Montessori Grammar Fun One Veggie at a Time
Carrot Contractions was inspired a few years ago by our favorite carrot loving cartoon bunny. This game pairs contractions, paper carrots, and a brown shoe box for language arts fun with a Montessori flare.
Learners practice reading 32 pairs of contractions and/or matching up the words to the contractions. So on one carrot you may have 'has not' and 'hasn't'. If you pulled a carrot with a worm on it, it may only have 'has not' and the child would have to supply the 'hasn't' contraction.
Assembly takes just a bit of effort, but it is so worth it. Print out and prepare carrots and word pairs by cutting out the shapes and gluing the word to the white back of the carrot. Kiddos pick carrots and read word sets. Carrots with a worm provide only one side of the contraction set, allowing for more challenging fun. Alternate methods and playing levels for the game are provided in the instructions.
For real fun, laminate the carrots up and have the learner pull them from the ground (a brown cardboard box with a slit in it.) The plain brown craft shoe boxes from your local craft store work very well to imitate the dirt in a garden. Use an exacto knife to cut thin slits in the cover of the box. Poke carrots into the box so that the tops are showing. It makes the game so much more fun. Alternately, you could pull them out of a brown paper grocery bag as well.
Focus: Common contractions
Theme: Carrots, gardening, plants, contractions, Montessori
This resource has been updated and may differ slightly from the picture presented.