Schoolhouse Rock: Grammar Rock

Choose a character, an action and a detail

The original program includes titles about nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions. Its ten entries begin with “Schoolhouse Rocky” and end with “The Tale of Mr. Morton.” Each topic offers a different way to look at a sentence you make yourself.

Start with a tiny scene: “The sleepy owl glides.” Owl names the character, glides tells what it does, and sleepy describes the owl. Imagine the picture before you change anything. Where is the owl going, and what might be waiting there?

Open a tiny sentence costume shop

Draw three spaces on paper: characters, actions and describing words. Add a few large paper cards to each. Owl, rabbit and dragon can share one space; glides, hops and dances another; sleepy, cheerful and tiny the third.

Choose a character and an action, then offer the character a describing word as though it were a costume. Read the sentence aloud or ask a companion to read it. Draw the scene beside your cards.

Exchange just one card. A cheerful owl dancing suggests a different picture from a sleepy owl dancing. Keep the action and change the character next. Let each new combination become a brief performance by a drawing or a toy.

Add one more instruction

A card saying quietly can describe how the character dances: “The tiny dragon dances quietly.” Try that extra detail and decide how to show it in the picture. Save favorite sentences as the shop’s window display, then invite another player to choose tomorrow’s cast.