What Can The Code Game Teach Your Child About Sentence Structuring?

Sentence structures play an important role in language development. They essentially involve arranging different types of words such as adjectives, verbs, nouns, and pronouns in a certain format. There are complex rules that govern the sentence formation. 

Often, parents find it tough to explain to their children why words need to be written in a certain order to form complete sentences. That is when this little code game comes into play. This is a fun game that can be played by anyone and requires minimal resources. 

In this article, we will cover: 

• What Is The Code Game?
• Instructions For Parents
• Instructions For Children
• Colour Representation
• Sample Colour Codes For Children

Let’s get started. 

What Is The Code Game? 

The code game makes it easy and fun to create new and grammatically correct sentences. One key advantage is that parents need not get into lengthy and complex discussions and yet children can end up learning different sentence structures.

For example: 

• Example 1: 
  • Code: Red, Yellow, Yellow, Blue (Red = Pronouns, Yellow = Verb, Blue = Adjectives)
  • Sentence: She is looking happy. He was having fun. 
• Example 2:
  • Code: Pink, Black, Yellow, Blue, Purple, Pink, Yellow, Blue (Red = Pronouns, Yellow = Verb, Blue = Adjectives, Pink = Articles, Purple = Conjunctions, Black = Nouns)
  • Sentence: The bag looked small, but it was heavy. The jar was big but it was empty. 

Requirements: Paper, Pens, Codes Printable. You can download the printable at the end of this post.

Instructions for Parents:

• You can either print the codes given below or make your own. 
• Show one code at a time so that they can focus on the code given to them. 
• Encourage the children to get creative by encouraging them to create funny, happy, scary, or weird sentences purposefully. 
• Turn it into a contest where the funniest or fastest sentence creator wins and gets to decide the next code. 

Instructions for Children:

• You need to adhere to the code given to you. 
• You can try to use different words. Use of dictionaries is permitted. 

Colour Representation: 

Sample Colour Codes For Children: 

• Red, Yellow, Yellow, Blue.
  • She is looking happy.
• Red, Yellow, Pink, Blue, Black.
  • She is a happy woman. 
• Pink, Black, Yellow, Yellow, Orange.
  • The boy is walking slowly.
• Pink, Black, Yellow, Blue, Purple, Pink, Yellow, Blue.
  •  The bag looked small, but it was heavy.
• Red, Black, Yellow, Blue. 
  • The sadness was overwhelming. 
• Red, Yellow, Yellow, White, Yellow, Purple, Red, Yellow, Yellow. 
  • You will continue to improve if you stay focused.

The Code Game is as fun as parents can make it out to be. They can make their codes as per the child’s age and developmental stage. If you can play this game every day with your child for only five minutes, it will benefit them greatly. Initially, some children might find it tough to create sentences, but slowly they will get better at it. Like everything else, the key to success is consistency. 

Download the code game printable here.

Do you like this game? Do you think your child will benefit from it? Is there anything else that you would like to add to this game? Let us know in the comments or drop a note at storyweavers@byjus.com. 

Also read, 

• The Benefits Of Showing Up For Your Child
• The Secret Guide To Strength-Based Parenting