Recommended Age: 5 years and onwards
Purpose: To help the child become aware of different aspects of the verb
Level of Parent Involvement: Low, the adult must write the message for the child and explain what transitive and intransitive verbs are, giving the child experiences to explore the difference
Prerequisites
- The child knows all sandpaper letters
- The child knows all sandpaper phonograms
- The child has a good repertoire of puzzle words they have memorized
- The child has played the ‘Adjective game’ and had experience using the grammar symbols
- The child is able to read
- The child has had many experiences playing ‘The verb game’
Materials
- A tray with a writing pencil and strips of paper
- Grammar symbols
Preparation
- None
Steps
* Invite the child letting them know that you are going to play a game with them
* Bring the writing tray to the child table
* Write a message for the child to read for example; ‘open the door’
* Invite the child to read their label and do the action
* Write another message for the child for example ‘clap’
* Invite the children to read their label and do the action, letting them know they have to keep doing the action until you tell them to STOP
* The child may symbolize the verbs only, asking them to “show me the word that told you WHAT to do”
* Inform the child that sometimes an action stops such as ‘open the door’ where it is one action then the action is finished (transitive) and sometimes the action keeps going (clapping, intransitive)
*Write another message for the child and repeat as above, giving the child experience with transitive and intransitive verbs
Variations
- None
