The smelly girl, Cameron, jumped into the lake.
Suzy sneezed under the snake.
Odd sentences? Absolutely. Grammatically correct? Yes! This is the fun of "You've Been Sentenced," a great game for vocabulary building and sentence writing.
A group of fourth graders came to visit me recently to work on their grammar and writing skills. I pulled this game off the shelf, handed them some whiteboards, and the giggling commenced.
The basic premise of the game is to draw cards and make sentences using as many of the cards as you can -- which leads to great use of clauses and adjectives. By mixing in the whiteboards, I forced the students to practice their punctuating skills -- something they were more than willing to do to prove how "correct" their sentences were.
They were quick to point out when clauses were under- or over-punctuated, or when basic sentence components (like verbs!) were missing. The players quickly corrected these problems -- I only saw sentence fragments twice, as the kids made sure to include verbs from then on, so they could earn points!
I also really love the silly thinking involved in the game -- for example, Suzy's snake allergy problem. Players can challenge each other as to the validity of their sentences -- both content-wise as well as grammatically. In this case, the writer of Suzy's sentence had to come up with a scenario in which Suzy would find herself sneezing under a snake. She said the snake was in a cage in a classroom, and the cage was on top of the table. Suzy was under the table, and started sneezing.
Fun, divergent thinking, while still practicing and improving basic grammar skills.
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