Games for Homeschool Language Arts

You've been sentenced is scrabble on steroids. You are not making mere words, but using words to create entire sentences!

Ages: 8 and up

Players: 2-4

Language Arts Skills:  grammar, sentence structure

The pentagonal cards have five related words along the perimeter. The verb cards have different forms of the same verb (see, saw, seeing, sees, has seen, etc.). The noun card has names all beginning with the same letter.The adjective cards have five more choices. And so on. The object is to create a logical and grammatical sentence with the cards in your hand.

Once the timer shows time is up, everyone must read his or her sentence to the group. The players vote on the sentences. Do they make sense? Are they grammatically correct? The conversations during the attacking and defending of the sentences is where a lot of learning comes into play.

You've Been Sentenced is good for learning how sentences are built and the grammar behind them. But there is so much laughter at the silly sentences that no one realizes that the game is a great language arts lesso in disguise.

Adding more words to your You've Been Sentenced game adds to the fun. There are themed decks such as the ones featured below -- pop culture, science fiction, and word power. Note, although the pictures show multiple decks, each item is a single deck not a set.