We've been fans of hands-on learning with manipulatives for years... but, what should we do about language arts? We are excited to announce English Grammar Teaching Method from English on a Roll. This 40 cube set comes with everything you need to make English a hands on subject too!
Designed for everyone ages 5 and up - this set is truly a gift for your struggling readers, ESL students, writers and anyone who wants to keep learning fun!
Our set arrived with 40 cubes, same size and feel as dice, in a sturdy storage case with a Instructional Manual. My testers were excited from the moment we opened it.
The cubes are color-coded by parts of speech. For example, verbs are red, nouns are blue, etc. The set also includes several blank cubes and removable stickers to make your own words. Each cube contains words on 6 sides, making for 222 words in our set. In addition to the word cubes, they include a cube with punctuation symbols, for creating sentences.
The color coding was very effective! For the first time, my tester could SEE what the word was, and what it looks like in a sentence.
Pronouns are blue
Question word are green
Nouns are dark blue
Articles are dark blue
Prepositions are dark blue
Verbs are red
Adverbs are orange
Adjectives are purple
Punctuation is black
Conjunctions are black
2 Blank cubes can be customized
The Instruction Manual is a 142 page softcover book that teaches you exactly how the system works and gives 37 lessons you can use with students at a variety of levels.
Check out this short demonstration -
Each lesson is explained step-by-step in the Instruction manual.
Teacher Prep - what cubes are needed for the lesson (only use the ones needed to keep it easy to learn)
Notes - Teachng tips
Vocabulary for teaching the lesso are highlighted at the beginning of each lesson
Teach the Concepts - detailed explanations on how to teach the lesson, including hand motions
Games/Conversation - games to practice the concepts
Written Exercises - reproducible pages to use for additional practice
By using a Multisensory Structured Language (MSL), this program allows you to teach to ALL learning styles at once - auditory, visual and tactile learners. The lessons allow direct instruction and conversation, not just another workbook page. This is a key for my struggling readers - simply giving them a more or less colorful "page" hasn't been effective. We needed something that took the words OFF the page. English on a Roll was a perfect fit!
The lessons are systematic and build on each other with plenty of review and repetition. Plus, my tester (a 4th grader who is struggling with reading) thought we were playing :-) Shh... don't let them in on the our secret, they are really learning!
The lessons get progressively more complex, and build on teach other. I loved an illustration at the beginning that helped with the "To Be" verbs - they are like a tree with BE on the trunk, and am, is are in the branches. This type of easy to teach, and memorable, tips are included throughout the guide. Both my tester and I are learning with this program!
One of the best parts of this set is the variety of ways you can use the cubes. For teaching reading, spelling, grammar or even creating advanced writing prompts - this set can be used with a large variety of students, as well as being shared by up to six students at a time (yeah for the large homeschool family classroom!)
By using repetition - "Dark blue...prepositions are dark blue...prepositions go with nouns" my tester was able to easily master each grammar rule. We had fun with the prepositions by physically demonstrating, with the cube, each word.
This is truly a fun, and highly effective way to learn English! I would recommend this is a tool that you can't afford to miss.
