The sounds of dice rolling and students cheering fill the classroom as students practice identifying the parts of speech. Then, everyone cringes as they hear the flimsy paper ripping in half. "Oh no, it happened again!"
In my sixth grade language arts classroom, we don't rely on mind-numbing worksheets to reinforce grammar knowledge and skills. Instead, I have created series of grammar games to cover everything from the parts of speech to sentence fragments. I have, however, had to make due with very limited means. Our school district is confronting the same challenges facing so many others: an ever-shrinking budget due to big cuts in state funding and to the overall economic crisis.
The latest victim on the budget chopping block has been our beloved grammar games. Without the ability to buy proper supplies, I have cobbled together threadbare inter-office mail envelopes and standard copy paper to create them. Aside from the obvious lack of visual appeal (who wants to play a game out of an envelope that looks like it went through the dryer?), our game pieces are notorious for ripping, wrinkling, and generally not lasting more than a week or two. The initial enthusiasm students show for games such as Part of Speech Steal, Sentence Smack Down, Fragment Freeze, and others soon dissipates as the game disintegrates before their very eyes.
Your support of this project would help our games stand the test of time. We would purchase new, uncreased envelopes as well as heavy-duty, colorful card stock so that the game pieces look exciting and can be used over and over again. Students would not only get the message that they deserve high-quality materials, they would also be able to return to previous games from earlier in the year to keep their grammar skills secure.
I have also wanted to share the games with other language arts teachers in the building but have been too embarrassed by the final product. The requested materials would allow me to make extra game kits that I could make available to my colleagues and empower them with a new tool to keep students knowledgeable about the conventions of standard English.
Without your help, my students' grammar knowledge will fade away as quickly as our present games do. Grammar practice doesn't have to be boring, but it does need to endure if student knowledge will do the same.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Swank and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.