7/26/2019 Parts of Speech - Building Blocks of Beautiful
Sentences
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Parts of SpeechBuilding Blocks of Beautiful Sentences
By Amy Nicholson
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he
will not depart from it (Proverbs
22:6!
"e learn grammar as we learn to spea#, so why teach it$ To learn
the rules! That so%calledsentenceillustrates the point! To learn
the rules is not a complete sentence! &t lac#s both asub'ect
and a verb! ou may understand my thought by reading it as an answer
to the )uestion
that preceded it, but on it*s own it does not e+press a complete
thought! sentence, by definition,utili-es a sub'ect and a predicate
to e+press a complete thought! & bro#e a rule of grammar!
&t is important to familiari-e our students with grammar
rules, so that they can learn tocommunicate their thoughts to
others effectively! "e begin with the basics!
The basic parts of a sentence are sub'ects, which tell who or
what the sentence is about, and
predicates, which tell what the sub'ect did or is doing! The
central elements of sub'ects andpredicates are nouns (people,
places, and things and verbs (action words! .ouns and verbs are
two of the eight parts of speech! The other si+ are pronouns,
ad'ectives, adverbs, prepositions,con'unctions, and
inter'ections!/&f we are re)uired to teach something our
students already
inherently #now, let*s ma#e it en'oyable for both parties!
0usic can be an effective teaching tool! & learned the parts
of speech that way! s a child, & wouldsing 1on'unction unction,
what*s your function$ along with 3chool4ouse 5oc#
(www!schoolhouseroc#!tv on 3aturday mornings! nfortunately, it*s
not aired anymore, but the787s can still be purchased! "hen &
teach my children the parts of speech, & often refer to
these
videos! The catchy tunes are among the more useful things
ingrained in my psyche, and &*mhoping my children will also
learn the songs and refer to them!
"e can reinforce grammar lessons with wor#boo#s and wor#sheets
in which students are given
sentences and as#ed to underline the verbs and circle the nouns!
"hen circling nouns in the
sub'ect in red and underlining verbs in the predicate in blue
for ten e+amples in a row, studentscan clearly see the pattern! The
sub'ect is usually at the beginning of the sentence and the
verbdirectly after it! "e can cover up the rest of the words in the
sentence and show that this simple
noun%verb combination comprises a sentence in its most basic
form! "hen the other words are
stripped away, we see the author*s point more clearly, and we
also see how he adds details toillustrate his point! 3tudents will
naturally imitate this in their own writing!
9nce students learn the definitions of the parts of speech, they
reali-e they can give a myriad ofe+amples! rainstorm ideas
together, writing them on the board as ideas are spo#en! 4ave
fun
with it! 0ove around when you study verbs! 0y daughter danced
around the room as she threwwords at me! & volleyed words bac#
to her to further describe her motions! "hen you are studying
ad'ectives and adverbs, change the tone of your voice, or act
things out to illustrate how thesedescriptive words color our
speech!
7iagramming sentences is another way to teach and learn the
parts of speech and how they wor#
in a sentence! (& am one of the few people & #now who
actually en'oys this! 7iagrammingsentences is particularly useful
for students who learn best through physical manipulation! &t
helps
them see structural relationships they might otherwise
miss!23ome people might be intimidatedby such an e+ercise, but it*s
really )uite simple!
3tart with the foundation! 1ompose a sentence on the board! 7raw
a hori-ontal line and a small
vertical line down the center! ;ind the verb in the sentence and
write that to the right of thatvertical line! 7etermine who or what
the sentence is about! That is the sub'ect of the sentence!
http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/
![pp.ipd.kit.edu · Elementary blocks A statement consists of a set of elementary blocks blocks : Stmt → P(Blocks) blocks([x := a]!)={[x := a]!} blocks([skip]!)={[skip]!} blocks(S1;S2](https://img.pdfslide.us/doc/110x75/5e812e885fca162f91121c3f/ppipdkitedu-elementary-blocks-a-statement-consists-of-a-set-of-elementary-blocks.jpg)
