Category: Language Arts Activities

Make abc lowercase letters your child’s first steps in the realm of knowledge and learning. It has been customary to first teach uppercase letters to children but changing trends and researches have shown that since most of the English words (which happen to be the basic units of spoken and written language) are in the lowercase, children would benefit more if they were introduced to abc lowercase letters initially.

For ages, parents and guardians have been planning thousands of activities and engaging games to get their young ones interested in alphabets – their sounds, shapes as well as the order in which they occur. You too should leave no stones unturned to ensure that your child is able to rightly identify and vocalize individual letters before you get him/her enrolled at the nearest kindergarten. Remember, your child’s familiarity with the sounds and shapes of the letters of the alphabet makes it all the easier for him/her to pick up reading and writing.

Many parents make use of expensive tools and programs to teach their preschool kids to read and write a language. This, however, may lead to complications. A far better way to teach alphabet to a child is to make it a routine, a part of the daily life. Learning abc lowercase letters along with the capital letters as part of the common activities of life greatly amuses your child. By the time the child enters kindergarten years he/she is more confident and ready for more inputs, to better hone his/her skills.

Following are some real attention grabbing and effective activities for preschool children:

• Match Capital Letters with Small Letters – Have two sets of letter cards, one set presenting the lowercase letters and the other uppercase letters. Ask the child to correctly match individual lowercase letter with its capital counterpart. Bingo games with both upper and lowercase letters will help children become familiar with abc lowercase letters and capital letters.

• Memorizing Alphabet Order – Write down individual letters (in lowercase) in cards and ask your ward to read out and arrange them in order. You can make the game easier for younger kids by having the alphabets arranged in groups of threes and fours such as abcd, efgh, ijkl, mnop, qrst, uvw, and xyz.

Another interesting activity, which will help children learn the order by-heart, is to complete a picture by joining individual letters. Draw the outline of a picture using dots and write small letters by each dot so that the picture emerges as the child joins the dots in the correct alphabetical order. 

• Learning Sound Of Letters: Write abc lowercase letters on cards and cut out various pictures. Ask the child to match each picture to its corresponding lowercase beginning letter.

Have abc lowercase letters written on cards by children and ask them to make words with them. Start with simple three/four letter words. This will also help the children become familiar with sounds made by combined letters.

Give vent to your imagination and come up with more interesting games and activities. Bake breads and cakes imitating abc lowercase letters, have abc lowercase letters embroidered in the dress, have playthings in similar shapes… try to surround your child with things that increases the child’s association with the letters. Most importantly, teach your child writing along with reading because a child picks up things faster if he/she is given verbal and written training side-by-side.

Exercise 1: Context

Look at the words in the box. The meanings are given
below the box. Go back to the Sea Turtles passage and read it again. Try to work out the
meaning of the words from the sentence they are in. If that sentence doesn’t
help you try reading the sentences before and after it, too.

debate	definition	adaptation	withdrawn	drawback
vulnerable	unintentionally	delicacy	hatchling	extinct

 

 

1.     done without meaning or by accident…….
2.     no longer existing………………………………………
3.     a newly hatched baby turtle…………………….
4.     easily hurt or damaged………………………………
5.     something tasty to eat………………………………
6.     disadvantage or problem……………………………
7.     a disagreement or argument…………………….
8.     the exact meaning of something………………
9.     moved backwards……………………………………...
10. a change to suit the circumstances………….

 

Exercise 2: Word Puzzle

Exercise 3: Scrambled Words

Other Exercise Suggestions

Sea Turtles Passage

Exercise 3: Scrambled Words

Unscramble the words. Chose five of the words and put
each into a sentence of your own.

1. ailnotenlinyntu________________

2. beadte________________

3. eleluvarnb________________

4. edifntoini________________

5. rhwwtida________________

6. kdbcawar________________

7. ecnittx________________

8. ghtclihan________________

9. atainadopt________________

10. yelciacd________________

 

Exercise 1: Using Context to Define Words

Exercise 2: Word Puzzle

Other Exercise Suggestions

Sea Turtles Passage

Exercise 2: Word Puzzle

Complete each sentence using words from the box. Read the
words formed by the letters underlined in red. Write the words here:

___ ___ ___     
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

debate	definition	adaptations	withdrawn	drawback
vulnerable	unintentionally	delicacy	hatchlings	extinct

The ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ __
go down to the sea at night.

There was a great ___ __ ___ ___ ___ ___ about the new highway.

He had his hands ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ __
___ ___ into the sleeves of his jacket to keep them warm

She broke the cup ___ ___ ___ ___ __ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
___ ___.

Some animals are very ___ __ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ to any changes in their
environment.

Being very short can be a ___ _____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ when you need to reach something
high up.

An animal that no longer exists on this earth is ___ ___
___ ___ ___ ___ __.

In France frogs’ legs are considered a great ___ ___ __
___ ___ ___ ___ ___.

The meaning of a word is known as its ___ __
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___.

Humans make ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ __
to their environment, to make it easier to live.

 

Exercise 1: Using Context to Define Words

Exercise 3: Scrambled Words

Other Exercise Suggestions

Sea Turtles Passage

Mom poems are specifically those, which are meant for mother or someone close to a mother figure. Mom poems are meant to make the person concerned feel, all the more proud and special. With a poem, it’s time to strengthen your bond with your mother all the more.

Do you want to greet your mother specially, on mother’s day? If so then, why don’t you choose some fantastic words for her on the occasion? With the thing, which you have chosen to gift your mother on her day why, don’t you tie up a small greeting card with some beautiful rhythmic lines? You may fall short of words as not everyone can recreate Keats, Shelley or Wordsworth overnight. So just, go online and look for mom poems. Pick one among them, which well conveys your genuine feelings towards your mother.

However, it’s easy picking up a poem but why don’t you try and write something yourself. That will be more than a compliment for your mother. She will be just overwhelmed. Just try out something like this:

My mother is the reason of my life,
Only she gives me the strength to fight and survive.
Talk to her and she is always there,
Her aim is to lessen my pain and stay aware.
Even if she is not there, I can feel her,
Right in the middle of my heart, she is there forever.

If you really want your students to write, beautiful mom poems then you can make them go through an interview process to make the work done. Ask them a set of questions and they will come out saying flowery and loving things about their moms.

Questions for helping a child write mom poems

• By what name do you call your mother?
• What is the color of her eyes?
• Do your mom have a particular body smell like that of perfume, grilled cheese or baby powder?
• By what nickname does your mom call you?
• Which flower your mom likes the best?
• What do you enjoy doing the best with your mom?
• What does your mom like doing the best?
• What is the best thing you like about your mom?
• How does your mom help you from morn until night?
• Anything you do that your mom don’t appreciate.

In short, mom poems are not some bunch of words – they are continuous verbal flow of emotions from the child to the mother. Therefore, go through several mom poems and choose the one, which you think, would be the best to salute your mother in your own particular way.

The day of graduating is a big day and in order to remember this special day, graduation poems are simply great. Graduation poems provide the best way of expressing the feelings and offering appreciation. You can read these poems for your friends, or students can read it to teachers, or teachers to students or parents to children framing these special moments in one’s memory forever.

Graduation poems can be created in various forms to make it more interesting like singing the poem like a song, or acting it out, else it can be used in the form of dialogues. Besides this, what matters in this poem is content, the flow of reading poem, proper pronunciation, and reader’s way of expression.

Perfect graduation gifts to make your graduation special

Graduation is indeed a special event – a break from the old and a fresh new start for a young person’s life. Graduation poems come in great variety. In many cases, we find graduation thank you poems or speeches perfect to mark the event. However, besides that, you will find a wide array of graduation gifts and graduation cards, where perfect graduation verses are scribed nicely. Let us cast a glance on some well-known graduation verse by Joanna Fuchs:

Bright Future

Now that you have graduated
Nothing can stop you,
You’ve worked hard to get your diploma;
Its time to take a bow.

Graduation poems are sometimes meant for specific achievements. Here is a college graduation poem for you that could go hand-in-hand with graduation gifts and cards:

Awesome Achievement

Your college graduation
Fills us with love and pride.
We always knew that you could do
Whatever you really tried.

It’s a long and challenging journey
To get a college degree,
But you wouldn’t quit it, you just went and did it,
And we are beaming affectionately.

Your achievement is awesome;
You’ve worked hard and you’ve passed the test.
We love you so, and we want you to know,
We think you are the very best!

Graduation poems that come in great forms and wide variety often have a message. Here is a graduation verse that goes with graduation gift or graduation card to tell the graduate about continuing his learning process-

Always be a student
Keep on learning,
Though your graduation is done;
Your whole life’s an education
That has only just begun.

Your diploma is the first big step,
For knowledge is the special key
To winning what you want in life,
And being what you want to be.

So, if you want to honor your graduation or more concerned about expressing your feelings, just take the help of these graduation poems and make your special events outstanding down the memory lane.

If you want to publish poems, then you will find that it is quite difficult to gain a strong bridgehead and gain readership in the contemporary publishing world. You may be confident regarding the artistic success of your poems, as this totally depends on what your pen can deliver. However, little can be predicted regarding the commercial success of your poems.

If the amateur poet wants to reach the peak of success and be at par with the famous poets of the times, then he/she must know that several things contribute in bringing commercial success to a poet. Nevertheless, there is nothing to be disheartened about – success will surely come but with marketing in the proper manner to the proper people.

Poetry is a simple, yet powerful way of expression for many poets. There are other poets who write for a sense of fulfillment that comes only through the readers’ appreciation and feedback. However, this is only possible by publishing and success too.

Nuances Of Publishing

Self-publishing is the best choice that the poet can make when he is trying to publish poems, but it is also true that traditional publishing goes down well with gathering an audience. The first great achievement for a new poet will be to grab the opportunity of getting a large-scale traditional publisher to publish his/her poems. This plays a vital role in building an audience for the poet.

If you want to publish poems traditionally, then you can go for the small or the regional literary publications. This will ensure that you have a greater chance of acceptance and approval. This way, you can start building an audience.

Self-publishing technology has given poets the right to control their own destinies. You can publish poems that are your own in this kind of technology if you desire to do so.

You can go for self-publishing – you can opt for online publishers such as Wordclay, where poets can publish poems free of cost. Here, the grassroots mentality is used for developing a niche audience.

If you know where to start, you may be very lucky to see your work in print being read by many people very soon. Once, you gain recognition, success is sure to follow. You will be a successful poet, once your work is spread. So, publish poems to give way to your poetical talent.

Goodbye poems make the occasion a bit lighter both for the person who is leaving others behind as well as for those who are bidding goodbye to the loved ones. In a goodbye poem, you can say so many good things about the departing person. This makes the person feel so special. It becomes hard for him to believe that he ruled the heart of so many people.

Goodbye poems make it easy for you to say goodbye to someone you love and admire. These poems are chances for you to provide purgation to your emotions. The poem concludes the relationship in a very gentle and sober way.

The power of goodbye poems

Both happy and sad goodbye poems are easy to write. It is just your own individual way of bidding goodbye to your beloved, best friend or to someone very close to your heart. Just present the person with such a poem along with a gift and see how he feels. It will surely make him feel on top of the world.

Imagine a situation, where your best friend with whom you have spent several years of your life is going abroad for a job. Goodbye poems will help you make him feel how important he is in your life and how much you are going to miss him. After that, whenever he reads the poem he will recollect his past years and feel good. In fact, distance makes bondages more strong and this you can express this best through your poems.

Nothing to say only two words
GOOD BYE friend GOOD BYE,
My love for you, my concern for you,
No money can bye.
You are not so far
For I can see you when I peep into my heart,
Things have become so hard for me
As it is time for you to depart
Thus, again only two special words for you
GOOD BYE friend GOOD BYE,
Our friendship, our togetherness
In this world no penny can bye.

Thus, with such lovely goodbye poems it is time for you to win your friend’s heart for the last time and make him feel that he is very much there for once and for always.

For owners who want to pay tribute to their dogs that has meant so much to them, writing brilliant poems about dogs can be bit innovative. People who want to sent sympathy cards or gift-baskets to grieving pet owners; these poems about beloved pets can prove very helpful. Over the years, there have been favorite songs about pets and beloved dogs but the introduction of poems about dogs has changed the whole scenario.

Where to find timeless poems about dogs

Though writing your own poetry may be the best way to pay tribute to your pet but somehow if you are running short of time do not worry! You can easily find some great poems about dogs on the Internet. There are websites that are dedicated to pets as well as these sites have a special category for writing the pet poems. You will find that many eminent writers have written many timeless poems about the death of dogs.

These beautiful poems about dogs on websites can be used as remembrances of your beloved pets. Many websites offer a place to post various special poems of renowned authors, so that others can glance through them easily. Moreover, you will find a large selection of copywrited poetry that can be used with the permission of authors.

A glance at some best dog related poems

• Heaven’s doggy door by Jan Cooper
• One man’s special tribute to a dog by George Graham Vest
• Memories by John Gals worthy
• The best place to bury a dog by Ben Lamp man
• A prayer for animals by Albert Schweitzer

Some books related to dog poems

Owners want to pay tribute to their animals that have meant so much to them, but often they find it difficult to relate the right poems about the death of a dog. Even if you find surfing net very time consuming then have patience and glance at some poetry books related to dogs. These types of poetry books are sure to help the pet owners to find appropriate words for their pets. Look at the books dealing with poems about dogs:

• Doggerel: Poems about dogs by Carmela Ciuraru
• Dog poems by Dave Crawley
• Animal blessings: Prayers and poems celebrating our pets by June Cotner
• Curious Dog poems: by Tamara Petrosino

Remember writing poetry by yourself is the best way to pay tribute to your beloved pets. While writing poems about dogs, you must keep in mind that your poetry must not be difficult and it need not be rhymic. At the time of writing, forget anything that you think you know about writing poetry, just sit with your pen and paper and write down whatever is there in your heart. At the end of the day, it is only you who knows how much you love your pet.

Friendship Poems are the best forms of poem to describe the beautiful relation of friendship. These poems are among the most written, read as well as shared in the world. It often happens that a poem written on friendship is mistaken for being a love poem.

The greatest of the poets in the world have penned down their feelings for friendship in the form of beautiful poetries, which have been read and admired down the generations.

The Specialty

In contrast to love poems, you will find that friendship poems are more subdued with personal references and expressions of care. They lack the powerful and intense emotion found in the parts of the love poems.

For most poets, such poems are a way of paying tributes to their closest and dear friends. You have Shakespeare paying tribute to his friend in his famous love sonnets. In Sonnet 104, he speaks to a close friend with whom he had cherished the three summers that they have spent together.

The relation of friendship is often taken as a metaphor, where they have compared the closeness of their friends to a number of experiences. Emily Dickson in her “The Soul Unto Itself” has described her own soul to a friend. There are also poets for whom friendship poems revolve around the nature of friendship. Most of the friendship poems highlight the meaning of friendship and the virtues associated with it.

The many faces of poems on friendship

• You can have a broken friendship poem where you can feel the pain. The breaking of a friendship is devastating and this makes you view the world as a betrayer
• A short friendship poem can have a great impact with feelings crammed into it
• The funny poems on friendship are actually written in good humor; however, it should not hurt the emotions of anyone. These kind of poems makes one recollect the happy times spent together in friendship
• Best friendship poem is all about laughing in each other’s happiness and crying in each other’s sorrow.

Some of the other friendship poems in this list include sorry friendship poem, thank you friend poem and other poems.