I'm not sure how I could adapt this to homeschool, but it sounds like fun!
WORD MARKET                                                    fifth grade
    This is a lesson plan adapted from an article by Diane Sullivan 
in the Nov./Dec. 1994 issue of Teaching K-8.
    All 4 fifth grade teachers at our school collaborated in preparing 
for this activity.  We used it as a year-end review of the parts of speech.
There were about 100 fifth graders involved in this activity.  We divided 
them up into groups of about 4 or 5.  We used the gym/cafeteria so we could 
all be together in one large room.  (This could also be done very effectively
as a single class, however.)
    Before beginning this activity, we spent time during the year 
teaching the parts of speech.  We also spent time reviewing the parts of 
speech through various individual and cooperative activities.  In other 
words, the children were as well prepared as possible before participating 
in the Word Market. 
    The teachers also needed to prepare materials ahead of time.  Once 
these are prepared, however, they can be reused year after year.  We made 
about 200 3x5 word cards for each part of speech, then laminated them.  We 
used grammar books in order to get a wide sampling of words in each category.
For instance, with nouns, we had to make sure we included singular and 
lural,
common and proper, gerunds, etc.  In the case of singular and plural, we
decided to put the singular form on one side of the card and the plural form
on the other side.  This worked well for verbs, also. For instance, we put
"run" on one side and "runs" on the other side.  With verbs, we had to
include different tenses, helping verbs, forms of be, etc.  We had cards for
nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions,
interjections, articles, and punctuation marks.  We also made about 100 "wild
word" cards, which we divided up among the 8 parts of speech.  We brought 10
brown grocery bags to put the cards in.  We arranged for 5 tables to be
placed in the gym/cafeteria and made five "booths" to sell parts of speech,
two at each table.     
    We also made some simple wood frames that could be clamped to tables.
These were the "booths" where parts of speech were sold.  We also went to a 
local library to find a tape of circus and carnival music.  We had to prepare
an envelope for each team with $400.00 of play money inside.  We even ordered
some helium balloons to tie to each "booth" in order to add to the carnival
atmosphere.
    We explained the activity ahead of time to the students.  We told 
them which team they would be on, and then went over some possible strategies
teams could use.  After doing this activity once, we decided afterwards that 
next year we would spend some time talking about being a good group member, 
also.
Here's how we explained the activity to the students:
   1.  You're going to be on a team of about 4-5 students.
   2.  We'll go down to the gym about 1:00.  You'll sit with your team at
       one of the tables. Someone on each team should have an
       English book and a dictionary.  Each team should also have 
       paper and pencil.
   3.  At 1:15 the strategy session will begin.  Your team will have to
       decide how to spend the $400.00.  You will also have to decide
       who will fill these roles: seller, buyer, trader, and
       recorder.  The seller will sell parts of speech at
       one of the booths.  The buyer willl take the teams
       "shopping list" and the money and buy parts of speech for 
       the group.  The trader will take all the unused word cards 
       and go to the trading session about halfway through this 
       activity and try to trade them for some new cards. The 
       recorder will write down all the teams sentences on a sheet of paper. 
       4.  At 1:30, the sellers go to their booths.  They start
           loudly yelling out what they have for sale.  Then
           the buyers run around quickly trying to buy parts of speech.
           When a buyer asks for "8 nouns", for example, the seller will 
           reach into the bag and randomly hand over 8 nouns.  The buyer
           can't choose which cards to buy.  When the bell rings at 1:45,
           no more word cards will be sold.  All purchases must be made 
           during the 15 minute time limit.
   5.  At 1:45, the groups try to make as many sentences out of their word
       cards as possible.  All teams members should try to help. 
   6.  At 2:00, the trader from each team will try to trade unused cards 
       for new ones at the trading session.  All traders will meet in the 
       middle of the gym and call out cards that they have to trade.  
   7.  At 2:15, the trading session is over.  The teams must finalize their
       sentences and write them down.  All the word cards for each sentence
       must be rubber-banded together in the correct order.  
    
Here were the "rules" we discussed ahead of time:
    1.  All sentences must be complete.  Incomplete sentences do not 
            earn any points.
    2.  Sentences must be gramatically correct.
    3.  A word may be used only once unless the team has purchased 
            more than one of the same word.
    4.  Endings may not be added to the words, and endings may not be 
            changed.
    5.  If a card has a word on both sides, you may use either one of 
            the two words, but not both.
    6.  Only one "wild word" may be used per sentence.  It may be used 
            as any part of speech.
    7.  Verbs must agree with subjects. (ex. Boys run.  A boy runs.)
    8.  Sentences must be correctly capitalized and punctuated.
    9.  If gramatically correct, a word labeled as one part of speech 
            may be used as another.  (For example, love can be used as a
            noun or a verb.)  However, if a team is trying to use all 8 
            parts of speech in a sentence, they must all actually BE there.
            If a team has "flying" as a verb card and uses it as an noun 
            instead, then the sentence must also have another verb card that 
            is used as a verb.
    10.  Each gramatically correct sentence earns 100 points.
    11.  Correct punctuation earns 50 points.
    12.  Sentences with more than 10 words earn 500 points.
    13.  Sentences using all 8 parts of speech earn a bonus of 500 points.
    We had carnival music playing when the classes came into the gym.  
We also played it during the quieter times when groups were working on 
sentences.  It really added to the atmosphere!  We started out saying that 
sentences had to be logical as well as gramatically correct.  During the 
activity, however, we realized that this was actually a lot harder than it 
looked, and wound up accepting some very "creative" sentences.  Something 
else to consider:  we color-coded the word cards.  Nouns were red, verbs 
were green, etc.  For fifth graders we felt this "extra" help was needed.  
This also helped greatly in organizing materials afterwards.  For older 
students with more experience with parts of speech, however, you probably 
won't want to color code the cards.  Try to have some kind of numerical 
coding, however, so that when you're trying to find all the "verbs" 
afterwards to store materials, you don't have to sit and figure out each 
word card.   
    We also have an economics unit that runs at the same time, so 
afterwards, we transferred the points that each team earned into dollars.  
You'd have to decide what the reward would be (if any) for earning points.  
We tried to stay away from "winners", letting each team try to accumulate 
as many points as possible without stressing who got the most points.  The 
kids totally bought into this activity and were intensely involved.  It was 
very elaborate and involved a lot of preparation, but we now have the 
materials ready for next year.  It was worth all the work, and definitely 
worth repeating!
If anyone is interested in using this activity and needs further
clarification, let me know.  I'd be glad to help!  (JCPERE)
WORD MARKET PRICE LIST
PART OF SPEECH     COLOR               PRICE
___________________________________________________
Nouns               Red                 $10.00
___________________________________________________
Pronouns            Orange              $5.00
___________________________________________________
Verbs               Green               $10.00
___________________________________________________
Adjectives          Blue                $5.00
___________________________________________________
Articles            Blue                $1.00
___________________________________________________
Adverbs             Yellow              $5.00
___________________________________________________   
Prepositions        Purple              $5.00
___________________________________________________
Conjunctions        Pink                $5.00
___________________________________________________
Interjections       Brown               $5.00
___________________________________________________
Punctuation         Black               $1.00
___________________________________________________
    SCHEDULE: 
1:15 - 1:30   Planning strategy
1:30 - 1:45   Buying parts of speech
1:45 - 2:00   Make & write sentences
2:00 - 2:15   Trading session
2:15 - 2:30   Finish writing sentences,
         put rubber band around word cards,
                then turn them in.
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