Kmart is nailing it once again, having recently released and stocked a whole new range of educational resources!
This is the Sentence building puzzle, which allows children to sort words into correct word groups using word group charts under the headings of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs, and build sentences using these word groups.
Each individual word group has a different shape which matches up to the four chart sections and the slots in the sentence and word puzzles. For younger children, if the incorrect word group is used, it becomes immediately obvious, as just like a jigsaw puzzle piece it will not fit.
Little ones can then find the correct word group by matching up the shape that does fit.
This puzzle fitting feature also means that children will develop word group recognition in a tangible way.
Children are also intrinsically encouraged to read and speak, especially when they inevitably use their imagination to create fun, silly, almost nonsensical sentences. My three (yes, even my teenager) enjoyed reading their silly sentences out to each other, and laughing out loud, while seeing who could come up with the craziest sentence!
The cards and words are made out of a nice sturdy cardboard - we’ve had it for a few weeks now and they are holding up just fine, with no damage. The colours are bright and fun, making it appealing to children.
In terms of curriculum and standards this puzzle can be used in the following areas/skills/outcomes alongside other resources:
- Acela1452: Explore differences in words that represent people, places and things; happenings and states; qualities; and details such as when, where and how.
- Accurate spelling and punctuation.
- Re-reading and editing their work to improve reading.
- Recognising high frequency words.
- Language conventions and grammar.
- Using language features to create structure.
- Create texts to understand how images and detail can be used.
- Sentence word order.
Home educators could add some extra tasks depending on learning level, for example: requiring that the sentences be written into the children’s workbooks (handwriting), and using those sentences in paragraphs or story prompts (paragraphs as a key organisational feature of written texts, creative writing and narrative texts).
Although not a completely new idea, this is a great little introduction to, or refresher in using word groups to build sentences which can lead to the use of more advanced sentence builders on the market.