Freedom of speech
Don’t know your prepositions from your pronouns? Then consider Cooking Up Sentences, the new game from Learning Resources in which nouns, verbs, articles and other types of speech are the ingredients.
Players draw a recipe card and then have to piece together a sentence using the different parts of speech they collect around the board. Free Ingredient cards offer the chance for a little extra creativity and when the recipe is complete the child reads out their finished sentence, which helps with fluency and spoken grammar.
There are 150 parts of speech cards and the game is for children aged seven and older. Priced around £17.
As children get more confident they will want to create their own sentences and stories, but staring at a blank page can be a little daunting and even the best writers need help sometimes. The new Writer’s Block offers an ingenious solution, crammed with over 150 ideas to get their writing back on track.
Prompt cards ask the important questions (such as “Where do you go after school?” or “What would you do if you were rich?”) and provide suggestions with real-life photographs on the other side.
Different styles of writing (including creative, instructive and descriptive) are all encouraged. The Writer’s Block is priced around £14.70 for children aged eight and up.
