Pronoun Practice to the Moon and Back

Our Roy Orbison pronoun practice was great fun, but I could tell at the end my son was still a little foggy on how pronouns are used. This activity is meant to clear up the confusion.

It uses my son’s interest in space to excite him about learning pronouns!

First, we read the Grammar Tales book The Planet Without Pronouns by Justin McCory Martin. This book was EXACTLY what I needed to explain just how helpful and useful pronouns are.

The main character, Stanley, notices when talking to the residents of planet Krimular that they don’t use pronouns! He gives his buddy Zik a lesson explaining, “Pronouns are small words such as I, you, me, her, or him. … They are used in place of nouns to make sentences simpler. Think of them as ‘shortcut’ words.” Ah, yes, shortcut words, why hadn’t I thought to explain them that way? This was something my son could relate to!

When my son finished reading (He’s a level K reader so I helped him with some of the more challenging words), I gave him some folded practice cards and a “to the moon and back” scorecard.

His job was to pick a card, read the front, and either replace the highlighted word(s) or add the pronoun if it was absent.

Once he’d done this, he opened the flap on the card and if he got it right, he could move the rocket ship one line closer to the moon. When he got to the moon, he rotated the rocket ship around, kept practicing, and headed back to Earth.

He loved this activity and wanted to continue practicing with the leftover cards once his space journey had ended. Success!

Directions to Make it Yourself

Download my PDF of the pronoun practice cards and “to the moon and back” scorecard. The pages in the file are ordered so you need to print page 1, flip it over and print page 2, and so on. Once printed on heavyweight cardstock, cut the cards, fold on the dotted line, and use a Exacto craft blade to cut the "V". Tuck the folded flap under the point on the V for each card.

To make the scorecard, cut out the rocket ship and tab. Use an Exacto craft blade to cut out the rectangle for your rocket ship slider. Then poke holes in the rocket ship and tab with a brad. Put the tab behind the “to the moon and back” scorecard lining up the whole you punched inside the open slit you cut out.

Put the brad in the rocket ship, place on top of the scorecard and thread it through the tab that’s behind the scorecard. Spread the brad apart tightly. Now you’re ready to blast off!