Grammarosaurus

This 25 minute musical play can be done as a complete play, skits, read-aloud, or you can just sing songs. A fun way for students to learn about the tricks and rules of punctuation and grammar. No music or drama experience needed. Grades 1-4.

The Loch Ness monster has surfaced, and it turns out she's a Grammarosaurus! Nessie and her friends, all experts on some aspects of grammar, have come out of the lake because the world is in a grammatical crises. As reporters, tourists, professors and grammar lovers converge on Loch Ness, the Grammarosauri are only too happy to explain all about capital letters, plurals, contractions, subject-verb agreement, complete sentences, and punctuation.

Designed for students beginning their study of grammar, Grammarosaurus a great introduction to and review of English language concepts.

This is my 3rd year of having my class perform one of your musicals. This year we are getting ready to do “Grammarosaurus.” Wow! The kids love, love, love the music (great instrumentation) and are begging me to sign them up for parts. This is after just 3 times of listening to the CD and they already have some of the songs memorized. Thank you for your wonderful contribution to children and making learning fun.

---Ruth Kenney, 2nd grade teacher, Terrace Park School, Mountlake Terrace, WA

"It was a great success -- fun and exciting. Your plays make is fun to learn about grammar. The plays are flexible enough to allow ALL students to have a speaking part and to shine. The parts are easy to learn and fun. Students were singing the songs all day long. Even the shyest students came out. Our classess did very well on the end of your tests and I contribute part of it to your fun learning process. I look forward to doing more each year."

---Katherine Hawkins, NBCT Teacher (2nd grade), Brushy Creek Elementary, Taylors, SC

"My students learned the songs quickly and enjoyed singing them. They learned key English Language Arts facts that reinforced the skills they have been learning in the classroom. The plays are clever and teacher friendly. In a time when standards are stressed, you can feel good about taking time out to work on a play because the standards are incorporated. Thank you Bad Wolf Press for making the job of this teacher much easier!"

---Rene Griffiths, Teacher, Bella Vista Elementary, Bella Vista, CA

"It was great!! The kids really loved it. There were both easy parts and more challenging ones for those who were up to it. It was awesome! My favorite part was that it served as a teaching and review tool for basic grammar. The kids had fun and learned something too! "

---Cyndi Aghayan, Teacher (2nd grade), Foothill Elementary, Santa Barbara, CA

"LOVED IT! Covers our writing/grammar standards perfectly. We used each act in the play to teach students a week-long grammar lesson. Kids were thrilled!"

---Kali Camara, Teacher (2nd grade), Monta Loma Elementary, Mountain View, CA

Casting

Flexible casting from 11-40 students.
Use as many Grammarosauri as desired. There are a lot of characters
in the show, but many of them have just a few spoken lines. One student
can easily play several roles. Note that all roles can be played by either boys
or girls; see our comments on page 38 of the Teacher's Guide .

Script

This is the first one-third of the script:

The duration of the show is about 25 minutes

CHARACTERS:

Jessica (reporter)
Roberto (reporter)
Capital Grammarosauri
Sally (roving reporter)
Plural Grammarosauri
Contraction Grammarosauri
Tourist
Cameraman
Subject/Verb Grammarosauri
Noun Grammarosaurus
Verb Grammarosaurus
Professor Participle
Professor Semicolon
Comma Grammarosauri
Dr. Pickwick
Quotation Marks (2)
Nessie

and a CHORUS composed of all students who are not playing
roles on stage at the time.

There is a big sign on the wall that reads:

Breaking News from Scotland:
Grammarosaurus Discovered!

Song 1 - Listen now!

CLASS:

Extra! Extra! Stop that press!
Guess what they found in Loch Ness!
Greeting tourists on the beach
Teaching folks 'bout parts of speech
Grammar
Grammarosaurus
Grammarosaurus.

Extra! Extra! I'm not done
Nessie's not the only one
They think commas are a treat
Their sentences are complete.
Grammar
Grammarosaurus
Grammarosaurus.

Read the interview
They even know what colons do.

(spoken): Do you?

Extra! Extra! Stop that press!
Guess what they found in Loch Ness!
Greeting tourists on the beach
Teaching folks 'bout parts of speech.
Grammar
Grammarosaurus
Grammarosaurus
Grammarosaurus.

(ROBERTO and JESSICA enter. They each carry a
microphone. THEY address audience.)

JESSICA: Good evening. I'm Jessica, and this is Roberto.

ROBERTO: Welcome to our special report. We have breaking news from
Scotland.

JESSICA: People from all over the world are flocking here to talk to the
Loch Ness Monster.

CAPITAL GRAMMAROSAURUS #1: Hey, I heard that!

CAPITAL G. #2: I'm NOT a monster!

CAPITAL G. #3: I'm a Grammarosaurus.

ROBERTO: How many of you are there?

CAPITAL G. #1: Lots.

JESSICA: How come you¹ve never come out in the open before?

CAPITAL G. #2: The world is in crisis.

ROBERTO: Economic crisis?

JESSICA: Environmental?

CAPITAL G. #3: Grammatical.

CAPITAL G: #1: The world needs us now.

CAPITAL G. #2: We Grammarosauri love different kinds of grammar.

CAPITAL G. #3: The three of us, for example, love capital letters.

ROBERTO: Capitals?

CAPITAL G. #1: Of course.
CAPITAL G. #2: But there's one capital letter we REALLY like.

CAPITAL G. #3: Because it's an entire word!

Song 2 - Listen now!

CAPITAL GRAMMAROSAURI:

The first word in a sentence gets a capital
The other words don't usually even try
But there's one word that always gets a capital
My very fav'rite capital is I!

No matter where you put it it's a capital
Beginning middle end it stands up high
The subject I like best, well, it's a capital
My very fav'rite capital is I!

I, I, I, I

CHORUS: It's just one little letter

CAPITAL GRAMMAROSAURI:

I, I, I, I

CHORUS: It can't get better than I!

CAPITAL GRAMMAROSAURI:

Oh sure a person's name will get a capital
And certain words like Monday or July
But if I have to pick out just one capital
My very fav'rite capital is I!

CAPITAL GRAMMAROSAURI and
CHORUS:

I, I, I, I
It's just one little letter
I, I, I, I
It can't get better than I!
It can't get better than I!
(THEY exit. SALLY SWAMPWATER enters with three
GRAMMAROSAURI. )

SALLY (to audience): Hi there. I'm Sally Swampwater, your roving reporter.
I¹ve just come across three more Grammarosauri. Or is it Grammarosauruses?

PLURAL GRAMMAROSAURUS #1: I prefer Grammarosauri.

PLURAL G. #2: It's the Latin form.

SALLY: You guys know Latin?

PLURAL G. #3: Doesn't everybody?

SALLY: You must have been in that lake a very long time.

PLURAL G. #1: Yes---it's taking us a while to adjust to modern times.

PLURAL G. #2: But we do love the tea.

PLURAL G. #3: And it's just a few minutes before tea time!

SALLY: What do you find so confusing about life these days?

PLURAL G. #1: Lots of things. Forks, for example.

PLURAL G. #2: And the tax code.

PLURAL G. #3: And Harry Potter---is Dumbledore dead or not?

PLURAL G. #1: And especially plurals.

PLURAL G. #2: It used to be so easy to make a plural. You just added an
"s"

PLURAL G. #3: But modern life is complicated!

Song 3 - Listen now!

PLURAL GRAMMAROSAURI:
When I was young life was simple
Plurals just added an "s"
"Voice" became "voices"
"Choice" became"choices"
Plurals were easy to guess.

When I was young life was simple
Plurals just added and "s"
Then I got older
The world grew colder
Now ev'rything is a mess!

"House" becomes "houses"
"Mouse" becomes "mice"
"Moose" isn't "mooses"
And "die" becomes "dice."
It's so random it's causing me stress
I miss the "s."

GRAMMAROSAURI and CHORUS:
When I was young life was simple
Plurals just added an "s"
"Voice" became "voices"
"Choice" became "choices"
Plurals were easy to guess.

When I was young life was simple
Plurals just added and "s"
Then I got older
The world grew colder
Now ev¹rything is a mess!

"Child" becomes "children"
"Sheep" just stays "sheep"
"Goose" isn't "gooses"
A "foot" becomes "feet"
It's so random it's causing me stress
I miss the "s"
It's so random it's causing me stress
I miss the "s"
(THEY exit. THREE Grammarosauri enter. They're wearing
long coats. They whisper to each other. Then a TOURIST
carrying binoculars walks by.)

CONTRACTION GRAMMAROSAURUS #1 (to other GRAMMAROSAURI):
Hey look, it's a tourist.
(TO TOURIST, secretively):
Pssst. Hey, buddy.

TOURIST: Wow, a Grammarosaurus! I've come all the way from _______
(fill in name of your city) to see one of you up close.

CONTRACTION G. #2 (reaching into coat and pulling at a large letter "O"):
You wanna buy an "O"?

TOURIST: You mean the letter O?

CONTRACTION G. #3: Ssssshh! Yeah. The letter O.

TOURIST: What is this, Wheel of Fortune?

CONTRACTION G. #1: A nice fresh O. Took it right out of the phrase,
"Should not."

TOURIST: You stole an O?

CONTRACTION G. #2: Ssshh. We didn't really STEAL it. We BORROWED it.

CONTRACTION G. #3: We do it all the time...we take the O out of phrases like
"should not" and put an apostrophe in its place.

TOURIST: You shouldn't!

CONTRACTION G. #1: Exactly. We end up with shouldn't!

CONTRACTION G. #2: It's a contraction.

CONTRACTION G. #3: And we LOVE contractions!

Sample Songs

Click on the song name to hear samples. Please note that internet song samples have low fidelity and rest assured that the CDs we sell sound much better! (This player requires Flash. If you have any trouble hearing the samples, just contact us for help.)

Full Song List

1. Grammarosaurus
2. Capital
3. Plurals
4. Contractions
5. Make the Subject Match the Verb
6. Noun and Verb
7. Can You End a Sentence?
8. Comma
9. Quotation Marks
10. Grammarosaurus (Reprise)

National Education Standards

Fulfills National Arts Standard 3 for Dance, 1 and 8 for music, and 2, 3, and 5 for Theater.
CA State State  Standards for English Language Arts 1-4

Vocabulary

These are some of the subjects discussed with their
correlating California State Standards for first grade. You can
easily find your own state and grade level standards to match
these topics:

Simple contractions (Grammar 1.3)

Uses of periods, exclamation points, and question marks
(Punctuation 1.4)

Use of quotation marks (Punctuation 1.5)

Parts of speech (Grammar 1.3)

Basic capitalization: proper names, words at the beginning of
sentences, months, and days of the week (Capitalization1.6)

Complete and Incomplete sentences (Sentence Structure 1.1)

Commas with dates and items in a series, and in the greeting and
closure of a letter (Punctuation 1.4)

Word order (Sentence Structure 1.2)

Other grammatical terms (including "grammatical" and "grammarian") found in Grammarosaurus:

colons
semicolon
clause
punctuation marks apostrophes
participle
direct quote conjugating
hyphen
object parts of speech
subjunctive
reported speech

General Vocabulary Building:
economic
adjust
satisfaction
scoop
sunflowers
psychologist
transference
environmental
die (dice)
footage
peek
bouquets
astonishing
inflammation
roving
random
lure
leak
groundhog
expert
buddies
Latin
tourist
whiz
absurd
date
nervous
Bigfoot

Phrases & Slang
"stop the press!"
"feeling negative"
"once and for all"
"tax code"
"cramp your style"
"be that as it may"
"biz"
"Loch Ness (monster)"
"breaking news"
"buzz off!"
"tea time"
"smiley face"
"beyond reach"
"so be it"
"Nessie"