Summer (school) is Coming!
The Grammar Punk™ Method is the brainchild of an English teacher, long frustrated with the way that grammar and punctuation has traditionally been taught. Grammar Punk™ was created by a teacher for teachers.
The end of the school year is looming, days are getting longer and
warmer, and summer is coming! So is Summer School. Grammar Punk™ can take the ―glum‖ out of Summer School instruction!
And we’re having a HUGE sale!
wwwwww..ggrraammmmaarrppuunnkk..ccoomm
“We don’t teach grammar and punctuation so students will know how to circle the preposition and underline the prepositional phrase. We teach grammar and punctuation so students will write well.”
―I was thinking that we all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school.‖ —Peter De Vrie
May's birthstone is the emerald
May’s birth flower is the Lily of the Valley
Taurus
April 21 - May 21
Dependable and persistent, loyal and patient, and generous
Gemini
May 21 – June 21
Adaptable and versatile, communicative and witty, intellectual and eloquent
May is the fifth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. It is also a month within the northern season of spring. May was named for the Greek goddess Maia, who was identified with the Roman era goddess of fertility, apropos with the advent of Spring. And Summer.
May Mentionables
In many countries, May Day is May 1. This is celebrated as Labor Day in many countries.
The first Saturday in May is the date of the annual Kentucky Derby, the most famous horse race in the United States.
Cinco de Mayo or the Batalla de Puebla is celebrated in Mexico on May 5. It is also celebrated widely in the United States.
Golden Spike Day (1869 - Completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad - Promontory Summit, Utah)
On May 12, International Nurses Day is celebrated. Towel Day is celebrated in May in tribute to Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy. The second Sunday in May is Mother's Day in the United States. The Indianapolis 500 is held on the Sunday before Memorial Day. The last Monday of May is Memorial Day in the United States first celebrated on May 5,
1866 in Waterloo, New York.
To see the Summer Sky Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie - True Poems flee. ~Emily Dickinson
In winter I get up at night And dress by yellow candle-light. In summer quite the other way I have to go to bed by day. ~Robert Louis Stevenson
Writing with a purpose April is National Poetry Month How cool is that? An entire month in honor of a very particular type of writing. You just had to know we would be fans.
1. the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts. 2. literary work in metrical form; verse. 3. prose with poetic qualities. 4. poetic qualities however manifested: the poetry of simple acts and things. 5. poetic spirit or feeling: The pianist played the prelude with poetry. 6. something suggestive of or likened to poetry: the pure poetry of a beautiful view on a clear day.
Poetry has often received a bad rap, certainly by students in Language Arts classes faced with the task of reading or, gulp, writing poetry! A fate worse than death! We have to respectively disagree. We cover poetry in our Grammar Punk™ Programs, though it’s not technically a grammar subject. We offer lessons, cards, and examples covering the simplest rhyming words, to haiku, to the sky’s the limit. We think poetry rocks. And we’re right. Writing is of course our favorite medium, expository, creative, you name it. Poetry is right up there on the list. The best part of poetry is the freedom it offers the occasionally rigid rules of language. I know that is not the first thing one thinks of when the word poetry is uttered, but it’s true. Poetry, with all its attendant rules and limitations can make that same language sing. What could be better? So play at rhyme with your students, work on syntax, verse, and a quatrain or four. Fiddle with sonnets and limericks, blank verse, doggerel. Rhyme, don’t rhyme, just write! Write with a purpose.
Being a child at home alone in the summer is a high-risk occupation. If you call your mother at work thirteen times an hour, she can hurt you. ~Erma Bombeck
―We work with children, troubled children, many of them come here with learning difficulties. This is a great way to get them excited about learning.‖ —Rhonda Geissinger, Clarence, MO
Then followed that beautiful season... Summer.... Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Brainstorming Your Brain Brainstorming: to generate creative ideas spontaneously. Sounds simple enough. This is it. You’re sitting at your desk, fingers poised over the keys, eyes trained optimistically on a clean, white, blank screen (or clean, white piece of paper if you happen to be a Luddite). You’re ready to write. Right? Wait. Not so fast. Um, WHAT DO I WRITE ABOUT? Perhaps a better question is: WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS? It’s called BRAINSTORMING and it can be fun. No, really. The secret to brainstorming is to let your imagination take over about 98% of your brain functions (leaving just enough for breathing and blinking). Try a few of these suggestions: o Look out the window:
Pretend you’re on the other side of the window looking in/something suddenly crashes through
the window/someone taps on the window/the window is really a porthole and the waves are
rising/the window is in a spaceship and outside you see... You get the idea.
Spread the Grammar Punk Constructing Writers™ Cards (or the K-3 Elementary Cards, the 4-9 Story
Cards, 9-12 Idea Cards, or the GP Creative Cards) across a table. (See www.grammarpunk.com) Look at
them very hard.
Read. Something. Someone. Anyone. Read what and who you like.
Observe, eavesdrop, listen, experience, daydream, speculate, question, doodle.
Play with words, expressions, sayings, ideas, clichés, things on your desk . . .
Write down any idea that pops into your head. Then the next and the next.
The writing ideas are in there, the challenge is to find that mysterious place where ideas hover, float, fidget, meander, wend, wiggle, gather, flitter, and live. And wait to be discovered. And pieced together in a gathering of words that will, with work, perseverance, and a bit of luck become story. A story. Your student’s story. Or even your own story. To winnow out those free-floating, often elusive bits of flotsam that are ideas is easier—and harder—than you think. But like any hard-won skill, it takes practice, as does anything worth doing. Because the ultimate goal of brainstorming is to formulate an idea that will grow and develop and hopefully resolve itself in the form of a story with a beginning, middle, and an end, it is helpful to at least attempt to tame the flurry of ideas that, once awakened, can bounce around your brain like a ping-pong ball in a wind tunnel. How to wake up those ideas? Ask them questions.
HHHooowww??? WWWhhhaaattt??? WWWhhheeennn??? WWWhhheeerrreee??? WWWhhhooo??? WWWhhhyyy??? How did the what happen when and where and to whom and WHY? Answer those questions and you have the beginning, possibly the middle, and even the end to story.
What we recently heard from a teacher.
Teacher Appreciation Week! (We think it should be much longer than a week!) Grammar Punk™ will re-energize your creative spirit, and it has something for teachers of all grade levels. Teacher Appreciation Week is fast approaching ( May 2-8, 2010.) Good teachers are lifelong learners always looking for good ideas and practices as they pursue powerful pedagogy (we really love alliteration at Grammar Punk!™.) Grammar Punk™, created by an English teacher, is chock-full of creative, practical, easily-implemented, student-interactive, laugh out-loud fun, effective strategies, a must-have for K-12 school teachers. Help your students become what we want every student to be—a thinking, engaged, responsible, and happy student.
FFiivvee RReeaassoonnss ttoo bbee HHaappppyy AAbboouutt SSuummmmeerr SScchhooooll ((AAtttteennddiinngg aanndd TTeeaacchhiinngg)) Lots of teens positively dread the mere thought of summer school. So do lots of teachers. Failing a class or falling behind can be devastating to a student’s self-esteem as well as their summer plans, luckily there is summer school. Just as there are several types of students who will be attending summer school; those who were slackers and didn't pass their courses, those looking for extra credits, or just those looking forward. And all of them get rounded up and shut in a building during the balmy summer days when others are lying around the pool, hiking in the mountains, or mowing lawns. Thusly lays the fate of the teachers of said students and said courses. The fact is summer school is rarely anyone’s idea of a good time. When in fact, summer school is, or should be, an adventure in both learning and teaching.
1.) Summer school will give your teen more time to learn (conquer, achieve, master) the basics of the subject being taught. Middle and high school classes can often mimic the fast-paced world in which we live. This means that sometimes students can’t always keep up and even get lost. Not only is this difficult for the student but it can forever mar that student’s concept of the subject. The concentrated effort offered by summer school classes can be invaluable in cementing the building blocks of these concepts.
2.) The environment of a summer school class offers your teen a different approach and atmosphere. Summer school classes tend to be smaller, therefore more relaxed and informal, an optimal learning environment. Combine that with having a different teacher who uses a unique teaching approach and the tools supplied by the Grammar Punk™ Programs and students will have more than a second chance, they will have a serious head start.
3.) Summer school means a chance at class credit. This means no doubling up a core class during the school year. Since each state requires a certain amount of core classes to be taken by every student and passed before they can graduate, even if college isn’t the ultimate goal, these courses are required to obtain a diploma. Having to double up on a difficult course the next school year can to more failure. No one wants that.
4.) Summer school means focus. It’s good to remind ourselves that students have a lot of balls in the air and are facing much the same type of stress that we face with deadlines and assignments and the push to achieve. Summer school offers a unique atmosphere for focus, especially for students who might get overloaded by having too many classes to focus on at one time.
5.) Summer school will give you and your students a chance to have fun. Summer school can carry with it a certain stigma. It is your job—and opportunity—to change that for your students. Repeating a difficult subject should be a challenge, not a failure. Making sure the mood in your classroom feels more like fun than punishment is the key. Grammar Punk™ will make that happen.
Summer school is about second chances, getting caught up, and/or getting ahead and getting back on the right track. Using a tool like Grammar Punk™ will make summer school a definite win-win situation.
For everyone.
―A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.‖ ~James Dent
We’ve been at it again. We’ve
been working on TheWriter—now
renamed: Constructing Writers. We’ve added nearly thirty pages
of text, more games and
challenges, and more good stuff
for writers. Constructing Writers,
like all Grammar Punk products is
intended to be interactive and
hands-on. We’ve also added even
more cards (Expository, Genre,
Situation, Character Quirks,
Occupations, Emotion, Location,
What’s In A Name? Sensory, and
Plot Twists) which offer hundreds
of brainstorming ideas and a
timer. Because writer’s write!
Constructing Writers is ideal for
classroom and/or individual use.
The cards (136!) can be mixed
and matched by an entire
classroom with endless
possibilities for story-generating
fun. The games and challenges
are perfect for bell-ringers or just
to get students writing.
We told you about the addition of the IDEA cards to the
Grammar Punk™ 9-12 Secondary Program.
Did we mention how much fun, creativity, motivation, spontaneity,
originality, inspiration, imagination, confidence, inventiveness,
artlessness, stimulation, audacity, encouragement, and hilarity these
cards will offer your students and classrooms?
Clarice enjoys clapping her long, scaly, dragon’s tail on the rough, rugged rocks.
The private detective was apoplectic at his abject incompetence at solving the missing porcupine case.
Alien Planet: The Martian circled the stranger’s spaceship cautiously; the
thing hadn’t been there the day before.
Kid Stuff: ―We must gather all the carrots together,‖ Penelope, a very bossy bunny said crossly, ―we’re late, late.‖ late.‖
Hyperbole Gritting his teeth, Simon prepared to count to a hundred to prevent his head from
actually exploding.
Diazeugma With seemingly little effort, the dragons tromped the knights, terrorized the maidens, and conquered the King.
Onomatopoeia One thing was clear: the ticky tacking, clickety-clacking of the crickets romantic clamoring was seriously getting on Clark’s nerves.
School Discounts Save big with our group rates! Contact us at [email protected] for more details.
Contact us
Remember: We accept school Purchase Orders. Grammar Punk 286 North Center Street American Fork, Utah 84003 Fax: 801-763-8657 Or call: 801-867-5899. Operators are standing by!
www.grammarpunk.com
phone801-867-5899
fax801-763-8657
emailinfo@grammar
punk.com
―Practice is the best of all instructors.‖ —Publilius Syrus
Summer (School) Is Coming! Puzzle
Summer (School) Is Coming Crossword Puzzle – Word List
Across
1. something that is intended to remind people of somebody who has died or an
event in which people died
5. cleverness and originality
7. the line in the farthest distance where the land or sea seems to meet the sky
8. a vehicle with two wheels and a seat that is moved by pushing pedals with the feet,
and steered by handlebars at the front wheel
11. writing or speech in its normal continuous form, without the rhythmic or visual line
structure of poetry
12. a day set aside by law or statute as exempt from regular labor or business activities
13. the warmest season of the year,
14. overexposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun
16. a judgment about something based on an understanding of the situation
21. most desirable or favorable
22. literary works written in verse, in particular verse writing of high quality, great
beauty, emotional sincerity or intensity, or profound insight
23. go for a long walk in the countryside, usually for pleasure
26. a section of a poem or song consisting of a number of lines arranged together to form
a single unit
27. an arc of light separated into bands of color that appears when the Sun's rays are
refracted and reflected by drops of mist or rain
Down
2. a five-line humorous poem with a characteristic rhythm
3. the sound or an act of laughing
4. the standardized non-alphabetical symbols or marks that are used to organize writing
into clauses, phrases, and sentences, and in this way make its meaning clear
6. a spring-flowering plant that grows from a bulb and has lance-shaped leaves
9. stimulation for the human mind to creative thought or to the making of art
10. the feeling of being bored
13. direct rays of the sun, producing heat and light
15. a day set aside by law or statute as exempt from regular labor or business activities
17. a short narrow board to which a set of small wheels is fitted on the underside, used
to move rapidly or to perform jumps and stunts
18. the season of spring, between winter and summer
19. a woman who has a child, or a female animal that has produced young
20. a plant with long slender leaves growing from a bulb. Flowers: yellow, trumpet-shaped
24. the system of rules by which words are formed and put together to make sentences
25. a strip of sand or pebbles at the point where land meets the sea or a lake
Summer (School) Is Coming Crossword Puzzle – Answer Key
Across
1. Memorial: something that is intended to remind people of somebody who has died
or an event in which people died
5. Ingenuity: cleverness and originality
7. Horizon: the line in the farthest distance where the land or sea seems to meet
the sky
8. Bicycle: a vehicle with two wheels and a seat that is moved by pushing pedals with the
feet, and steered by handlebars at the front wheel
11. Prose: writing or speech in its normal continuous form, without the rhythmic or
visual line structure of poetry
12. Holiday: a day set aside by law or statute as exempt from regular labor or business
activities
13. Summer: the warmest season of the year falling between spring and autumn 14. Sunburn: overexposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun
16. Assessment: a judgment about something based on an understanding of the situation
21. Optimal: most desirable or favorable
22. Poetry: literary works written in verse, in particular verse writing of high quality,
great beauty, emotional sincerity or intensity, or profound insight
23. Hiking: go for a long walk in the countryside, usually for pleasure
26. Verse: a section of a poem or song consisting of a number of lines arranged together
to form a single unit
27. Rainbow: an arc of light separated into bands of color that appears when the Sun's
rays are refracted and reflected by drops of mist or rain
Down
2. Limerick: a five-line humorous poem with a characteristic rhythm
3. Laughter: the sound or an act of laughing
4. Punctuation: the standardized non-alphabetical symbols or marks that are used to
organize writing into clauses, phrases, and sentences, and in this way make its meaning
clear
6. Tulip: a spring-flowering plant that grows from a bulb and has lance-shaped leaves
9. Inspiration: stimulation for the human mind to creative thought or to the making of
art
10. Boredom: the feeling of being bored
13. Sunlight: direct rays of the sun, producing heat and light
15. Vacation: a period of time devoted to rest, travel, or recreation
17. Skateboard: a short narrow board to which a set of small wheels is fitted on the
underside, used to move rapidly or to perform jumps and stunts
18. Springtime: the season of spring, between winter and summer
19. Mother: a woman who has a child, or a female animal that has produced young
20. Daffodils: a plant with long slender leaves growing from a bulb. Flowers: yellow,
trumpet-shaped
24. Grammar: the system of rules by which words are formed and put together to make
sentences
25. Beach: a strip of sand or pebbles at the point where land meets the sea or a lake
