It’s a funny name, but this isn’t a site to be taken lightly :) English Banana provides loads of free English resources. Those of you who are looking for a free grammar programme for elementary students can use English Banana’s Big Grammar Book.
It’s jam-packed from cover to cover with a great selection of photocopiable worksheets taken from the popular English Banana.com website. We wanted to provide teachers with a really useful book of no-nonsense grammar worksheets that they can dip into and use in class with students at ESOL Core Curriculum Entry Levels 1 & 2 [Elementary Level]. It is also ideal for students to work with at home since the answers are all printed at the back.
The book is divided into four parts and is graded in difficulty, so that it begins with some basic stuff and builds up to more challenging grammar activities. It features a selection of Essential English worksheets which provide practice for crucial basic areas of knowledge for learners at Entry Level, like using numbers, writing the alphabet, spelling days and months correctly, and so on.
Did I mention it is FREE? :P
Download the Big Grammar Book here or here.
OK, I am finally feeling dead on my feet… I guess the Panadol Extra’s worn off. I’m off to catch some sleep before the kids wake up.
Another resource I’ve used is First Language Lessons (Well Trained Mind). The lessons were short and easy to implement and even my younger one who wasn’t reading yet found the lessons fun. I have Writing With Ease also by the Well Trained Mind but I really did not like some of the content as it referred to magic, myths and other things that are unIslamic. So I made my own copywork book. (In shaa Allah, once I improve it, I’ll upload it.) We have also begun to do dictation more frequently and for this, I choose a short paragraphs from chapter books she likes. We read the paragraph together and analyze the punctuation and grammar. Then Mars is left to prepare on her own. She is dictated to the next day.
Mars has written a couple of short stories on her own and even one for Science where she imagines what life would be like as a creature living in the trees. She enjoys it but often worries that her works are not good enough. (*sigh*) I found The Creative Journal for Children by Lucia Capacchione at Borders when I was in Singapore and I think it will help her ease up a little and just enjoy the creative process. The activities are suitable for kids from preschool through junior high so in shaa Allah I will do them with her younger sister as well. What I like about the book is that it encourages kids not only to record their thoughts and dreams through writing but also through illustrations. No grading, no criticism… just self-exploration and expression.