Prepositional Phrases

My mom says I don't listen well. I think it's that she uses far too many prepositional phrases. Take her recent instructions to me about where to find something in her sewing room. "Look in the closet, behind the paints, between the boxes of boy and girl fabric. And if you don't see it there, try under the cutting table, beside the pattern paper." By the time I made it to the sewing room, I couldn't remember if I was looking on the table, behind the closet or in the secret hidden door to Narnia. See, prepositional phrases give information about direction, location or condition. They begin with a preposition, and they end with a noun or pronoun. If my mom didn't use so many of them, maybe I'd be less confused; also, if she didn't have so much stuff in her sewing room, maybe a lady could find what she's looking for without having to memorize twelve different steps. Anyway, if your mom is like mine, recognizing prepositional phrases should be easy; however, if your mom is regular, this may be new to you. Here are some practices to help along the way.

Prepostional phrases ID practice
Grammar Rocks Prepositions Video
Refernce Sheet about Prep Phrases
Preposition Practice

Subjects and Verbs

This one's an easy one, folks, and if it isn't an easy one, go find your third grade teacher and tell her (or him, but really, statistically speaking, it's probably a her) that they failed to teach you a very basic and necessary skill. It's simple: every sentence needs a subject (who or what the sentence is about) and a predicate or verb (what the subject does or is.) If your sentence does not have these two elements, it is, in fact, not a sentence. Poor little guy, he thought he was a sentence, but you failed him by not checking to make sure he has everything he needs. Do you want to be sending unsentences out into the world, unprepared and unable to meet the needs of the paragraphs and essays they are part of? All the real sentences will make fun of your unsentence, and your unsentence will have esteem issues...honestly it will be a big mess. A mess that could have all been avoided had you simply made sure that you did what your third grade teacher taught you to and checked that you had a subject and a verb. If your third grade teacher wasn't as great as Mrs. Smith, who was my third grade teacher, there are some sites below to help you practice.

A grammar rocks video about subjects and predicates
Subject and predicate practice game
A very complete PPT tutorial on subject/verb

Possessives

Yesterday my kids were fighting. (Does it seem like lots of my stories start that way?) Anyway, Rex was upset because Sam has taken his sword. Swords are very precious in our home; we're raising ninjas. Anyway, the sword was Rex's, not Sam's, so I was forced to intervene. Plus, Rex was really starting to freak out. He has his angry eyes on. I returned the sword to its rightful owner and found Sam's (lesser) sword. Crisis averted, back to grading papers. Then, I decided to wax philosophical, which means I started thinking. What if there were no possessives in our language? Would there be no fighting in my home? Then, Sam hit Rex with his sword, and I realized maybe there would be less fighting if I didn't equip my sons with weapons. I guess the point is we DO have possessives in our language, and you need to learn to use them correctly. I LOVE correctly used apostrophes and soon, you will too. Here is some practice so that you aren't one of those people that uses apostrophes for plurals--seriously WHAT IS WITH THOSE PEOPLE??? Enjoy, I have some ninjas to train.

A quick tutorial and practice
A collection of games/practice. I shot aliens while reviewing possessives
A little quiz for some traditional practice

Contractions

Let me just say up front, that if you type "contractions" into Google, you do not immediately get a lot about grammar. I got a good refresher of what labor will be like should I find myself with child again. Anyway! I like contractions, but NOT IN FORMAL WRITING! Please avoid them in essays. In less formal writing, bring 'em on-correctly of course. Use the resources below to make sure you're doing them right. Remember, the apostrophe takes the place of the missing letters. It's like the apostrophe is the friend of the missing letters, and the missing letters have to run to the bathroom, but the missing letters don't want to lose their place in line just because they drank too much Wild Cherry Pepsi, (What? you didn't know letters like WCP, well they do--big time!)so the apostrophe just holds the place of the letters, and when the letters get back from the restroom, they can jump right back in where they left off. Aren't apostrophes super nice? Hey, how 'bout this: the first five people to say to me, "apostrophes make really great friends," will get a prize. Sound good? Now onto the practice.

English Study Quiz
List o' Contractions
Grammar Girl: Contractions
Contractions Quiz

Adjectives and Adverbs

Isn't today just a glorious, fantastic, pleasurable day? Aren't you happy that you can work hard, breathe deeply and completely be successful? Aren't adjectives and adverbs simply the best, better than all the rest? See, without adjectives and adverbs, you would not be able to describe how truly dreamy Ryan Gosling is, or how absolutely devastated you were when you tripped in front of everyone at first lunch and split your favorite blue pants open. Adjectives and adverbs make our language interesting. Without adjectives and adverbs life would be lackluster. Adjectives and adverbs rock my world. Here are some resources to make you understand them better and grow to love them. Hate comes from ignorance, so you will no longer hate adjectives and adverbs because you are now free from your formerly ignorant selves.





In case you missed 'em last week: Grammar Rocks Adverbs and Adjectives
Rags to Riches Game
Adjective/Adverb
Grammar Mishaps:Good vs. Well
English Page

The Eight Parts of Speech

I learned the parts of speech at some point in my k-8 career, as did you. But, I forgot them, as have some of you. This week is a review, but you may want to spend some time watching the videos and reading the info linked here. The parts of speech are the foundation for understanding how to construct more complex and interesting sentences. It can be tricky, so spend some time reviewing and remembering. The info below may seem a bit elementary, but remember, this is an elementary skill. Plus, it's videos and pandas; should you really be complaining?

Grammar Rock
Parts of Speech Game
Panda Mayhem
Parts of Speech

Commonly Misused Words Take 2

Week two's homework is shockingly similar to week one's. There are lots of words to learn. Learn them. Here are some resources to help you. And here's a clip from The Princess Bride to keep things interesting. Oh, and by the by, the first five people to say to me, "I do not think that word means what you think it means," get a prize. :)

The Inigo Montoya Guide to Misused Words
Some Commonly Misused Words
8 Commonly Misused Words