Super Teachers!

Unbelievable! The heroes and villains of Super Grammar have been brought to life! 

On October 28, (just before Halloween) this picture was posted onto our Super Grammar facebook page.  When we first saw it, we were knocked out.  “These are Super Grammar characters,” we thought, “and these costumes are amazing!”  But how did this happen?  Where did these heroes come from?  Our curiosity was too great, and we knew that we had no choice; we had to learn the truth.  So, using the awesome (and nearly unlimited) power of our hypertext transfer protocol device, we made contact with these mysterious beings, and then we asked them to tell us—their origins story.

We soon learned that this photo was sent to us by a courageous group of 3^rd grade teachers from King-Chavez Arts and Athletics Academies in San Diego, and they told us that they made these super costumes for their school’s fall carnival.  But why did they do it?  Well, here’s what they said:

"This year we started using Super Grammar as part of our lessons. As we introduce our weekly grammar standard, we accompany it with a Super Grammar hero or villain. Our kids have been so into it and are always begging for more, so we thought they would LOVE it if their very own teachers turned into super heroes for a day... and oh boy! We all had a blast!"

And so, these valiant teachers dressed up as: The Subject (Ms Lima), The Predicate (Ms. Hernandez), The Noun (Mrs. Woodhead), and The Fragment (Mr. Hobson).   We couldn’t help but notice what a great job they did on their costumes, too.  We were really impressed with the level of detail and craftsmanship that they had put into each character.  It’s obvious that they had fun making the costumes, but wait; their fun was just getting started.  As part of their super powered mission, they came up with a way to share the fun of their super identities with their students!  Here’s how they did it: 

"During the day of the carnival, we each printed out mini cards with our character on them. We challenged our kids to collect all of the cards by the end of the day to earn a prize. As they came up to each of us we asked them to: tell us who we were, what our super hero's power was or to give an example (of a noun, subject, predicate, fragment). We were amazed at how many prizes we had to give away. Now our only problem is: how on Earth will we be able to top this next year!?"

Truly, only the mightiest of teachers could have pulled off such a bold and daring feat of super powered creativity.  Ms. Lima, Ms. Hernandez, Mrs. Woodhead, and Mr. Hobson; you’re super awesome, and Super Grammar salutes you.  Well done, heroes.  Well done!

As a small “Thank you,” for doing proper justice to the Super Grammar characters, we’ve sent each of you a Super Grammar Bookmark and a set of promo cards.  We hope you enjoy them, and thank you again for making this year's Halloween so special for us!

Sincerely,

The Super Grammar Team

P.S.  If—You—have a Super Grammar story that you’d like to share, please email us (here) or post it onto our facebook page.  We’d love to hear about it! 

The Adjective

The Adjective is a hero with an incredible eye for detail, and as a member of The Amazing Eight (A.K.A. parts of speech), this hero puts his keen powers of observation to work for the good of all our sentences.

The Adjective is a modifier, and with the help of his super handy modifying tool, he delivers a fist full of descriptive power to nouns.  The details supplied by The Adjective serve our sentences by adding richness and interest to the people, places, and objects within them.  For instance, “the hero” can become “the fearless hero,” and “the villain” can become “the twisted villain.”  Also, adjectives can be very useful additions to our sentences because they add clarity and understanding by answering the questions: which one, how many, and what kind?

So, the next time you want to add some distinct and dynamic description to your sentences, remember our detail oriented hero—The Adjective. 

SUPER POWERS:

The Adjective has the ability to modify nouns in a sentence with the addition of descriptive detail.  By modifying these words with description, he helps answer these questions: which one, how many, and what kind?

 

SUPER EXAMPLES:

1)

The slimy thief got away.

slimy: adjective answering the question which one?

2)

Three heroes are on patrol.

Three: adjective answering the question how many?

3)

Circuit Breaker is a powerful villain.

powerful: adjective answering the question what kind?

THE POWER OF PHRASING:

The Adjective has The Power of Phrasing.  Sometimes an adjective needs to be more than a single word to properly do its job.  This is when The Adjective uses The Power of Phrasing.  This power allows the adjective to stretch out into being several words that act as a single unit within a sentence.  This group of words is called: a phrase.

SUPER EXAMPLES:

1)

The man with the enormous brain is controlling us.

with the enormous brain: adjective phrase answering the question which one?

2)

His more than two arms gave him the advantage.

more than two: adjective phrase answering the question how many?

3)

He is a hero of tremendous virtue.

of tremendous virtue: adjective phrase answering the question what kind?

The Completion Team

There are only two members that belong to The Completion Team (A.K.A. parts of a sentence), and they are The Subject and The Predicate. 

With only two members, The Complete Sentence Super-Team is the smallest of all the super-teams, but just because they don’t have as many team members as the other bigger groups, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have a big and important part to play in keeping your sentences strong and correct.  In fact, these two wholesome heroes may very well have one of the most important grammar jobs of all: making complete sentences.

Now, citizen, you might be wondering, “Why are complete sentences so important?”

Well, think about it this way: If you were a super crime-fighter, would you go into battle with only half of your body armor?

No, you wouldn’t—because you’d get clobbered if you did that!
 

Well, it’s the exact same thing with sentences: They need both sides of their armor, the Subject and the Predicate, in order to be complete. And if sentences don’t have their complete armor, they’ll get completely clobbered by the grammar mistakes. But once a sentence is fully complete, that sentence is ready to test its super protective armor against any grammar mistake that dares to attack it, because a complete sentence is a strong sentence.

So, citizen, it's time for you to join forces with the Completion Team and learn all about their superpowers. And after that, your super protective sentence armor will be complete!

SUPER POWERS:

The Subject and The Predicate are members of the Completion Team (A.K.A. parts of a sentence), and they have the power to form strong and complete sentences.

THE COMPLETE SENTENCE SUPER-TEAM MEMBERS:

• The Subject: the someone or something the sentence is about.
• The Predicate: tells (verbalizes) something about the subject.

SUPER EXAMPLE:

The hero rescued the crowd.

Is this a complete sentence?  Let's check.

First, find the subject (ask: who or what is the sentence about?).

 

Next, find the predicate (ask: what is the sentence telling about the subject?).

Now, put the subject and the predicate together, and ...

                 The Subject                                  The Predicate

Yes, this is a complete sentence.

Super Grammar's Public Debut

Super Grammar has just wrapped its first year at the San Diego Comic-Con! 

Here’s a shot (above) of our display.  It featured our double-sided bookmarks and five different promo cards.  We made these bookmarks and promo cards as give-away items to help spread the word about Super Grammar.

 

Here’s a picture (above) of the full table display at the Comic-Con booth.  Super Grammar proudly shared table space with Rhode Montijo’s other children's books: The Halloween Kid, Cloud Boy, Skeletown, and T-t-tartamudo. 

Now, you might be thinking that our Super Grammar display looks a little small, but this small display represents a very big step for us.  You see, this is the first time that we’ve ever presented Super Grammar outside of this blog, so that makes this event—our official public debut!  And, we’re happy to report that our debut went over pretty well. 

The bookmarks, especially, were a big hit!  We printed a thousand of them, and they were all gone by mid Saturday.  If we had any idea that we were going to run out, we would have printed more; but honestly, it was a surprise to us that so many people were interested in having one.  Bookmarks—who knew?

Our promo cards did pretty well, too.  On that front, it was our supervillain card featuring The Fragment that was the highest in demand, but that’s only when someone was interested in taking a single card.  For the most part, I was noticing that people were grabbing one of each so that they had the whole set. 

Here’s a shot (above) of convention goers checking out the goods.

All in all, it was a super fun time, and it felt really great to finally have Super Grammar out in the light of day.  Getting to watch the reactions of people who were seeing Super Grammar for the first time was also a big treat for us.  We’d here things like, “Super Grammar, Yeah!” and, I remember one guy saying, “I love superheroes, and I love grammar, so this is perfect.”  Getting the chance to meet and talk with all these fun people (many of them in costume) was absolutely the best part.  In fact, getting to physically talk to people about Super Grammar has made all of the hard work that we’ve been putting into creating it feel hugely satisfying.  It’s a great feeling to have, so we’d like to pass along our gratitude to all of you who stopped by and shared your excitement and support for Super Grammar with us.  Thank you!

Before we wrap up this post, we’ve got one more picture for you. 

Here are the creators of Super Grammar in their mild mannered disguises: Rhode Montijo (left) and Tony Preciado (right).

Thanks for all the fun, Comic-Con.  And, to all of you who have just found out about Super Grammar, be it by Comic-Con or not, welcome.  We’ve got more Super Grammar heroes and villains on the way!

Sincerely,

The Super Grammar Team

p.s. We’d like to give super special thanks to our talented friend who is Rhode’s Booth partner, Jamie Baker, for all of his support through Comic-Con. 

Thanks, Jamie!

The Sentence Ending Team

One of the specialized jobs entrusted to the punctuation team, The Super Symbols, is telling the reader when a sentence has ended.  There are three Super Symbols Team members that have this power, and they are: The Period, The Question Mark, and The Exclamation Point.

These three sentence terminators all possess the power to signal the end of a sentence, but keep in mind that they are not simply here to end sentences—they’re also here to make a point!  Each of these super symbols is empowered with the ability to influence the character, voice, and mood of a sentence.  Are you calm, confused, angry, or determined?  Whichever it may be, the sentence ending team is ready to help you communicate it loud and clear. 

So, never forget to end your sentences with proper punctuation, and always remember that The Sentence Ending team is on your side—to the bitter end.

SENTENCE ENDING TEAM MEMBERS:

• The Period.
• The Question Mark?
• The Exclamation Point!

Super Grammar Promo Cards

The San Diego Comic-Con is happening this week (July 21st-24th), and even though we already have our Super Grammar bookmarks to give out, we just couldn’t help ourselves, so we made these promo cards, too!

Super Grammar will be at BOOTH 1329.

We hope to see you there!

The Noun Team

-->Nouns are a proud and devoted part of the elite group of power enhanced words known as The Amazing Eight (A.K.A. parts of speech), but even with enhanced powers, being a noun is a big job.  That’s why the Noun Team has two dedicated members ready to meet the task.

These amazing parts of speech are a very flexible pair of shape-shifters, and they can change their forms to be any number of persons, places, or things within a sentence.  Yes, that’s right; I said any person, place, or thing!  Anyone, anywhere, or anything that you want to write about in a sentence is possible because, no matter what it is, there is always a Noun Team hero ready to get the job done.

THE NOUN TEAM MEMBERS:

• The Common Noun
• The Proper Noun