Using Chants and Songs to Learn English Grammar
Have you ever thought of using chants or songs to learn English grammar? It’s such a great way to learn some of the simple and advanced concepts of grammar that we should all learn to become better writers and speakers (and to get higher scores on those college entrance exams!).
By the way, there are a lot of bad and very annoying songs that people have posted on YouTube to “teach grammar.” I’ve only shared videos that I consider truly helpful and less annoying below.
Helping Verbs
I still remember the chant I learned in 7th grade to learn all the helping verbs:
“is am are was were be being been has have had do does did shall will should would may might must can could.” (Scroll down for a downloadable printable with this list.)
See it in the video here and memorize them yourself!
Are you interested in learning more about helping verbs? You will LOVE this free lesson from Grammar Galaxy!
Also, download these Music Practice Assignment Sheets to go with the lesson to help your own kids to practice their instruments!
Download Music Practice Assignment Sheets here:
Reviews I have done about our Grammar Galaxy experiences:
- The Best Language Arts Curriculum for Kids who Hate Language Arts
- YouTube reviews of Yellow Star, vol. 3 and Blue Star, vol. 5
- Stars Unit Study and Grammar Galaxy Protostar
- Take Your Kids to Grammar Galaxy–the Easy and Fun Way to Do Language Arts!
Parts of Speech
Here is a song to learn the different parts of speech: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, conjunction, preposition, and exclamation. (Click through to YouTube for the words of the song.)
Prepositions
I used a song to help my kids memorize the prepositions. There are lots of versions and songs to use, but I think I like this one the best. It lists these prepositions to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It:”
about, above, across, after, against (clap* clap *)
along, among, around as, at, before * *
behind, below, beneath,
beside, besides, between,
beyond, but, by, down during * *
except, for, from, in, inside, * *
into, like, near, of, off, * *
on, onto, opposite,
out, outside, over, past,
since through, to, toward, under underneath * *
until, up upon, with within, . . . without, HEY!
Download a printable that includes the Helping Verbs and Prepositions in the order included in the chant and song above!
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are the connecting words between words in a sentence: and, but, or, no, so, and yet.
Adjectives
Adjectives describe nouns: people, places, things, and ideas. They tell which, what kind of, and how many.
Adverbs
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They tell how, when, where, and to what extent.
Contractions
Remember what a contraction is? You combine to words into one and use an apostrophe in place of the missing letters. For example, “I’m” is a contraction of the words “I am,” and “don’t” is a contraction of the words “do not.”
Irregular Verbs
Click through to YouTube to see the words to this chant/rap here:
I would love to know if you have found some other great chants or songs to help our kids learn English grammar!
Just list them in the comments below.