Materials:

- Collection of objects/animals
- Colour-coded grammar cards - black nouns, royal blue
adjectives, red verbs and grey articles
Presentation: The directress starts off by introducing
children to the box containing the collection of
objects/animals and giving them a chance to set up the
farm and have a discussion about what the objects and
different animals are unto. This is very helpful for children
who are not proficient in the language of instruction as
second-language speakers, as well as kids with delayed
language concerns as this gives them an opportunity to
practice and explore the language in a stress free and
casual environment.

Once they have worked with the early grammar noun

cards, they can then be introduced to the noun cards in
the farm. The teacher should ask the child to set up the
farm, take out the black and naming cards, and then read
them out one by one as she places them next to the
relevant objects. Similarly, once the children have
familiarity with early grammar adjective cards, they may
be introduced to the farm box adjective cards by
demonstrating to them how to place the adjective cards
next to the noun cards. The child first reads the noun card,
attempts to find the object is then asked to go through the
adjective cards to try and find a word that best describes
the objects, for e.g. ‘plump’ to be paired with ‘piglet’. The
teacher may also introduce the first set of lower case
article cards by teaching the children how to place this
next to the adjective card. Allow them to continue this
exercise with the rest of the objects and pairing cards.

Finally, the verb as well as upper case article cards may

be introduced to the children, with the verb cards being
placed next to the noun cards, and article cards next to
the adjective cards. The child starts by reading the first
noun, for e.g. ‘man, finding an object to match it, and then
associating an adjective with it, for e.g. ‘strong’. The
teacher then directs them to the final part of the exercise
by asking, “What does the strong man do?”. The child may
respond in one of several verbs, for e.g. ‘sits’. The
directress then reminds him that they are constructing a
sentence, which needs the article card to start with a
capital letter. The child finds the card saying ‘The’, hence
completing the sentence, i.e. “The strong man stands.”

On each occasion the cards are returned to the bottom of

their respective piles so that the child can read the next
card. The child then reads the next noun card and
continues sentence building as before.

These exercises assist children in learning the

grammatical structure of phrases and sentences through
the use of cards.