Grammar practice in free, PDF short stories

Classroom Cereal is a series of free, PDF short stories that double as grammar exercises. Each story has five parts and each part has five grammatical mistakes for students to find as they read. Enjoy the story and find the errors. It's simple and nourishing, much like a certain grain-based breakfast food.

Five parts per story

Every story has five parts, each on its own PDF worksheet. Give students one part of the story to read each day of the week, Monday through Friday. The parts are short, about 200 words, so they work great as a quick warm up routine.

Five errors per part

While they read, students hunt for the five grammatical mistakes scattered throughout each worksheet. Go over each part together and discuss what students found, or collect the worksheet as classwork or (gulp) homework.

Better writing

Classroom Cereal makes grammar practice quick and fun. Students become editors as they identify and correct the five grammatical errors in each story part. With daily proofreading, students become mindful of the little things needed for clean composition. Those little things start to show up in their own writing.

Closer reading

Reading Classroom Cereal is both fun and beneficial. First, students simply enjoy an amusing and accessible story, one piece at a time throughout the week. Second, readers form a close relationship with the text by engaging with it directly. Students physically mark up each story as they edit the errors.

More engagement

Get ready to see hands in the air! Classroom Cereal engages even the most resistant readers because it gives them something concrete and objective to look for while reading. Students love to hunt for the errors and share what they've found. Plus, they get into the story throughout the week and the entire year.

Short stories + grammar

Classroom Cereal is short story reading and grammar practice in one.

Stories

First and foremost, Classroom Cereal is a series of short stories. There are 30 total stories, divided into Seasons 1, 2, and 3. Each story is comprised of five parts.

And they're all totally free.

Season 1

Story 1: "Watergate"
Story 2: "Instascam"
Story 3: "The Speech"
Story 4: "Squirm Worms"
Story 5: "The Spice Cabinet"
Story 6: "Snow Angels"
Story 7: "The Skills Test"
Story 8: "Duck Hunt Detention"
Story 9: "Project Principal"
Story 10: "The FMS Student Cook Off"

For Cooper, Malina, and Rodgers, seventh grade at Fairview Middle School is one disaster after another. By the end of Season 1, will they learn enough about the school, and its principal, to fight to keep FMS the way it is?

Season 3

Story 21: "Fabled Places"
Story 22: "The Legend of the Lone Candle"
Story 23: "Inferno Snacks"
Story 24: "Kettle Cross Christmas"
Story 25: "Locker Frog"
Story 26: "The Man and Ms. Martinez"
Story 27: "Fairview Heights Luxury Condominiums"
Story 28: "The Little Magician"
Story 29: "Operation Romeo Treehouse"
Story 30: "Your Friend, Jamie"

Cooper, Malina, and Rodgers are on to high school, but Season 3 sees a new crew ready to step in at FMS. Before the year is out, they'll have to work together to understand their town's magical past and save Fairview as they know it.

Season 2

Story 11: "Daybreak"
Story 12: "The Coin"
Story 13: "The Harvest Dance"
Story 14: "Ultimate Holiday Baking Championship"
Story 15: "People of Fairview"
Story 16: "The Corn Muffin Incident of 1997"
Story 17: "Finding Mrs. Comstock"
Story 18: "Washington's Lost Treasure"
Story 19: "The Hunt"
Story 20: "Fairview Farewell"

The secrets of Fairview, NJ are slowly revealed throughout Season 2. When they learn that one of history's lost treasures could be buried beneath their feet, Fairview Middle School students and staff race to find it first.

Grammar

Within every story are grammatical mistakes for students to find and edit as they read. There are 25 total errors per story (five errors per part) and they're all from one of these six categories.

Spelling

Rodgers was opening his locker when Principal Mellon appeered behind him.

Word Usage

Enraged, Malina raced to the front office.
She have a plan.

Capitalization

He knew his key to catching Mr. Nitman
was eric Fincher.

Punctuation

"Wait a second," said Malina "Did your mom comment on this?"

Homophones

Cooper, of course, was the only won who
got lunch detention for it.

Rodgers (The next day,) stood on the
auditorium stage with Orn.

Sentence Structure

Structured grammar practice

Each story's errors are organized to help students learn. Half of a story's 25 errors are random, but the other half address four specific grammatical concepts. Here are the concepts for Story 1.

Story 1: "Watergate"

Concept

# of errors

Homophones

No and Know

3 Punctuation

Question mark (?) at the end of questions

3 Spelling

"wr" and "r" making the R sound at the beginning of words

3 Word Usage

Appropriate times to use the infinitive verb form

3

This means students will have three or four opportunities to practice each concept throughout the course of a story. Also, there's a question to assess mastery of each concept in every story's Quiz.

Get the full grammar program with the subscription

The 30 PDF grammar stories are free! But with the $30/year Classroom Cereal subscription, you get way more.

Your subscription gets you...

Answer Keys
PDF sheets showing where the errors are and how to fix them.
Quizzes
A 10-question quiz for all 30 stories. Five multiple choice comprehension questions, four grammar questions, and one short answer. Available as a PDF, Google Slide, and auto-grading Google Form.
Teacher Guides
For every story, a one-page sheet with everything you need in order to teach it: plot summary, themes, explanation of that story's grammatical concepts, and quiz answers.
Grammar Maps
For all seasons, a one-pager outlining every grammatical concept addressed in that season and the stories that feature them.
Grammar Growth Assessment
A 48-question, multiple choice grammar assessment, allowing teachers to track grammar progress throughout the year. Available as a PDF, Google Slide, and auto-grading Google Form.
Google Slides Stories
All 30 stories on their own interactive Google Slide.
Grammar Mini Lessons
Short, fun, consistent mini lessons on key grammatical concepts. Available as PDFs, Google Slides, and auto-grading Google Forms.