Conjunctions are joiners or connectors that bring
together words, phrases, and clauses. A few of these important words follow:
And
But
Or
Nor
So
For
Until
After
Because
Since
To teach my son about how these words are used, I created
an activity we'll be able to do again and again, with a template I'll use for
practicing other skills too.
To get started I printed several pages of these right and
left hands. Download a 1-page PDF here.
I used colored papers, but that's not necessary. After
they were printed, I laminated and cut them out (including the hole inside the
hand); yes, this is a bit of a pain but with a small craft knife, it went
rather swiftly.
Once my hands were done, I cut some small strips of
paper. Now I got busy writing parts of sentences on right and left hands with a
fine-tip dry-erase marker. I also wrote the conjunction that would join them on
the blank slips of paper. Here are some of the sentences I used:
During the race I swam and ran.
I got today's mail and put it on the desk.
Mom was tired after exercising at the gym.
I stayed awake until the sun came up.
Molly hated peas because they never stayed on her spoon.
Do you want popcorn or peanuts?
I do not like broccoli so I chose corn instead.
By laminating, the dry-erase markers wipe clean making the hands reusable!
During the race I swam and ran.
I got today's mail and put it on the desk.
Mom was tired after exercising at the gym.
I stayed awake until the sun came up.
Molly hated peas because they never stayed on her spoon.
Do you want popcorn or peanuts?
I do not like broccoli so I chose corn instead.
By laminating, the dry-erase markers wipe clean making the hands reusable!
When my son came home from school we read a great book by
Brian P. Cleary. I'm a huge fan of his Words are CATegorical series and this
book delivered the same whimsical illustrations I expected with the simple,
clear definition of conjunctions my son needed.
My son also watched Schoolhouse Rock's "Conjunction Junction" video; I remember it from when I was a kid. This little song is certainly handy (and mighty catchy too; my son was singing it later that evening)!
With the hands laid on the table, it was up to my son to
determine which conjunction was missing and join the hands together by looping
the paper with the conjunction through the hands and stapling it. My son made
quick work of the task and was excited to have joined the sentence fragments
with the correct conjunctions.
Next time, I might scramble the fragments to make the
exercise more challenging for him.
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