Grammar activities gr 6-8

Grammar Activities That Really Grab 'Em © Sarah Glasscock, Scholastic Teaching Resources

That Really

Grades 6–8
SARAH GLASSCOCK

SARAH GLASSCOCK

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Scholastic Inc. grants teachers permission to photocopy the reproducible pages from this book for classroom use. No other part of this
publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission,
write to Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

Editor: Sarah Longhi
Copy editor: Jeannie Hutchins
Cover design: Maria Lilja
Interior design: Melinda Belter
Illustrations: Mike Moran

ISBN-13: 978-0-545-11264-2
ISBN-10: 0-545-11264-8

Copyright © 2010 by Sarah Glasscock.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic.

Printed in the U.S.A.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 40 16 15 14 13 12 11 10

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

All About Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 5

All About Pronouns and Antecedents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

All About Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

All About Adjectives and Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

All About Prepositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

All About Subject-Predicate Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

All About Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

All About Phrases and Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

All About Specificity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

All About Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Introduction
It may be hard to convince students that grammar is a living, breathing thing that reflects
not only the history of our language but also how language and its rules change in our
contemporary lives. For example, today we try to use language more precisely to reflect the
changes in our society by replacing policeman or fireman with police officer or firefighter. (We’re
still grappling with the wordiness of pairing everyone with the possessive pronouns his and her.)
Grammar is simply a set of rules that help us write and speak clearly so people can understand
what we mean. The aim of this book is to present an overview of major topics that will give
your students tools become better writers and speakers.

How to Use This Book
The book contains a mini-lesson for each of the following ten major grammar topics:

• Nouns • Subject-Predicate Agreement
• Pronouns and Antecedents • Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives
• Verbs • Phrases and Clauses
• Adjectives and Adverbs • Specificity
• Prepositions • Sentences
Each mini-lesson contains the following elements to support your teaching:
4 A teaching page focuses on introducing and defining the topic, teaching it in conjunction
with a model passage, and applying it. A quote related to the topic begins each lesson. In
some lessons, the quote is used as a springboard for introducing, discussing, or applying the
grammar topic.
4 A short model passage shows important aspects of the grammar topic in action.
Important points about the grammar topic are identified in the passage and briefly
discussed. You may want to display the passage onscreen to introduce or review the featured
grammar points. Students can also keep this page in their notebooks or writing portfolios to
guide them in their own writing.
4 Two writing prompts encourage students to write and share their work. You can
photocopy the prompts on card stock and then cut them apart for students, write the
prompts on the board, or display them onscreen. With the Rest of the Class tips help students
extend their thinking by sharing their work with their peers.
4 Three activities for the whole class, small group, pairs, or individuals give students hands-
on practice with the grammar topic. These activities require minimal preparation and appeal
to a variety of learning styles; for example, students may play games, chant, or write ads and
plays. Use the discussion tip, With the Class, to invite students to discuss the topic further.
4 A reproducible activity sheet goes with the activity featured in the Apply section of
each teaching page.
You’ll find that there is some overlapping of topics. It’s impossible to talk about subjects and
predicates without talking about nouns, pronouns, and verbs, and it’s impossible to talk about
sentences without talking about all the other grammar topics in the book.
Immerse your students in an overview of each grammar topic or dive more deeply into one
aspect of it. I hope this book encourages your students to see the powerful effect that grammar
has on our words and the effect we all have on our language.
—
4

All About Nouns

] All nouns are abbreviations. Instead of saying cold, sharp, burning,
unbreakable, shining, pointy, we utter “dagger”; for the receding sun
and oncoming darkness, we say “twilight.”
—Jorge Luis Borges

Nouns ground a sentence. Without nouns, there is nobody or nothing
to spark the action. This mini-lesson focuses on the following aspects
of nouns:
• nouns and noun phrases

• subject-verb agreement
• possessive nouns
• descriptive nouns

Introduction
Begin a mini-lesson on nouns by writing a short definition of this part of
Just exactly
what is junk
should you —trash,
do with it— garbage,
litter, deb
Texas, has recycle it, ris, useless
toss it, sell things, rub
created a
Cathedral it, or turn 1 bish—and
of Junk in it into a wor what
been wiri

speech on the board. Here’s an example: “A noun names a person, place, ng and wel his backya k of art?
ding and rd. Since A man in
stringing
2
1988, Vin Austin,
growing!— and stacking ce Hannem
structure. ann, has
Like man junk into
has towers, y other cath an immens
vaulted ceil edrals, this e, 60-ton
ings, and one —and still

animal, thing, or idea: After experiencing freedom from gravity when
these arch trusses. Inst
itectural ead of ston
details are e,
bicycle whe made out
els, dolls, of discard
and other ed
anymore. things nob
A wind chim ody wan
e made of ts

he somersaulted over the moon, James landed in his front yard again,
music in CDs provide
the cathedr 3 s
al. The loca
for Vince l artists’ nick
Hannem name
ann is “ya 4
Some of rdist.”

Grammar
Hannem 5
ann’s neig

which surprised his Dalmatian.”
Austin aren hbors and
’t so hap the City
6 py about of

Activities
6
They thin the Cathed
k it’s ugly ral of Jun
and unsafe. k.
city has insp But over

That Really
ected the the years,
structure the
down a pyr and declare
amid mad d that it’s
Grab ‘Em!,
e of cast sturdy. On
only a pile -off TVs. ce, Vince
. “Well, wha The city’s did have
engineer to take

Teach
8 t kind of declared
The Cathed pile expert 7 that the
Grades 6–8

ral of Jun are you?” pyramid
k is a pop Vince ask was really
and musicia ular spot ed.
ns have thro to visit in
wn CD rele Austin. Cou
© 2010 by

kids wan ase parties ples have
der through inside it, been mar
the Cathed too. Som ried there,
recogniz ral of Jun etimes, gro
e things k on ﬁeld ups of sch
Sarah Glass

they use trips. Vin ool
trash wou d to own ce says tha
ld end up. but threw t some visit
away. The ors even
y probab

Distribute copies of the model passage “The Cathedral of Junk” on
ly never
cock, Schol

imagined
where the
ir
astic Teach

page 7 to students. Allow time for them to read it on their own, or
ing Resou
rces

ask them to follow along as you read it aloud. Then use the teaching
guide on page 6 to discuss general notes on nouns and how the
writer used them in the passage. Name ___
______ _________
_________
_________
_________
_________

(Also see the lessons on pronouns and antecedents on pages 11 16,–
_______
Date ___
______ ________

subject-verb agreement on pages 35–40, gerunds, participles, and
infinitives on page 41–46, and phrases and clauses, pages 47–52.)
Read the
above quo
te. Then
write a nou

Apply
words and
phrases tha n in the cen
t your nou ter of the
n stands web. Com
as an abb plete the
reviation web with
for.

On the board or a chart, make a list of nouns such as cactus, freedom,
rces
ing Resou
astic Teach

computer, adult, and pencil. Then hand out the Abbreviate!
ock, Schol
Sarah Glassc

reproducible on page 10 and go over the directions. Encourage
© 2010 by
Grades 6–8

students to let their minds roam widely as they think about the
Grab ‘Em!,
That Really

noun they have chosen. You may want to begin by assigning the
Activities
Grammar

same noun to students. Encourage pairs of students to share their
abbreviations with each other and try to identify the original noun or
noun phrase. Record students’ responses to get a comprehensive definition of the noun.

5

Nouns and Noun Phrases
A noun phrase is a group of words that begins with a noun or a pronoun and functions
as a noun.
KEY POINTS TEACHING WITH THE MODEL PASSAGE
• emind students that nouns name people,
R 1 The noun junk names a thing. The nouns
animals, places, things, and ideas. between the dashes are synonyms for junk.
• noun phrase contains a noun and the words
A 2 In the noun phrase work of art, the prepositional
that modify the noun. phrase of art modifies the noun work. It tells what
• he closest noun to the verb may not be the
T kind of work it is.
subject but a part of a noun phrase.

Subject-Verb Agreement
Subjects and verbs must always agree.

• complete sentence needs a subject and a
A 3 The subject in the noun phrase A wind chime
verb. The subject and verb may be singular made of CDs, is chime. The verb must agree with
or plural, but they must always agree with the singular noun chime, not the plural noun CDs.
each other. 6 This compound subject, neighbors and the City of
• subject may be a single noun or a
A Austin takes the plural verb, aren’t.
noun phrase.

Possessive Nouns
Possessive nouns indicate who or what possesses or owns something.

• An apostrophe indicates possession. 4 Because the original noun artists is plural,
• n the case of a regular singular noun, an –s is
I you form the plural possessive by adding an
added after the apostrophe: gravity’s. apostrophe.

• n the case of a regular plural noun, the
I 7 The singular possessive of city is city’s.
apostrophe is added after the final –s: horses’.
• here are different schools of thought on how
T
to form the possessive of a noun ending in –s:
Borges’ or Borges’s. The most important thing is
to be consistent. Choose one of the styles and
stick to it.

Descriptive Nouns
One descriptive noun can help you understand and visualize a writer’s message.
One descriptive noun can be worth a thousand words.
• s the Borges quotation at the top of page 5
A 5 The nouns yard and artist have been combined
indicates, one descriptive noun can take the to form a new noun that exactly describes what
place of a string of words—including adjectives Hannemann is—a yardist.
and noun phrases—and be more effective. 8 In Hannemann’s view, he had carefully stacked
the TVs in a pyramid. In the city engineer’s eyes,
there was nothing carefully done—or shapely—
about the stack. In the inspector’s view, it was
a pile.

6

MODEL PASSAGE

Nouns

The Cathedral of Junk
Just exactly what is junk—trash, garbage, litter, debris, useless things, rubbish—and what
1
should you do with it—recycle it, toss it, sell it, or turn it into a work of art? A man in Austin,
2
Texas, has created a Cathedral of Junk in his backyard. Since 1988, Vince Hannemann, has
been wiring and welding and stringing and stacking junk into an immense, 60-ton—and still
growing!—structure. Like many other cathedrals, this one

has towers, vaulted ceilings, and trusses. Instead of stone,
these architectural details are made out of discarded
bicycle wheels, dolls, and other things nobody wants
anymore. A wind chime made of CDs provides
3
music in the cathedral. The local artists’ nickname
4
for Vince Hannemann is “yardist.”
5
Some of Hannemann’s neighbors and the City of
6
Austin aren’t so happy about the Cathedral of Junk.
6
They think it’s ugly and unsafe. But over the years, the
city has inspected the structure and declared that it’s sturdy. Once, Vince did have to take
down a pyramid made of cast-off TVs. The city’s engineer declared that the pyramid was really
7
only a pile. “Well, what kind of pile expert are you?” Vince asked.
8
The Cathedral of Junk is a popular spot to visit in Austin. Couples have been married there,
and musicians have thrown CD release parties inside it, too. Sometimes, groups of school
kids wander through the Cathedral of Junk on field trips. Vince says that some visitors even
recognize things they used to own but threw away. They probably never imagined where their
trash would end up.

In this passage, you’ll see examples of the following:
• nouns and noun phrases • subject-verb agreement
• possessive nouns • descriptive nouns

7

WRITING PROMPTS

Nouns
Teachers: Duplicate these prompts on sturdy paper and then cut them apart. You may also write the prompts on the board or display them onscreen.
$ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----------------------------------------------- - - - - - - -

Name _______________________________________________________________ Date _______________

Who’s Responsible?
Write! Who should be responsible for keeping your classroom neat— Wr ite yo ur
not clean or organized, but neat? Should it be the responsibility of the ful l resp on se
on a sepa ra te
teacher, the students, or the entire classroom? Explain your reasons.
sh eet of pa per.

Be sure to use possessive nouns in your response. Before you hand in
your assignment, take another look at the possessive nouns you used. Did you use the correct form
for each singular and possessive noun? If you’re not sure whether you used the correct possessive
form, circle the noun. Try rephrasing the possessive noun like this: the city’s engineer/the engineer
of the city, Hannemann’s neighbors/the neighbors of Hannemann, the local artists’ nickname/
nickname of the local artists. If you can rephrase it, the noun should be possessive.

With the Rest of the Class: After sharing your ideas about who should be responsible for
keeping your classroom neat, talk about any possessive pronouns you used.

$ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----------------------------------------------- - - - - - - -
Name _______________________________________________________________ Date _______________

Alone and With Others
Write! What are your favorite things to do when you’re by yourself? Wr ite yo ur
What do you like to do when you’re with family or friends? Describe ful l resp on se
on a sepa ra te
each set of activities in a few sentences. sh eet of pa per.
Exchange work with a partner. As you read the work, think about
how the writer used nouns. Do all the subjects and verbs agree? Are the nouns as precise as
they could be?

With the Rest of the Class: If you’d like to, share your work with the rest of the class.
Even if you don’t read your work aloud, talk about how your partner helped you strengthen your
use of nouns.

8

Activities: Nouns
Turning a Picture Into Words
Materials: computer with Internet access
Help students locate images of the Cathedral of Junk that was described in
the passage. You can find videos on YouTube and/or visit the Web site www.
roadsideamerica.com for photos (search for “Cathedral of Junk”). After students closely ex mine
a
the details in the images, challenge them to write their own descriptions of the Cathedral of Junk.
Tell them to stretch their descriptive powers by using nouns as precisely as they can. Encou
rage
students to use nouns the way Hannemann uses junk to create something unexpected and beautiful.
With the Class: Discuss the descriptions. Ask: What did you notice about how other writers used
descriptive nouns in their work?

One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six
Materials: number cube
Have pairs work together to write a short, short story about one
of the following:
• a spaceship landing in your school yard
• a lifeboat floating in the sea
• the world’s longest skateboard (hint: It’s 30 feet, 1 inch long!)
They should begin by rolling a number cube to find out how many characters will be in the
spaceship or lifeboat or on the skateboard.
With the Class: Let students take turns reading aloud their stories, or have one partner read it
while the other pantomimes the action. Ask the other students if all the subjects and verbs in
the story agree.

Let Me Rephrase That
Materials: examples of fine art (from posters, CD covers, postcards, and so on) that show one key
subject; drawings supplies—colored pencils, markers, paints, drawing paper
Write the following sentences on the board and explain that noun phrases can take
different forms:
• Six sneakers dangled from the limbs of the tree.
• I spotted her red sneakers.
• The sneakers that girl is wearing are too tight.
• The sneakers sold in that store are too expensive.
• Selena wants the red sneakers in the store window.
Then display the art you selected and have groups choose one piece. Tell them to use noun
phrases to describe the person, place, thing, or idea their piece of art shows. Then challenge
groups to think of their own noun phrase to illustrate.
With the Class: Display the illustrations. Can the other students guess the noun phrase each
group has drawn? Write down their guesses, and ask the group to discuss how similar to and
different from the original noun phrase the guesses are.
9

ACTIVITY

Name _____________________________________________________________ Date _________________

Nouns

Abbreviate!
All nouns are abbreviations. Instead of saying cold, sharp, burning,
unbreakable, shining, pointy, we utter “dagger”; for the receding sun and

oncoming darkness, we say “‘twilight.”
__ Jorge Luis Borges

Read the above quote. Then write a noun in the center of the web. Complete the web with
words and phrases that your noun stands as an abbreviation for.

10

Grammar activities gr 6-8

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