Ave Maria sorting cards were an obvious addition to our collection. My little student has been enjoying putting together the Pater Noster using her set of cards, and I promised her this set for her next lesson. It’s now available as a free download for you, too.

You can ask your little one to sort the cards according to their parts of speech:

NOUNS: gratia, Maria, Jesus, Mater, Dei, mulieribus, fructus, Dominus, hora, mortis, ventris, peccatoribus

VERB: ora (imperative form)

INTERJECTION: Ave

CONJUNCTION: et

PRONOUN: tecum (the pronoun, te is combined with the conjunction cum, with), tu, nostrae, tui, nobis

PREPOSITIONS: in, for

ADJECTIVES: plena, benedicta, sancta

ADVERB: nunc

SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK:

Which word is the same in English as in Latin? (in.)

Why is there only one verb? (The others are implied. Look at the the English of the first half: it contains several state-of-being verbs, eg art, is.)

Why do the adjectives all end in ‘a’? (They have to agree with the nouns, and those qualified by adjectives are feminine nouns of the first declension, ending in ‘a’.)

Which word is in Hebrew? (Amen. This might be new information but now is a good time to introduce it.)

Click here to go to the Free Resources page and download the Ave Maria sorting cards.

Click here to learn more about the history and efficacy of the Ave Maria prayer.