Go Fishing for Grammar!

What You Need:

• Scratch paper
• Colored pencils
• 50 index cards
• 2 pencils

What You Do:

Prepare the cards:

1. Hand your child a pencil and a piece of scratch paper. Have him draw a line down the center, and across the center so the paper is divided into four rectangular sections.
2. At the top of one section write "Nouns". On another write "Verbs," and another "Adjectives," and finally "Adverbs."
3. Go over each grammatical term with your child. Remind him that a noun is a person, place or thing (dog, bone, sun) and an adjective is a describing word (wet, sunny, silly), a verb is an action word (run, skip, walk), and an adverb is a word that describes a verb or adjective (quickly, slowly).
4. Write down 6 words under each section. When you've finished, there should be a total of 24 words on the paper.
5. Take the index cards and write one word on two cards. Write the word in the upper-left corner and lower-right corner of both cards, leaving the middle blank.
6. Use the colored pencils to draw a picture that represents each word in the middle of the card. (For example, if the word is "run" draw a picture of a person running.)
7. Continue until you've gone through every word of each section. You will end up with 2 duplicate decks of cards (48 cards altogether). This way, you can find a match for each card.

Play the game:

1. Shuffle the cards, and then deal 7 cards to each player. Place the remaining cards in a pile between both players.
2. Any pairs of matching cards should be set aside. Players should sort their remaining cards by the four grammar sections (verb, adverb, adjective, noun).
3. To start the game, player one pick out an unmatched card of her hand. She then states whether the card is an adverb, noun, adjective, or verb so the other player can find the card quickly.
4. Player One should then ask Player Two if she has the matching word card.
5. If she has the match, Player Two hands the card over to Player One who sets the match aside and takes another turn. If Player Two doesn't have the card, she says, "Go fish!" and Player One takes a new card from the deck. Then it's Player Two's turn.
6. Continue the game until all the cards have been matched. Then each player counts the number of pairs she has. Whichever player ends up with the most pairs is the winner!