer to the lessons on Subjects and Direct Objects for help with explaining these concepts.

• Subject
• Who? + verb 
• What? + verb
• Direct Object
• verb + What?
• verb + Whom?

The elephant plays the cello.
The bear rides the bicycle.
The bird drinks the nectar.
The rabbit picks a flower.
The cat plays the fiddle.
The crocodile holds the balloons.
The mermaid rides the dolphin.
The duck wears a hat.
The lion eyes the cheetahs.
The squirrel eats a nut.

Subject Object Switch (click here to download Word file)

Predicate 1 - Direct Objects

The predicate is the part of the sentence that contains the verb and phrases governed by the verb.  It can contain just the verb, or nouns, adjectives, and other phrases.  

Direct objects are nouns that follow action verbs.  They receive the action from the verb.  Direct objects answer these questions:

verb + Whom?
verb + What?

The cat drank some cream. Drank what? Cream.
Sally called her mother.  Called whom? Mother.
Daily Grammar Lesson 106

Predicate Examples:
Below are different forms the predicate can take.  In this lesson we are focusing only on the direct object.  The other concepts will be covered later.

Just the verb.

• The sun shone.

If the verb is an action verb, the noun in the predicate is a direct object.

• The sun burned my skin.
• Skin is the direct object.

If the verb is a linking verb, the noun in the predicate is a predicate noun (aka predicate nominative).

• The sun is a ball of fire.
• Ball is the predicate noun.

If the verb is a linking verb, the adjective in the predicate is a predicate adjective.

• The sun is hot.
• Hot is the predicate adjective.

If you really want to be confused, read the Wikipedia article on predicates.

Teaching Ideas:

• Play predicate games.
• Practice finding direct objects in copywork. 
• Remember: The subject does the verb.  The direct object has the verb done to it.

Copywork Ideas (younger):

Copywork Ideas (older):

• Time rolls his ceaseless course. (Scott)
• Love understands love: it needs no talk. (Havergal)

Adjectives 1 - Modify Nouns

The basic definition of an adjective is "a word that describes a noun or pronoun."  Adjectives answer one of these questions:

Which one?
What kind?
Whose?
How many?

Daily Grammar Lesson 31, 151-155

Examples:
Which hat?  The pink hat.
What kind of pie?  Blueberry pie.
Whose house?  Joe's house.
How many children?  Four children.

Teaching Ideas:

• Play adjective games ("Search By Topic" in sidebar) such as Grammar Farm or Adjective Collection.
• Make an Adjective Poster that says "Which One?  What Kind?  Whose?  How Many?"  This distinction will come in handy when you learn about adverbs.
• For this lesson, focus on words that children already know as "describing" words.  Hot, cold, blue, green, nice, mean, silly, etc.  
• Later lessons will cover adjectives that are:
• proper (Chinese noodles)
• articles (the, a, an)
• used for comparison (hottest summer)
• nouns (winter weather)
• possessive nouns (man's hat, Bob's tools)
• possessive pronouns (my book)
• demonstrative pronouns (this car)
• verbals (howling wolf)
• prepositional phrases (man in the moon)

Copywork Ideas (younger):

Copywork Ideas (older):

Verbs 2 - Simple Conjugation

Verbs take different forms in order to agree with their subjects.  These different forms are called conjugations.  The simplest conjugations add -s, -ing and -ed.   Other simple verbs have irregular forms that even young children should know.*
Daily Grammar Lesson 13

Example: Adding -s
The boys kick the ball.
Sally kicks it harder.

Example: Adding -ed
We like to wash the car.
We washed the car last weekend.

Example: Adding -ing**
The girls eat their tacos.
John is eating a burrito.

Example: Irregular Forms
eat, eats, ate, eaten, is eating
come, came, is coming
send, sent, is sending
see, saw, is seeing

 *Many conjugations involve changing the tense of the verb.  Don't go into that concept at this point.  Just teach your child to recognize verbs in all their different forms.

**Adding -ing technically changes the verb into a "verbal."  The particulars of this are addressed much later.  If you are curious, in the example "is eating" is a present participle.

Teaching Ideas:

• Children who read (or are read to) will pick up this concept naturally.  We have noticed that it comes up when we play Magnetic Poetry, and we have to look for that tiny "s" or "ing" piece to make the sentence sound right.

Copywork Ideas (younger):

• A big spider saw a little spider.  The little spider was spinning a web. (Treadwell)
• Toad went to the store.  He bought two big ice-cream cones. (Lobel)

Copywork Ideas (older):

Pronouns 1 - Personal

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun (or nouns).  A personal pronoun can be used in place of the subject of a sentence, or one of its objects.*
Daily Grammar Lesson 21

Example:
Bobby hit the ball.
He hit the ball. (He is a personal pronoun that is the subject.)
Bobby hit it. (It is a personal pronoun that is the object.)

Sarah smelled the rose.
It made her happy.
(It refers to the rose; her refers to Sarah.)

List of Personal Pronouns:
I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, you, they, them

*Pronouns are one of the more complex pieces of grammar.  Later concepts will cover other uses of pronouns, including possessive (my, mine, yours ...), indefinite (all, any, more ...), demonstrative (this, these ...), interrogative (who, which, ...), relative (that, which, ...), and reflexive/intensive (myself, yourself, ...).  In the beginning, just look for the personal pronouns which directly refer back to nouns.

Teaching Ideas:

• On Google Books you can find old (free) grammar books that have interesting ideas on how to teach a concept.  One I often refer to is "How to Tell the Parts of Speech" by Edwin Abbott.  Here is an exercise from this book for learning about pronouns.  You can use this idea when reading any favorite book with your child.

Copywork Ideas:
Try to find copywork that includes both a noun and a pronoun that refers to it.

• Frog hid behind a rock.  He saw the thing coming.  It was big and brown. (Lobel)

Magnetic Poetry

Use magnetic poetry to teach or reinforce concepts.

Nouns / Verbs
Sort the magnets into piles of nouns and verbs.  Next, try to pair nouns and verbs into combinations that make sense (or not!).

Nouns / Adjectives.  
Repeat Nouns/Verbs above, using adjectives instead of verbs.

Pronouns
Have the child write a small poem.  Use the method from Nouns/Verbs above if it helps get him started.  Rearrange and replace some of the words with pronouns (see images below).

Subject / Predicate
Create sentences with the magnets.  Here is one idea:

(This game coincides with the Subject 1 lesson, and combines ideas from all of the above.)

1. Pick out a few nouns and verbs; pair them up.
2. Arrange the pairs into a sequence.
3. Add in articles and adjectives.*
4. Add direct objects if desired.
5. Rearrange as needed to create a poem.
6. Copy the poem, remembering to capitalize the first letter and add a period at the end.

*I taught the Subject 1 lesson before Articles and Adjectives.  However, I still let my son add them in, with a brief explanation.  When we get to those lessons, they should be short because he will already have been exposed to them many times.

Pair up 3 nouns and 3 verbs

Add articles and conjunctions

Add adjectives. 

Have fun rearranging as desired, inserting
pronouns if it makes sense.
Copywork for this poem.

Pinterest...

I've had some traffic from Pinterest, so here's my attempt to post a pin-friendly image here!  I'm heavy on content, light on web design, so please feel free to offer helpful hints on this whole pinning thing.

Verbs 1 - Actions

Action verbs are words that describe what a person, animal, thing, or force of nature can do.
Daily Grammar Lesson 1

Examples:
kick
run
eat
blow

Teaching Ideas:

• Play verb games (Search By Topic" in sidebar) such as Verb Collection and Verb Charades.
• Start to notice verbs if doing other regular copywork.  It is important to look for copywork that has action verbs at this stage; try to avoid linking verbs until that concept is covered.

Copywork Ideas (younger):

• Make a list of verbs.
• Frog fell off the sled.  Toad rushed past trees and rocks. (Lobel)

Copywork Ideas (older):

• Great men stand like solitary towers in the city of God. (Longfellow)
• Wisdom adorns riches, and shadows poverty. (Socrates)
• Fancy and pride seek things at great expense. (Young)

We circled nouns in black pencil
and verbs in red pencil.

Capitalization 8 - Holidays & Events

Holidays and special events are capitalized.  
Daily Grammar Lesson 315

Example:
Christmas
Fourth of July
Bar Mitzvah

Teaching Ideas:

• Make a list of favorite holidays and why they are each special.
• Make a list of special events in the child's life.

Copywork Ideas:

• Build on discussion from above and write one sentence in the following manner:

I like the Fourth of July because fireworks are exciting.

Capitalization 7 - Seasons

Seasons are not capitalized; the exception to this rule is when the season is personified.  

Daily Grammar Lesson 306

Example: 

My favorite time to swim is summer.

The leaves were touched by Autumn's hand.

Copywork Ideas (younger):

• Frog and Toad

Copywork Ideas (older):

Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed The speculating rooks at their nests cawedAnd saw from elm tops, delicate as flower of grass,What we below could not see, Winter pass.(Edward Thomas)

Capitalization 6 -Days and Months

Names of days and months are always capitalized.  If the day or month is abbreviated, it is followed by a period.    
Daily Grammar Lesson 306

Example: Monday, Tue., April, Dec.

When writing a specific date, place a comma and a space after the day.
Daily Grammar Lesson 343

Example: July 1, 2001

Teaching Ideas:

• Spend as much time as needed on this lesson.  If the child has not already learned the days and months, take the time to learn them.
• Circle of Months (game for 2 or more people):  Write each month's name on a card.  Arrange cards in a circle, in order.  One person holds a ball, and calls out the name of a month.  The other person hops to that month, and catches the ball.  Repeat.

Copywork Ideas:

• Write the date on each day's work.

Capitalization 5 - "I"

Always capitalize the word, "I."  

Copywork Ideas:

• Make a list of "I like...."
• I like cookies.  I like cake.  I love birthday parties.

Subject 1 - Declarative Sentences

This lesson is the first "meaty" lesson that brings several concepts together.  Plan to take a little longer on it.

The subject of a sentence is a noun that is the focus of the sentence; it performs the verb. (The noun by itself is called the simple subject; the noun plus all the words around it is the complete subject.)

The subject answers these questions:

Who? + verb
What? + verb

I ate the cake. Who ate the cake? I.
The dog chased the cat. Who chased? The dog.

A declarative sentence is a statement. In English, the natural word order for a declarative sentence places the subject at the beginning of the sentence.

The first word in a sentence is always capitalized; the end punctuation for a declarative sentence is a period.

Daily Grammar Lessons 91-92

Daily Grammar Lesson 331

Example: Bob eats apples.
The subject is "Bob."

Teaching Ideas:

• Practice speaking like Yoda (from Star Wars); switch the predicate to the front of the sentence.  See if your child can still find the subject.
• Bob eats apples. = Apples Bob eats.
• You will see many things. = Many things you will see.
• Play a subject game ("Search By Topic" in sidebar) such as Magnetic Poetry.

Copywork Ideas (younger):

• Choose any simple copywork that is a declarative sentence.
• find the nouns
• which one is the subject?
• capitalize the first word
• punctuate with a period
• The egg jumped. (Eastman, Are You My Mother?)
• nouns - egg
• subject - egg
• capitalize "The"
• punctuate with a period
• Spot is my cat.  (The Elson Readers - Primer*)
• nouns - Spot, cat
• subject - Spot
• capitalize "Spot"**
• punctuate with a period
• Yoda - My cat Spot is.

Copywork Ideas (older):

• Character makes its own destiny.  (Mrs. Campbell Praed)
• Fortune and love befriend the bold. (Ovid)
• Solitude vivifies; isolation kills.  (Joseph Roux)

*Free on Google books.
**We often talk about "double capitals" - a word that is capitalized both because it is a proper nouns, and because it is at the beginning of a sentence.

The copywork below was a poem my son wrote using Magnetic Poetry.  After he copied his poem, we verbally talked through it.

• "Can you circle all the nouns?" (black marker). (At this point we are not distinguishing between nouns and pronouns.)
• "Can you circle all the verbs?" (red marker). (At this point we are not including helping verbs).
• "Do you know which word is the subject in the first sentence?  It is a noun."
• "Can you find the subject in the second sentence?  Remember it is the noun that DOES the verb."
• "Let's check to make sure you capitalized the first word in each sentence."
• "What is the name of the punctuation mark at the end?"

Capitalization 4 - Common Nouns as Names

Capitalize common nouns if they are used as names. Do not capitalize them if they are preceded by a possessive pronoun such as my, our, his, her, etc.
Daily Grammar Lesson 303

Examples: Mother, Father, Son, Daughter, Grandmother, Grandfather

I love to play games with Grandmother.
My grandmother is a fun lady.

Examples: Nature, Love, Truth ... when they are personified

"We by art unteach what Nature taught" (Dryden)

Teaching Ideas:

• Look for examples in books; childrens' books tend to have a lot of these names.  The Dr. Seuss books and Little Bear books are a good place to start.

Copywork Ideas (younger):

• But there was Grandfather, fast asleep! (Lobel)

Copywork Ideas (older):

No tears
Dim the sweet look that Nature wears
(Longfellow)

"Frog" and "Toad" are examples
of common nouns used as names.

Capitalization 3 - Name Prefixes/Titles

A title is added to a person's name to show respect. Sometimes the title is written out, but usually it is abbreviated. Titles are always capitalized; they are followed by a period when abbreviated.  The exception to this rule is military titles; they are written in all caps, with no punctuation.
Daily Grammar Lesson 316
Daily Grammar Lesson 337

Examples:
Mrs. Sue Taylor (married woman)
Mr. Bob Bush (married or unmarried man)
Miss Sarah Smith (unmarried woman)
Ms. Sally Pope (married or unmarried woman)
Dr. Henry Jones (doctor)
LT Jean Long (lieutenant)
CDR Steven Short (commander)
Aunt Bess
Uncle Bob
Grandmother Mildred (some families use formal titles such as this for the oldest members)

Teaching Ideas:

• Point out to the child that "Miss" is not abbreviated.  "Ms." can be used when you do not know the marital status of a lady.
• This lesson can be combined with name suffixes (Capitalization 2).

Copywork Ideas:

• Make a list of family, friends, and professionals known by the family.

Capitalization 2 - Name Suffixes

Suffixes that follow names are set off by a comma and a space. They are always capitalized.  If the suffix is initials, it follows the rules for initials. If the suffix is abbreviated, it is followed by a period.
Daily Grammar Lesson 317
Daily Grammar Lesson 341

Junior/Senior -- Charles Smith, Jr., is my grandfather.
Academic Degrees -- Mary Kaplan, M. D., is our family doctor.

Teaching Ideas:

• Notice name suffixes in in advertisements, on billboards, etc.
• This lesson can be combined with name prefixes (Titles) in Capitalization 3.

Copywork Ideas:

• Practice copying names on business cards.
• Make a list of family, friends, doctors, and dentists used by the family.

Capitalization 1 - Initials

Initials are the first letters in a name. They are always capitalized, followed by a period and a space.
Daily Grammar Lesson 336

Alexander Graham Bell -- A. G. B.

Teaching Ideas:

• Notice initials in business names, such as accountants and attorneys.
• Look for monogrammed items in the home.  (Point out that there is no period used on monograms).

Copywork Ideas:

• Write initials for family members.

Nouns 5 - Harder Plurals

Simple plurals of nouns are made by adding s or es. More difficult plurals have a variety of rules. 
Daily Grammar Lessons 16-17

ends in y 

• (preceded by consonant): change y to i; add es
• baby -- babies
• (preceded by vowel): add s
• toy -- toys

ends in f or fe

• change f to v and add s or es
• leaf -- leaves
• knife -- knives
• exceptions to the rule
• roofs, etc

ends in o

• (preceded by consonant): add es
• potato -- potatoes
• (preceded by vowel): add s
• radio -- radios
• exceptions to the rule
• musical terms (piano -- pianos)

irregular plurals

• plural same as singular
• deer, fish, sheep
• plural a different word
• mouse -- mice
• foot -- feet

Teaching Ideas:

• Point these different plurals out as they appear in copywork.
• Create a reference chart to display or put in binder.
• Play noun games ("Search By Topic" in sidebar) with plural nouns.

Copywork Ideas (younger):

• It was October.  The leaves had fallen off the trees. (Lobel)

Copywork Ideas (older):

• The Grecian ladies counted their age from their marriage, not their birth. (Homer)