grammar activities in classroom

10 Fun Ways to Teach Grammar: Using Grammar Activities and Games

Let’s face it. Most students may not find grammar fun or exciting, but that doesn’t mean that our grammar lessons have to be monotonous and boring. For some teachers, grammar can be difficult to teach because students don’t usually get excited about learning concepts such as parts of speech, punctuation, etc.

With some creative ideas and lessons, grammar can be not only fun to teach, but fun to learn as well. Here are 10 fun ways to teach grammar. Putting a little fun into our grammar lessons is a sure way to help teach our students the grammar skills that they need.

Fun Ways to Teach Grammar: Make It Visual and Engaging

The use of mini-lessons is an effective strategy for teaching grammar skills. Often, a short lesson is sufficient to help students grasp a new grammar concept or review a forgotten grammar skill. Why not make these mini-lessons visually interesting as well? Because PowerPoints can be very visually appealing and can increase student engagement, they are a great tool to incorporate into our mini-lesson routines. I love a good parts of speech PowerPoint that is not only visually stimulating but provide opportunities for student engagement.

Beth S. says, “ I used this ( Adverbs PowerPoint ) in a 6th Grade English class Zoom meeting. I shared my screen so (students) could see the PowerPoint on their screens, and then we practiced together. I split them into breakout rooms to work as small groups on the practice sheets and then brought it all together at the end to go over together. Much more engaging than me just talking or writing on the whiteboard! “

Fun Ways to Teach Grammar: Videos

Fun ways to teach grammar: front and center.

Fun Ways to Teach Grammar: Get Active

Snacking with Grammar

Use grammar in context, color with grammar.

Incorporate Grammar with Art

Get digital, write a book about it, weave grammar into daily practice.

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20 Grammar Activities to Use in the Classroom

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Teaching grammar doesn’t have to be a tedious task for either teacher or students. There are numerous engaging and interactive activities that can make learning grammar fun and help reinforce the lessons learned. Here are 20 activities to get your classroom buzzing with excitement: 1. Grammar Bingo : Create bingo cards with different grammar terms or sentence structures and have students mark them as you call them out. 2. Parts of Speech Charades : Have students act out different parts of speech, such as verbs or adjectives, while others guess what they are. 3. Sentence Scramble : Cut up sentences into individual words or phrases and have students race to rearrange them into the correct order. 4. Grammar Jeopardy: Set up a Jeopardy-style game where students answer questions about various grammar concepts. 5. Punctuation Painting : Provide a worksheet with sentences lacking punctuation and have students ‘paint’ in the correct punctuation marks. 6. Mad Libs: Give students Mad Libs exercises to practice parts of speech by filling in blanks with specific types of words. 7. Grammar Detective : Have students find and correct errors in paragraphs that you’ve intentionally seeded with mistakes. 8. Board Race: Write a grammatically incorrect sentence on the board and have teams race to correct it. 9. Conjugation Connect Four: Create a grid where students can practice verb conjugations by connecting four corrected verbs in a row. 10. Prefixes and Suffixes Relay: In groups, students take turns writing words using different prefixes or suffixes on a shared board. 11. Synonym Match-up : Students draw cards to find pairs of synonyms from a stack spread out on their table. 12. Antonym Opposites: Have pairs of students come up to the board and write an antonym for whatever word the teacher points to. 13. Grammar Sort: Students sort words into nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc., using categorized columns on the board or tables. 14. Tense Timeline: Create a visual timeline in the classroom where students can place actions in the past, present, or future tenses. 15. Comma Splice Surgery : Write sentences with comma splices on notecards and have the students rewrite them correctly as a ‘surgery.’ 16. Preposition Walkabout : Place objects around the room and have students write sentences describing their position using different prepositions. 17. Verb Balloon Pop : Write verbs on pieces of paper inside balloons; popping them determines which verbs student groups will conjugate or use in a sentence. 18. Adjective Artwork : Students draw a scene and then write descriptive sentences using adjectives about their artwork. 19. Homophone Hunt : Post homophones around the room; students must find them and create sentences that correctly use each word. 20. Grammar Auction: Have fake money for students to bid on sentences they believe are grammatically correct—the ones who identify correct sentences win fake cash prizes! These activities cater to various learning styles and can be adapted from elementary to high school levels, making grammar an exciting venture rather than just another lesson plan filler.

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33 Sure-Fire Strategies & Activities for Teaching English Grammar

Grammar… how do we teach it?

Is it just reciting monotonously from a textbook and hoping that the students are on board?

Can we make it more interactive and dare I say, even fun?

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Read on and find out yourself!

Whether you’re new to teaching English (ESL) or are just looking for new ways to keep things fresh in the classroom, there is something in this guide about teaching grammar for everyone.

After using some of these 33 strategies and activities, don’t be surprised if you’re soon being harassed by other teachers who want to know your secrets!

Why Inspiring Grammar Lessons Are So Important

7 sure-fire strategies and survival tips for your grammar lessons, 13 great games and activities to teach grammar rules, how to teach specific grammar areas, more resources for teaching english grammar.

Grammar in any language is important, that’s a fact and English grammar is no exception. Learning grammar can be no easy task and teaching it can be even harder!

There are a number of reasons that can make teaching grammar a difficult task, including fossilized errors, irregularity of verbs, plurals, etc and vast differences between English and the student’s mother tongue.

Another issue can come from the mindset of the students. If they have experienced dry, boring grammar lessons in the past then they will likely expect the same this time around.

It is important for you to break the mold and allow your great grammar lessons to captivate and inspire your ESL students to get the best results from them.

So… How do we do this?

Let’s have a look at some “survival tips” to help you and your students navigate the jungle that is English grammar.

1. Teaching Grammar in Context

One method of teaching which has had a lot of success is teaching grammar in context.

This makes sense as we created “grammar rules” as a way to make sense of the patterns that we use in the language. They are not arbitrary systems imagined out of thin air.

For this reason, it makes sense to see how these rules apply in the language.

Use different example sentences so that students can see how we can use these rules. It’s important to show why these are useful and why someone would want to use these.

It’s all well and good teaching a student the intricacies of the past perfect tense but if it hasn’t clicked in the student’s mind why they would want to use such a device then it most likely won’t get used in their active language skills.

2. Teaching Grammar Rules Inductively

Inductive teaching is a very useful tool when it comes to teaching grammar. Let’s have a look at how it works.

We start with specific examples such as sentences that all use a particular grammar point. The students then use these examples to come to their own conclusions about what the rule is.

This is in contrast with deductive teaching which starts by teaching the rule/s first and then looking at examples afterward.

This teaching style is great as it starts with a real-world example that already gives the grammar device relevance. It then forces students to engage cognitively instead of passively taking in a presentation which they may or may not be on board with.

The idea is that a student who engages in this way is more likely to understand and retain a particular point.

That being said, while this method can be very successful with some aspects of grammar which are generally straightforward (such as adjectives), there are some areas of grammar (such as articles) where it may not be as effective due to the large number of rules and irregularities that can occur.

3. Grammar Placement Testing

One thing that needs to be known before we start teaching grammar is what the students actually know.

For a class learning English as a foreign language from the very beginning, this is a lot simpler. We can somewhat assume the students are a blank slate and we just need to stick to the syllabus.

Maybe some have had some prior outside tuition and have covered certain areas, these students can be assigned harder tasks to avoid boredom but the vast majority will be at the same level.

If we are teaching one-to-one classes though, our job becomes a little more tricky. Not everyone learns grammar in a fixed order so the things a student knows can be a bit “random”.

Even if they showed you a syllabus of what they have covered, there may be some areas that require doubling back on if they have forgotten or didn’t understand properly in the first place.

How do we know which topics these are?

This is where placement testing becomes extremely useful. The student is given a test designed to test them on a variety of different grammar points. From this, the teacher is able to see where the student’s weaknesses are and use that to form a plan of what needs to be studied.

You’ll find free downloadable placement tests for different student levels here .

4. Teaching Grammar Through Writing

Writing is fundamental for teaching grammar. When explaining structure you and your students need to see what is happening in order to make sense of it.

The nice thing about practicing writing (compared to speaking) is that it gives the students time to think and work things out. You can plan worksheets beforehand to work through and these can also be used to set homework.

Browse our archive of grammar worksheets here on JIMMYESL .

5. Teaching Grammar in the Conversation

There is something to using grammar by using conversation too.

It may be worth doing this after the student has had a chance to practise with writing first to boost their confidence.

A good idea is to have a free conversation session at the end of the lesson where you can use the new grammar concept. This is more likely to have the concept “stick” when the student speaks in the language in the future.

Need ideas for conversational lessons? Here are 7 easy ESL speaking activities and a huge list of ESL conversation starters and questions .

6. Teaching Grammar to Kids vs. Adults

Teaching children and teaching adults can be two very different things!

Let’s look at some of the differences.

When teaching children , a big challenge is engagement. Expecting a class of 6-year-olds to sit still for an hour and watch you explain grammar points on a board is not realistic.

Doing activities that get them physically involved (games), mixing up activities often and using examples with things like pictures will help draw them into the subject.

Also, it’s a good idea not to drop too much on them at once. Maybe introduce the present simple tense into a class on verbs, instead of bombarding them on all of the simple tenses and their rules for a whole class.

Teaching adults with regards to grammar can sometimes be easier. Adults tend to have a little more patience and are usually ok taking their time to focus on each point without needing a new activity every few minutes or a game to liven things up.

That being said, some variety is still needed to keep them interested but there is less pressure in this area than with children.

Adult beginners will usually go along with the tasks set and will only really ask things if they don’t understand something.

Be aware though that the more advanced students can ask you a lot of background questions about a particular topic especially if they are very interested — e.g “why would we use the past perfect continuous instead of the past simple?” — so it’s a good idea to make sure you are prepared!

7. Tackling Common Grammar Mistakes

It’s important to tackle common mistakes early before they become fossilized, otherwise, it can be an uphill battle!

Here are some of the common grammar mistakes you should watch out for with your students:

• Adding “s” to noncount nouns
• Missing articles
• Improper placement of adverbs
• Subject / verb agreement

If you are teaching a particular grammar point then it is important to stop a student and correct them immediately if they make a mistake related to that grammar point.

I’ve seen students self-correct after just a few of these interruptions so it doesn’t take long!

To reinforce these points you can set homework (such as essay questions) that are designed to get the student to use the taught grammar.

Having a list of fun games and activities for your class is a necessity.

Not only will you have great material for your lesson plans but you will also feel confident knowing you have something to fall back on if things don’t go according to plan or if you start losing the students’ attention.

1. (Reverse) Taboo

Subject: Adjectives

A student has to get either the teacher or other students to guess a particular word by only using adjectives to describe what it is.

A ball – “round, bouncy”

2. Sentence Expansion

Subject: Adverbs

Write a simple sentence. Then get the student to insert an adverb.  

“He eats sandwiches.” – “He eats sandwiches noisily. ”

3. Article Drop

Subject: Articles

Take a section of a text and remove all of the articles from it. The students have to put the articles back in where they think they should go.

For a more competitive element, you could split the class into two teams who have to work together to complete the task first.

“[…] man went to […] shop and bought […] ice cream.”

Subject: Determiners

Split the students into groups and get them to ask the other group for things like “that pen” or “those sweets” etc.

“Have you seen that boy over there?”

“Do you like this pair of jeans?”

5. He/she said…

Subject: Direct and Indirect Speech

Pair students up. Have student 1 say a sentence. Get student 2 to tell us what student 1 said. Carry on from student to student.

If you are teaching one to one lessons then you could always use a scene from a movie and get the student to tell you what the actors said.

Student 1 “Yesterday I went to school.”

Student 2 “Student 1 said he went to school yesterday.” – “I want an apple.”

Student 3 “Student 2 said she wants an apple.” – “I like cats.”

6. Fact Finder

Subject: Gerunds or Present Participle

Pair students up and get them to find out five facts about the other. These facts must be made up of at least one gerund or present participle.

“Jane likes snowboarding”

“Ben is studying English”

7. I Spy With My Little Eye

Subject: Nouns

A classic for beginners. Use the phrase “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with…” followed by the first letter of a noun that is in the room. The other students have to guess what the word is.

Student 1 “I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘a’.”

Student 2 “Is it an axe?”

Student 1 “No.”

Student 3 “Is it an apple?”

Student 1 “Yes!”

8. Voice Switch

Subject: Active and Passive Voice

Ask the students to convert a sentence from an active voice to the passive voice and vice versa.

“The man ate the cookie.” -> “The cookie was eaten by the man.”

9. Whose Is It?

Subject: Possessives

Give an object (e.g. a ball) to a student and ask the others whose it is (“his”, “Jim’s”, etc).

Repeat this a few times and then move on to splitting the class into groups so that this time it is now “theirs” / “ours” etc.

“Whose is this?”

“It is Jane’s”

“Good, and whose is this?”

“It is mine.”

10. Guess Who

Subject: Relative Clauses

You can use the classic game “guess who”. The rules are the same as the original. Each person has a collection of faces in front of them, they also have a card with one particular face on. They then each take it in turns to ask questions and find out which card the other player has.

The difference with this game is that we have to use a relative clause in our questions.

The students have a selection of faces in front of them.

They have to find out the chosen face by asking questions:

“Do they wear glasses?” – “Is it someone who wears glasses?”

11. Interview

Subject: to-Infinitives

Pair the students up and one can be the interviewer while the other can be the interviewee. The aim is to find out what the person being interviewed “likes to do”.

After they have a few answers, students swap roles. This is designed to test “to-infinitives” so make sure the students use the “to verb” format in their answers.

“What do you like to do?”

“I like to ski.”

12. Delegation

Subject: Causative Verbs

Split the students into groups of three: the boss, the boss’s assistant, and the worker. The boss needs to get the assistant to ask the worker to do a task.

Boss: “Have Student C stack the documents.”

Assistant: “Stack the documents.”

Worker: “Ok.”

Rotate this so everybody gets a turn.

You can also have the students use “get” after a few repetitions. (Make sure to explain that “get” is more casual.)

13. Simon Says

Subject: Verbs and Verb Tenses

This is a great one for getting the attention of younger learners when teaching verbs. Say the sentences “Simon says…” and then add a phrase after it such as “jump up”. The students then have to do what you say.

“Simon says ‘stand up’”

*Class stands up

“Simon says ‘sit down’”

*Class sits down

Now that we have gone over an overview of grammar overall, it’s time to look at the methods of delivery for each specific area.

It goes without saying that you need to be comfortable with whatever topic you are delivering so that you are prepared in case you get any of those “curveball questions”. These sections will look at the teaching of each topic. For the background information, there is a more in-depth resource list at the end of the article.

1. Adjectives

What are adjectives? : Describing words for nouns.

“The tall building.” / “The ball is red .” / “That car is expensive .”

Adjectives are quite straightforward. Most languages will have an equivalent so it is quite an easy concept to grasp. Getting the student/s to use the adjectives will prove very useful and will help them “stick” a bit better when they can be visualized.

More info on adjectives .

What are adverbs? : Describing words for verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

“He suddenly woke up.” / “The car is very small.” / “She sings really well.”

Now adverbs get a little trickier. Students often struggle with getting the order of words right with adverbs. A good idea is to split the adverbs up into groups (degree, time, manner, etc) and teach each group individually before moving on to the next.

Seeing these adverbs used in context will be very useful and getting the students to identify which type of adverb is being used in a sentence will also help get them to think about their own word order.

More info on adverbs .

3. Articles

What are articles? : They tell us if a noun is specific or general.

“I have a car.” / “Do you want an apple?” / “I will take the day off work.”

Articles are a simple concept to begin with. Most students who have spent any time with the language knows that we have to use them but they do get a fair amount of misuse. More exposure to the language and seeing lots of example sentences help to see how they are used.

More info on articles .

4. Determiners

What are determiners? : Pointing words.

“I want that one.” / “Do you want these ?” / “No, I want those ones.”

These are some of the first things a student will learn on their English journey. As it is likely to be children you are teaching, it may help to be a little more interactive and use props to help engage them in the lesson.

More info on determiners .

5. Direct and Indirect Speech

What is direct and indirect speech? : Quoting speech

“He said ‘hello’.” / “She said she would text me.” / I said that yesterday.”

This is a great area to get your students interacting with each other and testing their listening skills at the same time.

More info on direct and indirect speech .

6. Gerunds and Present Participle (ing-form)

What are gerunds and the present participle? : Making nouns from verbs

“He is running down the street.” / “I am working in a school.” / “I like playing football.”

These are good to teach at the same time. As they both have the same ending it is easy for students to get the two confused.

This is where inductive teaching can play a valuable part.

Put two sentences on the board, one of these sentences uses a gerund and the other has a sentence in the continuous tense.

First, ask students if they can spot the difference. If they can’t guess it then start asking questions such as “where is the verb in this sentence?” or “where is the noun?”.

Once you’ve drawn their attention to that and explained the difference then they should be able to guess any more examples you send their way.

More info on gerunds and present participles .

What are nouns? : Names / objects.

“This is a ball .” / “Hello, my name is Tim .” / “There is a lot of information here.”

It’s very easy to explain these to beginners and nouns are some of the first words that students learn. In English there are certain rules that have to be obeyed though such as:

• Capitalization
• Singular / plural nouns
• Count vs Non-count

We can also open things up by talking about topics such as compound nouns, collective nouns as well as abstract nouns.

More info on nouns .

8. Passive Voice

What is the passive voice? : When something is done to the subject.

“The cookie was eaten.” / “The signature was forged.” / “The person was murdered.”

The passive voice is extremely useful when teaching students who are studying for things such as IELTS (that requires a high level of academic writing). It is worth setting these students essay questions for homework on a regularly basis and getting them to use the passive voice in their answers.

More info on the passive voice .

9. Possessive

What are possessives? : Belonging words.

“That is my car.”/ “This is yours .” / “The summer of love.”

For beginners we can use flashcards or the students themselves to demonstrate the possessive form and it shouldn’t take too long to grasp. The difficulty usually comes in when trying to decide where the apostrophes go in things like singular and plural nouns. For this reason it’s a good idea to teach these around the same time as singular vs plural.

More info on possessives .

10. Relative Clauses

What are relative clauses? : A clause that adds additional information to a sentence.

“I went to the place where I was born.” / “I bought a dress that looks really nice.” / “This is that person who I told you about.”

Relative clauses can be a messy area. It’s a good idea to take things slowly and lay the groundwork. First look at sentence structure, look at the differences between phrases, clauses and sentences. Once you have this locked down then you can build that and introduce relative clauses.

As you get into more technical aspects of grammar like this it is a good idea to get the students to make their own sentences using the construct. With simpler aspects of grammar it’s very easy for them to see the value in a certain point and find the motivation to use it.

When things get more difficult though they will need an extra push in seeing why it has use and why they should use a more difficult sentence structure (compared to using two separate simple sentences.)

More info on relative clauses .

11. The To-Infinitive

What are to-infinitives? : Verbs that can be used as nouns or paired with other verbs.

“I want to go .” / “He needs to do his homework.” / “She has to buy a ticket.”

When tackling the topic of to-infinitives it is most likely a good idea to bring gerunds into the mix as they can sometimes act in similar ways. Start by introducing two sentences, one using a to-infinitive and one using a gerund:

• I like skiing .
• I like to ski .

Once they have seen that you can use both in similar ways then the next obvious question is “why should we use one or the other?”. At this point you can introduce sentences where one is a preferable choice:

• I want to play football.
• I want playing football.

You can explain the situations where gerunds are prefered and situations where to-infinitives are preferred. After that you can get them to correct mistakes, choose between a gerund or to-infinitive and then finally give them scenarios where they get a chance to form their own sentences with either type of verb.

More info on to-infinitives .

12. Causative Verbs

What are causative verbs? : Making somebody else do an action.

“I had my haircut.”/ “I got Jim to fix the car.” / “I got my house cleaned.”

Causatives are usually a little more advanced but you can still have a lot of fun with them especially as there’s a lot of opportunity to get movement involved and act things out.

More info on causative verbs .

13. Verbs and Verb Tenses

What are verbs and verb tenses? : Actions and when they happen in time.

“I went to the shop.” / “I am going to the shop.” / “I will go to the shop.”

You’re going to have a much easier time explaining things like tenses with a diagram related to time. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a timeline on a board or a clock, as long as it’s something visual to point at it will make your life a lot easier.

More info on verbs and verb tenses .

• British Council
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Oxford Dictionary

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Thank you so much for such an extensive series of tests, lists etc. Really helpful for this one-on-one online teacher to Brazilian students.

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Engaging Activities for Teaching Grammar

Easy and Fun Grammar Activities

On my journey to make grammar something my students loved, I was able to learn that teaching and learning grammar can be fun! It doesn't have to be filled with dry sentences or practice that seems so inapplicable to life. Here are some of my favorite activities that my students have loved year after year.  

1. Low Prep Puzzles

If you want students focused, give them a puzzle! Kids love puzzles and the challenge of matching the pieces. As a teacher, I love that puzzle activities get students reading cards (often multiple times) and using higher-level thinking skills to make connections. And . . . for those students who are struggling with a concept, there is a built-in self-check with the puzzle pieces fitting together. This allows them to find success in the activity and provides reinforcement of correct answers to help them learn along the way too!

Simply create a two or more pieced puzzle that students can easily slide together. On one piece, put a word or image, and on the other piece(s), put a word or image that makes a match based on the skill or concept you are teaching. Puzzles are a great way to provide students with repetition and practice in a low-pressure, fun way.  

Puzzles are also perfect for centers! These make great independent work time activities for students. Students can grab the puzzle, find a spot to work, and get busy. Differentiation is also easy with puzzle activities because you can assign different puzzles to each student depending on the concepts they need to practice.

By using simple lines when cutting the pieces apart you can create a puzzle activity that doesn't take hours and hours of prep. Once you are done I recommend storing all the pieces together in a zip-lock bag.  This makes it easy for students to grab and easy to store when you aren't using the puzzle.  

2. Grammar Games

Whole class grammar practice is a breeze when you have some engaging games up your sleeve!  Here are some of the fun games that I used to teach grammar in my classroom:

Board Games

I've found that a good old-fashioned board game can be just as engaging as any other digital alternative. Students love being able to move their pieces and see their progress. Plus, using board games will not only help with grammar skills but also essential social skills like turn-taking. That's a win-win in my book!

I also love that board games can be used over and over again throughout the year. I like to laminate the boards for durability and then pull them out for quick (and fun) review activities. Students are always excited to revisit a past favorite game and I love being able to informally assess their retention of different topics! 

Scoot! is one of my favorite classroom games and I've played it for years.  Start by setting up one question or practice card for each student in your class. You can use things like task cards you already have, cut apart a worksheet into individual questions or even write your own on index cards.  The key is to have a question so that each student has one.  You can also do half the number and have students work in partners.

Once you have your questions spread them out around the room.  I like to lay some on desks and hang some around the room, giving students plenty of space between questions.  

To play, give each student a response sheet or paper to write their answers.  Then have them find a question and stand next to it.  When you say "go" students will read the question and write down the answer.  When you say "Scoot!" they must stop what they are doing and move on to the next question.  

The students love the challenge of trying to answer in the provided time.  This little challenge keeps them very focused throughout the game.  And . . . it is a great way to add some movement into the day.

You can also easily play Scoot! outside, in the hallway, or in a large space like the cafeteria or gym.  And if you need less movement, consider turning it into a carpet game where students sit in a circle and pass the question cards.

I Have, Who Has

I Have, Who Has is an engaging activity for teaching grammar that does not take a lot of time. It works well if you want to do some quick review right before a lesson or at the end of a work period. Each student gets a card. On their card, it says, "I have (insert word, concept, etc.), who has (insert word, concept, etc.)." 

When the student hears the concept they have on their card, they stand up and read out the answer and then ask the next "who has" question. All students get to participate, you can make any corrections in real time, and they all have to pay attention! 

Not to mention, there are very few games that can be played as a whole class out there. I love that this is an option we can all use together! 

3. Write the Room

I use Write the Room as a consistent center activity all.year.long! While the skill or concept that is the focus will change, you will always find a write the room activity in my center rotations. 

I set up the grammar activity by placing cards around the room. At the beginning of the year, the cards are obvious as students learn how to move from card to card. But as the year goes on I love to make finding the cards a little more challenging. This adds a scavenger hunt feel to the activity that students love! They are so proud when they have found all the cards. 

Students grab a clipboard and the recording sheet and move from card to card to answer all the questions. Similar to a game of Scoot, but without the timed aspect. In fact, you can use write the room cards to play Scoot as a class too! 

Don't Stress About Your Grammar Activities!

I have spent a lot of time putting together engaging activities for teaching grammar so that you don't have to! If you want to save time and use all of the fun activities from this post (plus more!), then check out all of the great grammar resources in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

Here are a few different skills and concepts that you likely teach.  Each of these resources is jam-packed with activities designed to make learning grammar fun for your students.

And . . . if you need grammar activities for the entire year then you can't go wrong with this Grammar Bundle!   Filled with 19 grammar units, it will cover all your teaching standards. Buying the bundle also saves you money over buying each unit individually.

Save these Engaging Grammar Activities!

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10 Engaging Ways to Teach Grammar in the Classroom

Helly Douglas

If you mention ‘grammar’ and your students groan, there’s something wrong. Yes, English can be difficult, full of rules to remember, but that doesn’t mean the teaching of it has to be boring.

With a little creativity, you can plan grammar lessons that are enjoyable, engaging, and, dare I say it, fun.

Check out these ten actionable ideas that will transform your lessons, making grammar the highlight of your teaching week.

1: Spot the Mistake

2: play grammar games, 3: silly sentences, 4: sing grammar songs, 5: get artistic, 6: hands-on grammar lessons, 7: use roleplay and props, 8: online grammar games, 9: get active in the classroom, 10: create characters.

Children love catching adults getting things wrong!

Use this in lessons by making a few carefully chosen mistakes. See if they can spot them without prompting. It’s a great way to revise key concepts.

Alternatively, make spotting mistakes a challenge. Write the number of errors you’ve made on the board and ask them to find them all. They’ll love trying to beat you to win the game. Put any mistakes they’ve missed on a list to practise the following day.

Gamification means making something feel like a game. It’s enjoyable to learn and easier to remember. Teachers are skilled at using this approach to transform dull lessons. If something feels fun, students won’t notice that they’re learning something difficult.

Try these ideas to transform dry grammar rules:

• Bingo games
• Odd one out
• Tic-Tac-Toe
• Battleships
• Four corners

There are thousands of games for every area of grammar. Don’t feel you have to reinvent the wheel. Look online for loads of printable templates and instructions to use.

Ditch boring sentences and let them get a little bit silly. If the grammar is correct, then who cares about the actual words used. Play with rhyme and word patterns to make funny songs and stories they enjoy and remember.

Children find it hilarious when you add in their names. Use your class list to make sure everyone gets their chance to feature in one of your silly sentences.

Singing is a fantastic way to memorise information. You don’t have to be the next Beyoncé, there’s plenty you can use on YouTube . They make great homework activities to send home. Just remember to check them carefully beforehand for access and suitability.

Use songs to launch a lesson or as a fun plenary activity. Display the learning intention on the board or ask students to explain why they were singing to check they can see the purpose behind the fun.

Why do students have to be sitting at a desk writing in pencil? They could write in chalks on the playground or use coloured pencils, paints, and crayons to make grammar an artistic activity.

It doesn’t take much to make your lessons fun. Take their paintings from art and label them with nouns and adjectives. Create superhero comic book style interjections and make wall displays of grammar. There’s no limit to how creative you can be.

If you give students a purpose for their work, they’re going to be more invested, and find it more interesting.

There are plenty of reasons you can invent for writing:

• Creating class books
• Make wall displays
• Design booklets to take home
• Teach younger students
• Write for the school newspaper
• Make a grammar section on your website
• Present to parents or other students in assembly

Children enjoy the freedom to create their own ideas. You choose the grammar but let them decide what they’d like to make. You’ll be surprised by how creative they can be.

Reinforce key grammar by adding a little drama to lessons. Teachers are amazing at thinking of ideas to bring tricky concepts to life.

Imagine putting on a superhero cape when you mention superlatives. Or pick up a mirror when you want synonym suggestions. Use puppets and word cards to get children interested. The more memorable, the better.

There’s a wealth of quality resources online, often with no subscription. When searching for grammar games and apps , look for quality ratings and awards. Thoroughly test them before letting students try them out.

Remember to check compatibility across different devices, especially if you’re going to set them for home learning. Watch out for in-game adverts or anything that breaks your school’s internet security policy.

If you have a budget available, check out platforms like Brain Pop or NoRedInk for a range of high-quality resources.

Take your standard word cards and instead of just holding them up, place them around your classroom. Children can run to them or point when they see word classes and punctuation.

Add in movements and actions to get children actively involved in practising grammar without expensive props. For example, you could read a text to the class where they sit down if they hear an adverb, clap hands for a verb, or jump for a noun.

Check out Kung Fu Punctuation for a simple way to get your students remembering different punctuation marks. This YouTube video from Flippin’ English shows you all the moves.

Children’s educational TV shows turn abstract concepts into characters. That’s what makes them so successful. You can do the same with your class.

It’s easy to make your characters fun. What if full stops are security guards who prevent sentences from going further? Could lessons on adjectives centre on a police officer trying to catch a crook based on poor descriptions? Turn future tense into a fortune teller with a suitably mysterious voice.

Do your students ever run home buzzing about the amazing grammar lesson they had? Grammar doesn’t need to be boring, but too often it is. Have fun, play games, and enjoy teaching it.

If you follow these ten tips, your students will learn those tricky technical terms more easily and apply them to their own writing. Make sure your subject knowledge is up to scratch and prepare well before the lesson to make sure you feel comfortable. Soon grammar will be your favourite lesson of the day.

Want to use ProWritingAid with your classroom? Download this free book now:

ProWritingAid Teacher's Manual

Editing technology like prowritingaid provides immediate, personalized feedback that will help students to better understand grammar and writing techniques., in this guide , we walk you through exactly how to use prowritingaid in your classroom and give you tools and templates for creating a rigorous, effective independent writing practice with your students..

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Helly Douglas is a UK writer and teacher, specialising in education, children, and parenting. She loves making the complex seem simple through blogs, articles, and curriculum content. You can check out her work at hellydouglas.com or connect on Twitter @hellydouglas. When she’s not writing, you will find her in a classroom, being a mum or battling against the wilderness of her garden—the garden is winning!

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Contrary to popular belief, grammar doesn't have to be a dull and monotonous learning experience.  With great English/Language Arts teachers like you, you can engage your middle school students by incorporating fun and interactive activities into your lessons and make learning grammar enjoyable. Let’s explore some effective strategies to transform grammar lessons into dynamic and interactive experiences that foster student engagement and understanding.

Gamify Grammar:

Introduce grammar concepts through educational games and activities.  Create interactive quizzes, grammar bingo, or grammar jeopardy to make learning grammar a playful experience. Incorporate friendly competitions, rewards, and incentives to encourage active participation and friendly rivalry among students.  Keep in mind, these games don’t always have to be the online kind.  Many times, students appreciate offline opportunities to learn and practice!

Use Technology Tools:

Of course, you can leverage technology to make grammar more interactive. Explore grammar-focused websites, interactive apps, and online quizzes that provide instant feedback. We’re partial to GrammarFlip ourselves for assisting students in learning, identifying, and applying grammar concepts while making it enjoyable and interactive, but other grammar sources can be helpful as well.

Incorporate Multimedia:

Utilize multimedia resources such as videos, podcasts, and songs to reinforce grammar concepts. Find engaging grammar-related videos or create your own instructional videos to explain grammar rules in an entertaining and engaging manner. Songs with grammar themes can help students remember and internalize grammar rules through catchy tunes and lyrics.

Contextualize Grammar:

Connect grammar lessons to real-life contexts to make them more relevant and meaningful. Use authentic texts, such as newspaper articles, advertisements, or short stories, to demonstrate grammar concepts in action. Engage students in grammar activities that involve analyzing and correcting grammar mistakes in real-world scenarios.  Need some grammar-in-context videos to help explain some concepts?  Check out our witty and humorous grammar-in-context videos!

Collaborative Learning:

Encourage collaborative learning by engaging students in group activities and projects. Assign grammar-related tasks that require students to work together, such as creating grammar posters, designing grammar games, or performing skits that showcase proper grammar usage (or the lack thereof to create some added humor in the skit!). Collaborative activities foster teamwork, peer learning, and a sense of ownership in the learning process.

Interactive Worksheets and Manipulatives:

Introduce interactive worksheets that allow students to actively participate. Use manipulatives like sentence strips, word cards, or magnetic words to create hands-on grammar activities. Students can physically manipulate the words to build sentences, identify parts of speech, or practice sentence structure.

Incorporate Humor:

Infuse humor into your grammar lessons to create a lighthearted and enjoyable atmosphere. Share funny grammar jokes or grammar fails to create humorous examples that highlight grammar rules. A touch of humor can alleviate any anxiety students may have towards grammar and make the learning experience more enjoyable.  By keeping the topic light, it will remind students that no one is perfect and that we are all human and make mistakes in our writing and speaking.

Making grammar fun and interactive in the classroom not only enhances student engagement but also promotes deeper understanding and retention of grammar concepts. By gamifying grammar, using technology tools, incorporating multimedia, contextualizing grammar, fostering collaborative learning, utilizing interactive worksheets, and infusing humor, teachers can create an engaging and vibrant learning environment that sparks students' enthusiasm for grammar. Remember, when grammar becomes enjoyable, students are more likely to embrace and apply their knowledge effectively.

Effective writing skills are essential for students to excel in both their academic and professional lives. As middle school English/Language Arts teachers, you play a crucial role in shaping your students' writing abilities.

Teaching grammar can be a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be boring! One of the trickiest challenges in English grammar for both teachers and students alike is understanding the difference between "who" and "whom." Fear not, Language Arts teachers, as we embark on a journey to make this learning adventure enjoyable!

Empower students in crafting impactful thesis statements! Teach specificity, address counterarguments, and use peer feedback for compelling essays.

Differentiated grammar instruction empowers diverse learners. Flexible grouping, multimodal learning, scaffolding, and peer collaboration are key strategies.

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Grammar teaching is an essential aspect of education. Without proper grammar, writing, reading, and speaking all lose meaning and value. Grammar is an important subject for teachers to impart to their students. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most boring subjects in the eyes of many students, and typically teachers do not enjoy endless grammar drills either. Educators, therefore, are looking for ways to make grammar teaching more fun and engaging. When students are able to enjoy the lessons, they are more likely to pay attention. Here are five lesson ideas to help get them started.

Grammar and punctuation bingo

This fun game can be tailored to students of all ages. Teachers begin by developing bingo cards that contains different instructions such as “find a sentence written in the active voice.” The students are given a common resource, such as the latest issue of the Wall Street Journal, and must race to see who can get ‘BINGO’ first. Cards for elementary school students may contain more basic questions related to nouns, pronouns, and verbs, whereas cards for older students will focus on more complex word usage and sentence structures. Short exercises like this one can be done on a regular basis in the classroom to keep grammar fresh in the minds of students.

Crossword puzzles

There are a wide variety of word puzzles available that teachers can use to encourage student understanding and practice of different parts of a sentence, verb conjugations, and concepts such as synonyms and antonyms. Many are crossword puzzles where clues might entail ideas such as “three letter antonym for happy” or “the past tense of run.” Puzzles can be used for fun competitions between students or for take home assignments. Visit this page for a good example .

The grammar version of ‘hot potato’

Many students, especially those in the elementary grades, enjoy being able to get up and move around. Have the students get up and stand in a circle. Give the first student a bean bag and set a basic timer for a random interval, such as one minute six seconds. The student with the bean bag must think of a word that falls into a particular category, such as a verb, and then pass it to the left as quickly as possible. The student left holding the bag when the time beeps must leave the circle.

Celebrity biographies

Find a celebrity biography that will be quick and easy to read in class. Have the students use the biography to identify the different forms of the past tense. For example, underline the difference between “she has performed many concerts in her career” versus “she had performed in many concerts” versus “she was born.” Have the students name the verb form being used in each example and ask them to orally explain the difference between the different usages. This exercise will help students see how grammar can influence the meaning of words and potentially alter a story.

Learning the difference between ‘a’ and ‘an’

This activity is geared toward younger children. The teacher should cut out pictures or words of common nouns that the children interact with on a regular basis. Mix all the sheets up, divide the students into groups, and give them all a pile of sheets. Have them divide their sheets into piles, one for words that go with ‘a’ and the other for words that go with ‘an.’ Once the students have finished the activity, have them discuss and see if they can figure out the rule themselves.

Using good grammar is essential for a quality education. If students do not understand grammar, they will struggle with reading, writing, and speaking. Fortunately, this does not mean that students need to sit at their desk for hours diagramming sentences. Teachers can incorporate the ideas listed above to make their grammar teaching engaging and memorable for students.

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20 Grammar Games to Add Some Fun to Your Language Classroom

Do you remember playing games as a child? Of course you do.

Did you realize that you were actively learning while you were playing? You were learning to count, to reason, to develop strategies, to negotiate, to debate and argue, to make decisions and to think critically.

So why not use games to reinforce grammar rules and structure in your ESL or language classroom?

That’s why we’ve compiled this post, which includes 20 of the most fun and effective grammar games for your ESL or other language classroom.

1. Pictionary Plus

2. whose line is it anyway, 3. simon says, 4. find someone who…, 5. word scramble, 6. mad libs rub out and replace, 7. auction time, 9. charades, 10. hot potato, 11. jeopardy, 12. twister, 13. grammar races, 14. jigsaw puzzle, 15. grammar relay, 16. grammar detective, 17. story cubes, 18. grammar spinners, 19. grammar role play.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Pictionary, always a popular game in my classroom, can be transformed into a grammar exercise for languages with complex inflections like Russian, German or Latin.

Divide the class, provide vocabulary, and have teams draw simultaneously. Guessing earns a point, followed by practicing inflections in a dialogue for another point.

For instance, with “car” in Russian, students form a dialogue showcasing feminine endings. This creative approach accelerates mastery of inflections, reinforcing crucial grammatical patterns.

Swiftly mastering these endings is pivotal in language acquisition, making this grammar game a valuable tool.

“Whose Line Is It Anyway?” was a renowned British comedy game show later adapted by Drew Carey in the U.S. The namesake game involved improvising from random audience-written sentences.

This concept can be re-imagined for foreign language classrooms. Using IKEA’s dialogue bubble notepads, insert prompts related to chapter content. Students incorporate these prompts when directed, adding an unpredictable element. For example, when deciding where to eat, a student may unexpectedly say, “I want to go to the circus,” leading to creative dialogue.

This game fosters spontaneity, language manipulation and natural grammar use, embodying a well-crafted grammar activity.

“Simon Says” was a childhood favorite, challenging others to act without the command. It’s excellent for teaching body parts, but can be transformed into a grammar game, particularly for languages with distinct imperatives. Select verbs, write on cards, and have a student draw one, instructing, for example: “Simon says jump!”

The twist: students must not comply if the imperative is incorrect. Correct commands eliminate tricked players. If “Simon” falters, a new leader steps up. This game ensures engaging command practice, reinforcing proper formation. No one wants to be the one stumbling over their instructions in this lively grammar activity.

Transform the initial class information-gathering into a dynamic grammar game. Craft about 20 implied questions in the target language, aligned with their proficiency.

Ensure there’s a match in the class for each question. Incorporate a few about yourself to foster interaction. The game unfolds in two phases: students ask 2-3 questions to peers, receiving complete sentence responses.

Then, as a group, a student asks, for example, “Who speaks Italian?” and another answers in full. This activity reinforces inflected verb forms, practicing crucial conjugations they’ll recall for future application.

Foreign language students, though not all future linguists, relish playing with language. Introduce a unique twist to traditional word scrambles. Break a sentence into its basic components, distribute the words to groups and challenge them to reconstruct the sentence.

For languages like Russian or German, provide nouns and adjectives in nominative form, and verbs in infinitive form, adding complexity. Require students to not only grasp word meanings but also select the correct grammatical forms. Optionally, include an adverb hinting at tense. This exercise compels them to employ comprehensive linguistic knowledge, fostering critical thinking.

Elevate the traditional grammar game “Rub out and replace” by incorporating a round of Mad Libs for added excitement. Begin with a paragraph, omitting key words, and prompt students to provide specific word forms (for example: accusative-case noun, third-person plural verb).

Read the resulting paragraph aloud for a good laugh at the absurdity. Then, project the completed version for groups to erase particularly outlandish words and generate a new, sensible story. This exercise fosters grammatical accuracy, encouraging students to negotiate both grammatically and semantically sound word choices within the context.

Auction Time is an engaging game that combines elements of competition and currency.

Students are given a set amount of play money and take turns bidding on sentences or phrases containing specific grammar structures. This game not only reinforces correct grammar usage but also encourages strategic thinking as students decide how much to “spend” on each sentence.

The excitement of the auction format adds an element of fun and motivation, making it an effective tool for grammar reinforcement in the ESL or other foreign language classroom.

Bingo is a versatile game that adapts well to grammar practice. Each student is provided with a bingo card containing sentences or phrases that exemplify specific grammar points.

You’ll have to take some time before class to make these, but you can use them over and over again.

As you call out sentences, students mark them off on their cards.

This game promotes active listening and recognition of correct sentence structures. Additionally, the competitive aspect of trying to complete a row or column on the bingo card adds an element of excitement to the learning process.

Charades is a lively and interactive game that encourages students to embody specific grammar points, and it gets students up and moving, which is great for a Monday morning, for example.

In this game, students take turns acting out sentences or phrases without using any verbal communication. Classmates must guess the grammar point being demonstrated.

This activity promotes creativity, active engagement and an intuitive understanding of grammar structures as students physically act out the language.

Hot Potato is a fast-paced and interactive game that challenges students to think on their feet.

In this game, students pass an object while using sentences or phrases containing a specific grammar structure. It could be anything from a Post-it note to a picture of a dog running, for example, to show the present progressive verb tense.

When the music stops, the student holding the object must answer a question using the designated grammar point.

This game promotes quick thinking, sentence formation, and active engagement with the grammar rules.

Jeopardy is an educational adaptation of the popular quiz show and students seem to always love playing it.

In this game, students participate in a competitive quiz format where they must answer questions related to specific grammar points. You’ll have to brainstorm the questions beforehand, or you can just make them up on the spot for the specific categories. I suggest using the past tense, present tense and future tense to start.

With categories and point values, Jeopardy encourages students to demonstrate their knowledge in a fun and interactive way, making it an effective tool for grammar review and reinforcement.

As teachers we know that our students need to get up and move once in a while.

Twister satisfies this because it’s a physical game that combines the classic game of Twister with grammar practice.

You’ll have to make a Twister board that’s customized with grammar points instead of colors, but as with many of these game materials, you can use them year after year.

The game is played the traditional way: students must place their hands and feet on the correct spots as called out by the teacher.

This game not only promotes kinesthetic learning but also reinforces correct grammar usage in a memorable and engaging way.

Here’s another game to get tired students up and moving. Grammar Races is a high-energy game that encourages speed and accuracy in grammar usage.

Students are divided into teams and race to write correct sentences on the board in response to prompts from the teacher. You might say, for example: Write a sentence in the present perfect tense.

This game fosters healthy competition while reinforcing grammar knowledge and sentence construction skills.

Jigsaw Puzzle is a whole class team effort in your classroom, which also helps foster the classroom community.

Each student gets a slice of a sentence, and they’ve got to team up and put the whole thing together. It’s all about working together, chatting it out and really grasping how sentences come together.

The game is all about teamwork, honing those communication skills and really nailing down how sentences are built.

I suggest starting off with a comic paragraph, so get students laughing as they learn.

Grammar Relay is an exciting team challenge, injecting a dose of competition into grammar drills that will get your students excited.

Put your students into teams and have them race against the clock, feverishly jotting down accurate sentences on the board, fueled by prompts from you. You might, for example, say: Past perfect. Then students have to rush to write a perfect past perfect sentence.

This lively activity sparks quick thinking, fosters teamwork and solidifies the application of precise grammar rules. It’s not just about rules; it’s about mastering the art of effective communication.

Grammar Detective is a stimulating exercise that sparks critical thinking.

Students become language sleuths, uncovering and rectifying errors within a paragraph that you’ve written beforehand. It must contain a mix of obvious and subtle errors to make them really work to find mistakes and correct them.

This game is all about paying close attention to the details and reading with care. This engaging game not only fine-tunes their observational skills but also nurtures a sharper eye for accurate grammar.

Through this process of detection and correction, students grasp a more profound comprehension of sound grammar usage.

Story Cubes is a fun and creative game that sparks creativity by prompting students to weave tales from images or words rolled on dice. You have to buy the dice, but you can use them year after year, so it’s a good investment.

This game really triggers a burst of imagination, infused with targeted grammar elements, whenever I play it in my classroom.

In this game, students craft narratives that align with the designated grammar focus, infusing the learning process with dynamism and excitement. It also usually creates a lot of laughter as stories are often on the silly side.

Grammar Spinners is a game that adds an element of surprise to grammar drills. You need to have a spinner prepared beforehand for this one. You can buy a grammar themed spinner, but I recommend making a large one that you can use in the front of the classroom. Imagine “The Price Is Right” and then copy theirs in your own DIY style.

Students then have to craft sentences based on where the spinner lands, infusing an element of unpredictability.

This dynamic approach keeps students fully engaged, prompting quick thinking and adaptability.

Grammar Role Play is a creative and dynamic learning experience where students step into scenarios demanding the application of a specific grammar concept. For example, you could ask them to recite a story about last summer to focus on the past tense. Then they have to come up with the script and act out the role play in front of the classroom.

This is always fun, because students not only practice using language, but they truly get to see how grammar operates in everyday situations. In other words, this game really fosters real-life language use in all its glorious complexity.

Through role-playing, students cultivate communication skills, unleash creativity and hone their grammar prowess.

Students always seem to love playing Taboo. The good news is that you can customize the game by adding specific grammar elements. For example, if you’re focusing on the past perfect, make cards with short phrases that are in the past perfect.

By making this a grammar themed version of Taboo, the game challenges students to describe a past perfect phrase without using certain key words. I like to make the nouns and the main verb the taboo words to make it challenging.

This encourages them to employ alternative grammar structures in their descriptions.

I hope you enjoyed these twists on some traditional games and find them useful in your teaching. Feel free to play around with the rules yourselves. Games are wonderfully adaptable, so have fun and be creative.

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Home » Blog Posts » ELA » Fun Grammar Activities for Distance Learning

Fun Grammar Activities for Distance Learning

Are you hearing crickets online when you teach grammar lessons? Don’t stress, you’re not alone. Here you’ll find fun grammar activities for distance learning that build stronger writers too! Plus you can grab some FREE digital grammar activities at the end of the post.

*This post contains affiliate links to Amazon for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, which do not cost any extra for you. Please see the full disclosure here.

Teaching Students to Have Fun with (and correctly apply) Grammar

My students just zone out when I start talking about parts of speech.

We’ve completed at least a hundred lessons on commas, but students still aren’t using them correctly when writing.

I just can’t find meaningful preposition games that my students enjoy.

If you’ve said anything similar to the comments above, I completely understand. As an 4th grade ELA and Social Studies teacher, I’ve heard plenty of complaining from students when I start grammar lessons.

But I’ve built a collection of fun grammar activities that not only work in the classroom but also for distance learning.

Since this post focuses mainly on digital grammar ideas, I have a separate post with general ways to make grammar fun. 👇👇👇

Now without further ado, let’s jump into some virtual strategies and resources to jazz up your grammar for distance learning!

Digital Grammar Ideas That Actually Work

Since grammar is such a broad topic to teach, let’s look at different ideas for specific categories.

For instance, we’ll mainly dive into these grammar concepts and skills:

• Editing grammar mistakes within writing
• Identifying all the parts of speech
• Applying the correct verb tense
• Using prepositions and prepositional phrases in writing
• Labeling the correct types of sentences

Even though there are so many more we could cover, you would be sitting here reading this post all day!

Besides, some of the ideas in the game section work for all grammar topics.

We’ll kick things off with prepositions.

Preposition Spinner Game

This is one of my favorite fun grammar activities for distance learning. Students receive a “wheel of prepositions” that they can spin to choose a preposition.

Then they must create a sentence that correctly uses that preposition.

Once students start spinning that wheel, they want to keep going on and on with this grammar game. This is great because I want them to get as much practice as possible anyway.

Paragraph Editing That Also Improves Writing

Let’s face it: the whole point of having fun grammar activities for distance learning is so that students can become better writers.

We also want lessons to be effective for learning!

So I use Weekly Paragraph Editing activities in my grammar teaching rotation.

In the physical classroom, students work in pairs to edit each paragraph, then they have to rewrite it correctly.

For virtual learning, everyone gets a Google Slides version that they get to edit together in Zoom Breakout rooms.

Not only do they have fun dragging the highlighter blocks to each grammar mistake, but they have fun working together.

If you aren’t confident breaking students into small groups for virtual learning, here’s a post that walks you through it step-by-step.

Play Grammar Songs and Videos Throughout Lessons

Another way to amp up the grammar fun during distance learning is to play songs related to grammar concepts.

Even for virtual learning, you probably have transitions and lesson warm-ups included.

So why not play catchy grammar songs to make things interesting?

My favorite resource for this is Grammaropolis on YouTube. This channel has songs related to:

• Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs
• Conjunctions
• Colons and Semicolons
• Apostrophes and other Punctuation

It’s even better if you can share your screen with students during these song breaks. They do a great job keeping grammar fun while also teaching grammar skills.

Incorporate Digital Daily Grammar Practice for Quick Wins

Some students may complain about grammar being boring, when the truth is that it’s too hard for them to understand.

One solution to this problem is to infuse Daily Grammar Practice digitally. When students experience success with grammar, they’re more likely to be engaged with it.

These printable and digital Daily Grammar Practice strips offer:

• editable templates so that you can make it even more interesting for students. I like to use their names in my sentence examples. 🤗
• printable copies that can be used with interactive notebooks. This really helps in case your students don’t have the internet at home.
• the chance to offer build-in grammar practice for 10 minutes or less each day.

As their grammar skill and confidence grows, they will start to have more fun during other grammar lessons.

Easy Ideas for Teaching Parts of Speech

I gotta admit: parts of speech are my favorite grammar concept to teach!

A fun idea is to play Parts of Speech Bingo. Sites like Bingo Baker allow you to make free boards just by typing in the words you want.

Once you upload your bingo boards to your online learning platform, it’s easy to call out the different parts of speech for students to identify.

Another easy way to make this skill more fun is with an activity I call “Look in a Book.” My students like to call it “Parts of Speech Detective.”

Students can use any book in class or at home. While they are reading, they will fill out a chart that I give them with parts of speech that they find in the book.

It’s like practicing two skills in one: reading + grammar!

FREE Grammar Activities for Your Classroom

Just as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I have freebies for you. 🙌

One is a nouns worksheet set that can also be used digitally through Google Classroom. You do not need to enter your email for it since it’s free in my Teachers Pay Teacher store.

Grab that goodie here 👉 Nouns Practice Activity .

The next offer is the Preposition Spinners activity shown above in the video. To download this free resource, just enter your email address here:

I hope these ideas on fun grammar activities for distance learning + the freebies serve you well.

Happy Grammar Teaching 🦋

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Fun Grammar Games for the Classroom

• Keren Perles
• Categories : Fun activities & crafts for grade school
• Tags : Teaching grades pre k to 5

If you’re looking for a great way to get your students interested in grammar, then playing grammar games is the trick. These games are interactive and fun ways to practice grammar concepts that you’ve already taught your students.

The Sentence Matching Game

Some of the best grammar games are the easiest to put together.

For example, this first game requires nothing more than some index cards and a permanent marker. On each index card, write a subject, a verb, or a prepositional phrase, so that there is an equal number of each type of index card and enough cards for each student to have one. Then, distribute the cards to the students and instruct them to get into groups of three when you blow your whistle, with one subject, one verb, and one prepositional phrase in each group. Then, blow your whistle and watch students race to get into their groups.

When all of the students have found a group, they write the sentence that their index cards make on the board. For example, a group with the subject “porcupine,” the verb “wiggle,” and the prepositional phrase “on the floor” would write up the phrase “The porcupine wiggled on the floor.”

This activity helps students identify parts of a sentence, especially subjects and verbs, and practice how to put them together.

Parts of Speech Competition

Rev up your engines and challenge your students to a parts of speech race!

You’ll need enough books so that each student in the class receives one, although they can use their textbooks if necessary.

Call out the name of a part of speech and give students five minutes to find a sentence in their books with the most instances of that part of speech. For example, if you call out “Preposition!” they find the sentence with the most prepositions in it that they can find.

At the end of the five minutes, figure out whose sentences has the most instances of that part of speech and give three points to that student, two points to the student with the next most instances, and one point to the student with the third most instances.

This parts of speech grammar game gives students plenty of practice identifying parts of speech in a sentence at a rapid pace. Also, discuss the results at the end and use a variety of books so the students discover that Hemmingway’s writings are constructed very differently than, say, a typical textbook.

Peculiar Paragraph

Have each student write one sentence on absolutely any subject. Have students write their sentences on sentence strips to make the sentences easier to manipulate. Then, divide students into groups of ten, and let each group combine their sentences together to form a paragraph. They will need to insert conjunctions – both coordination and correlative – to create these paragraphs, but they should not include any other pieces of information. When they finish, let them read their peculiar paragraphs aloud.

Round Robin Sentence Building

Divide a stack of index cards into thirds. On each card in the first pile, write “clause”; on each card in the second pile, write “prepositional phrase”; on each card in the third pile, write “period.” Students take turns drawing cards and adding a clause or a phrase to a class story.

For example, if the first four students draw “prepositional phrase,” “prepositional phrase,” “clause,” and “period,” they might come up with the sentence, “In a tree near the baseball field, a bird chirped.” In this round robin game, students will practice the uses of phrases and clauses, and will understand how these grammatical structures combine to create sentences. They will also enjoy writing an interesting class story.

Fun Grammar Links for Practice

As much as your students will benefit from grammar games that you can do in the classroom, some students may enjoy practicing their grammar skills with games online. Luckily, there are several free online grammar games available for students and teachers to play. Here are some of our favorites:

The Grammar of Doom - This grammar game is a complex adventure game that will intrigue most students. It reviews all aspects of grammar and usage, including word choice, conjugations, and commonly misused words. Why is this one of our favorites? The adventure game takes place in the Temple of Doomed Grammar, and the goal is to get through the temple to obtain the secret password. What could be more engaging for your students than that?

The Grammar Gorillas - This grammar game is the perfect review for identifying parts of speech. There’s a beginners version that includes only nouns and verbs, as well as an advanced version that reviews additional parts of speech.

Grammar Ninja - A more visually appealing version of “The Grammar Gorillas,” this game allows you to choose from three levels. You will be asked to identify parts of speech as well as other grammar categories (such as articles) using ninja powers.

Parts-of-Speech Specific Grammar Games

If you’ve recently learned about a specific part of speech, you can play a game geared solely towards reviewing that part of speech. Noun games , verb games , and adjective games are particularly helpful in reviewing the concept of these basic parts of speech, and they can usually be adapted for various levels.

These grammar games, both those that are online and those that can be played in the classroom, will improve students’ attitudes toward grammar study as a whole. Not only that, but you’ll find that you and your students are both having a lot of fun in the process!

Source: Author’s expertise

ESL Speaking

Games + Activities to Try Out Today!

in Activities for Adults · Activities for Kids

Interactive Grammar Games and Activities

If you’re looking for some of the best interactive grammar games and activities, then you’re certainly in the right place. Keep on reading for some of the top student-centred and engaging ESOL grammar games for students.

Interactive grammar games for adults

Interactive Grammar Games to Try Out Today

Let’s get to the best interactive ESL grammar games, including grammar games for adults to try out with your students!

#1: Vocabulary Auction Interactive Grammar Game

This is one of the best grammar games that I know! It’s fun, engaging, interactive and students love doing it. Best of all, it’s ideal for helping students build better sentences. Although it does take a bit of preparation time, it’s totally worth it if you can recycle the activity for more than one class.

In terms, students have to bid on words that they think will help them form grammatically correct sentences. Then, they engage in a trading round with other teams. Finally, they put their sentences together and the team with the most correct ones is the winner.

Sounds fun? It is! Find out more:

Vocabulary Auction Game.

#2: Dictogloss Interactive Grammar Activity

This is a fun ESL grammar activity that’s ideal for higher-level students. It focuses mostly on listening but students have to either write or speak in order to respond. It can be tailored to just about any grammatical point that you’re teaching which makes it quite versatile.

Sounds like something to try out with your students? Have a look here:

ESL Dictogloss Activity .

#3: Memory Circle ESOL Grammar Game

This is an interactive grammar game that challenges students’ memories. It’s a nice review for any sort of English grammar and can be used by any age or level of students. Check it out for yourself:

Memory Circle Game .

#4: SOS Interactive Grammar Game

Do you remember playing SOS as a kid? You have to get three in a row in order to get a point. I’ve adapted it into an interactive grammar game. In order to make the square, students have to answer an English grammar question. The kind of question of course depends on the level of students.

Learn more about it:

SOS Review Game .

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Bolen, Jackie (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 137 Pages - 09/27/2020 (Publication Date)

#5: Hot Potato Game

Try out this fun and interactive ESL grammar game with your students! It’s ideal for creating a bit of excitement in the classroom.

Students have to pass around a potato (or another object) until the timer stops or music goes off. Then, they have to do a task of some kind. In this case, it should be something related to the target grammar. For example, students could answer a question with a grammatically correct sentence. Check it out:

ESL Hot Potato Game .

#6: Information Gap Activities

#7: Sentence Building Interactive Grammar Games

Time spent building better sentences in class will never be a waste of time! They are the foundation of the English language and that’s why it’s vital that students know the basic building blocks of them.

These interactive grammar games focus on building good sentences. Have a look at all the ideas here:

Sentence Building Games and Activities .

#8: Puzzle Finder

This is a versatile activity that’s ideal for reviewing English grammar. It’s interactive and engaging as well! Write down the beginning of a sentence on a puzzle piece and the second half of the sentence on another one that matches. Or, beginners may have a subject (he) plus verb (goes).

Then, students have to mingle around the class to find their match. Sounds fun? It is! Learn more about it:

Puzzle Finder Activity .

English grammar practice games and activities

#9: Board Games

It’s super easy to make your own interactive board games to cover just about any grammar point. The board can be filled with any of the following:

• Fill in the blanks
• A question (students have to answer them)
• A statement that the students have to come up with a question for

Find out how to make your own board games here:

ESL Board Games .

#10: Verb Activities

All English sentences have a verb which is why it’s ideal to spend some dedicated time focusing on them in class. Check out these interactive grammar games that focus on verbs:

ESL Verb Games and Activities .

#11: Interactive TEFL Grammar Games

#12: Subject-Verb Agreement Activities

In English sentences, the verb form changes with the subject. For example:

• I play soccer.
• He plays soccer.

It’s important for our students to master this important skill if they want to make grammatically correct sentences. Here are some of the best interactive game and activity ideas:

Subject-Verb Agreement Games and Activities .

#13: Dialogue Substitution

New grammar is often introduced in ESL textbooks through a dialogue of some kind. However, maybe your students are kind of like mine and just breeze through them mindlessly? It’s not the students’ fault, it’s just that they don’t have a reason to read.

To combat this, I sometimes remove some of the key words, particularly for more advanced students. This turns it from a simple reading activity, into one focused on meaning. In this case, it can be used as an interactive grammar activity. Find out all the details:

Dialogue Substition Activity .

#14: Adjective Games and Activities

Adjectives are what makes the English language rich and vibrant. Help students use them correctly in sentences with these adjective games. They’ll help students learn English grammar in an interactive and fun way. Have a look at all the ideas here:

ESL Adjective Activities and Games .

#15: Comparative Adjective Quiz

#16: Typhoon Review Game

If you’re looking for a fun, interactive game to review English grammar, then Typhoon should be at the top of your list. Every time I use it in class, students talk about it for weeks afterwards and keep asking if we can play it again. Find out all the details here:

ESL Typhoon Game .

#17: Picture Prompt

This activity is a nice way to introduce some different grammar concepts. For example, the present continuous.

Find a picture with people doing lots of activities, maybe in a park. Then, ask students what people are doing. Elicit some answers and then restate them with the correct grammatical construction:

• picnic (The family is having a picnic.)
• jogging (The man is jogging.)
• using a phone (The woman is using her phone.)

Find out more about it here:

ESL Picture Prompt .

#18: Running Dictation

If you’re looking for one of the best grammar games for adults, then you’ll certainly need to consider running dictation. It’s interactive, engaging and student-centred and it’s also just a lot of fun!

Students have to work together to dictate a conversation (choose one with lots of the target grammar). Once they’re done that, they have to put the utterances into the correct order to make a coherent conversation. Find out more:

ESL Running Dictation Game .

#19: Just One Question

I sometimes use this activity as a warm-up, but in this case, I use it as an interactive English grammar activity at the end of the lesson. In pairs, students have to choose one interesting question using the target grammar.

Then, they have to interview at least five other groups and record their results. After that, they summarize the results and can report them quickly to the class. Check out this grammar learning activity:

Just One Question.

#20: Conversation Starters

Maybe you’ve had a similar experience to me? When I told my students to ask each other some questions using a certain vocabulary set or grammatical point, I was met with total silence! Of course, it wasn’t their fault. I didn’t give them enough direction or guidance.

A better way is to give students some conversation starter questions using the target grammar. Find out more:

TEFL Conversation Starters .

#21: ESL Basketball Game

This is a fun game that is interactive and can be used with any simple grammatical structure. It’s best for kids but I also use this activity with teenagers or university students who are beginners. It’s ideal if you have a big classroom or access to a gym of some kind. Check it out:

ESL Basketball Game .

#22: There Is There Are ESL Activities

If you’re looking for some interactive grammar games and activities for beginners, then definitely check out these ones for there is there are. This grammar seems easy but it can get a little bit tricky with negative forms, quantifiers and countable/uncountable nouns.

The good news is that there are lots of interactive grammar games to practice them! Have a look here:

ESL There Is There Are Games .

#23: Grammar Relay Race

Divide the class into teams. Students run to a board, complete a sentence with the correct grammar, and race back to tag the next player.

#24: Grammar Pictionary

Assign grammar rules or sentence structures to students. They draw pictures representing the rules while classmates guess what they are.

#25: Grammar Match-Up

Prepare sentence strips with one part of a sentence on each strip. Students must match the strips to form coherent sentences.

#26: Grammar Card Swap

Give students cards with different sentence parts. They mingle, exchanging cards to create complete sentences with correct grammar.

#27: Grammar Detectives

Provide a passage with intentional grammar mistakes. Students work in pairs to find and correct the errors.

#28: Grammar Story Chain

Begin a story using a specific grammar rule. Students take turns adding sentences, incorporating the same grammar concept.

#29: Grammar Scavenger Hunt

Hide sentences or passages around the classroom. Students find them and identify the grammar rules used.

#30: Grammar Story Cubes

Create dice with different sentence elements (subject, verb, adjective, etc.). Students roll the dice and use the elements to construct sentences.

Did you like these Grammar Practice Games and Activities? 

• 87 Pages - 10/24/2019 (Publication Date)

Yes? Then you’re going to love this book on Amazon: 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Grammar Activities for Teenagers and Adults . The key to better English grammar classes is a wide variety of interactive and engaging grammar games and activities and this book will help you get there in style.

You can find the book in both digital and e-versions. Pick up a copy to keep on your bookshelf to use as a handy reference guide. Or, take the digital version with you to our favourite coffee shop for some lesson planning on the go. Either way, get ready for some grammar teaching awesome in your life.

Head over to Amazon to find out more about it now:

ESOL Grammar Games FAQs

There are a number of common questions that people about using English grammar games for adults in their classes. Here are the answer to some of the most popular ones.

How do you make an ESL grammar class fun?

It’s possible to make English class fun by using a variety of interactive and engaging ESOL grammar games and activities. Mix things up and use some games like running dictation, typhoon, board games, puzzle finders and more to teach and review English grammar.

What are grammar activities?

Grammar activities are things done in a TEFL class that are designed to help students improve their English grammar skills. These activities can range from worksheets to task-based activities to fun games like running dictation.

How do I make an ESOL grammar game?

If you want to make an ESOL grammar game, here’s what I recommend:

• Be clear on the target language you want to review.
• Select a game that you want to use such as running dictation, dictogloss, or a board game.
• Fit the target language into the game’s framework.
• Introduce the grammar game to the students with lots of examples.
• Play the game in class and offer lots of feedback.

How do I make English grammar lessons more interactive?

To make English grammar lessons more interactive, do everything you can to make them more student-centred. This will involve a lot of pair or small group work and then some ESL grammar games and activities to reinforce concepts.

How can I plan an ESL grammar lesson?

Have your Say about Interactive Grammar Games

What’s your top pick for a fun grammar game or activity for your students? Is it one of the options from this list or do you have another one that you’d like to recommend? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

Also, be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy teachers, like yourself find these interactive grammar games.

Interactive grammar learning games

Last update on 2024-04-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 100 books for English teachers and English learners, including 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults and 1001 English Expressions and Phrases . She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

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ESL Grammar Activities to Make Your Lessons Interesting, Interactive, and Inclusive

Krzl light nuñes.

• September 4, 2022

When it comes to learning nouns, verbs, and tenses, it’s not uncommon for many English students to yawn at the thought of sitting through grammar drills and filling out worksheets. Sure, dealing with lots of rules may not seem that exciting, but you can always turn any class from mundane to fun! Let’s look at some ways to keep your ESL learners on their toes during grammar class, as well as some examples of ESL grammar activities that you can use to spice up your classroom.

Refresh your memory of core grammar concepts and learn strategies for teaching your students with Specialized Certification in Teaching English Grammar.

Table of Contents

Why do some students and teachers find grammar lessons boring?

While there’s no doubt that mastering grammar is key to English fluency, students may sometimes perceive grammar lessons as monotonous or unappealing. It could also be challenging for teachers to make learners enjoy practicing their past participles, prepositions, and conditionals. More often than not, these challenges occur because:

• Students may not see the need to learn English grammar. While in class, they see their grammar activities as tasks that they only have to complete, without realizing how useful grammar is for their communication skills.
• Through the years, teachers have become comfortable with explaining grammar rules and having students practice through drills and exercises taken from textbooks. Although these have been proven effective for learning a new language, learners tend to get bored with the same methods after some time.

Want to learn more? Read this next: How to Teach English Grammar – Even if You’re Terrible at It!

How can I make grammar fun?

Knowing why students don’t get enthusiastic about grammar lessons gives English teachers a chance to revamp their instruction, and they can do so by making their classes interesting, interactive, and inclusive. But what do these characteristics mean, exactly? Let’s dive into each component.

Earn Specialized Certification in Teaching English Grammar to master the strategies you need to effectively teach students this important language skill.

Make grammar interesting

Creating interesting grammar lessons boils down to making your learners see the social relevance of the concepts they’re studying. So, rather than simply making students construct sentences and choose the correct word forms, help them grasp grammar better by teaching them how to use it in the real world.

When learning past tenses, for instance, students can practice by talking about their memories or asking each other about their travel experiences. This way, they not only apply the grammar rules but also see how they can use past forms to describe events in their lives and exchange information with others.

Make grammar interactive

Keep your English students engaged with your grammar lessons by spicing them up with a variety of activities that get students actively involved. Don’t just stick to filling out worksheets – go for ESL grammar games, tasks, or challenges that make students talk more, listen carefully, and even get their creative juices flowing! Also, don’t forget to make use of digital tools like interactive whiteboards and quiz makers to make your activities even more interactive.

Additionally, make sure that the communicative activities you’re incorporating into your grammar lessons will help students use grammar in their daily lives. For instance, you can do role-play activities, improvisation exercises, mock interviews, and practice dialogues that incorporate what students usually do at work or school.

Check out more strategies for teaching grammar to English language learners.

Make grammar inclusive

Boost your learners’ participation through materials and activities wherein your students see themselves, their cultures, and their backgrounds represented. Instead of basing your grammar lesson examples on one type of person, you can draw inspiration from people with different social, cultural, and even economic backgrounds.

For instance, if you’re role-playing job interviews, don’t just stick to the most common professions. Instead, practice for other types of positions or jobs in other industries too. By using a variety of representations in your classes, you not only promote diversity but also make grammar learning more relatable and significant for your learners.

Below is a video recap of how to make English grammar lessons interesting, interactive, and inclusive:

Click here to watch the entire BridgeUniverse Expert Series webinar about grammar and access a growing library of webinars covering other diverse ESL/EFL topics.

What are some activities to teach ESL grammar?

Now that you know how you can make grammar lesson plans more exciting, here are some grammar activities for ESL students that you can incorporate into your classes based on the types of learners you have. Depending on the grammar topics you’re teaching, you can also tailor their content or change the mechanics of the ESL grammar games as you see fit.

ESL grammar activities for beginners

Picture description.

What you’ll need

• Various photographs of people doing different actions (e.g., eating, dancing) on separate slides. You can use MS Powerpoint , Google Slides , or Canva to create your slideshow.

How it works

In this activity, students will practice making sentences using the present continuous tense.

Show the photo to the students and ask, “What is the person doing?” You can ask follow-up questions like “Where is he going?” or “Why do you think he is laughing?”

Aside from having learners describe the photo, you can also ask them to create a story, make assumptions, or come up with predictions based on what they see in the pictures.

• Printed copies of the Battleship game worksheet on iSLCollective.com .
• For online classes, you can copy the template on a Google Jamboard and send a link to individual students.

In this battleship game, students will practice asking and answering questions using the modal “can.”

Divide the students into pairs and give each student a battleship game card. Then, have each of them draw a battleship on the card. The battleship should be linear and cover between 2 to 5 boxes. They can draw the battleship vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

Student A asks their classmate (Student B) a question using “Can you…?” plus any subject and verb on the card. If Student B says “no,” Student A marks his own card with an X to indicate a miss. If Student B answers “yes,” Student A draws a check mark on his own card to indicate a hit.

Students take turns asking and responding to questions until one of them hits all the squares covered by their classmate’s battleship.

Aside from modals, students can also practice with other grammar tenses and vary the subjects and verbs on the cards.

ESL grammar activities for adults

Sentence makers.

• A board and a marker.
• For online classes, you can use the Timeline virtual board on Padlet or draw on a Google Jamboard .

In this activity, students will practice making sentences using the past perfect tense.

Write a sentence in the past tense (e.g., I went to the park). Then, have students add five more past tense sentences.

When everyone has added their sentence, instruct the students to create a sentence in the past perfect tense by making different combinations of the events on the timeline (e.g., They had eaten before I went to the park). Check that the order of events on the timeline is correct.

You can also use the timeline to practice present and future tenses. Alternatively, you can challenge the class to create a story based on the information on the timeline.

Speculation

• A whiteboard and a pen.
• For online classes, you can use a virtual whiteboard like Miro , Google Jamboard , or the interactive whiteboards on Zoom or Skype .

In this activity, students will practice using expressions with “since” and “for” with the present perfect tense.

Divide the students into pairs. On the board, write “I think you…” Next, tell students that they’ll guess information about their classmates by making present perfect tense sentences with “since” and “for.” You can model this activity by making a guess about one of the students (e.g., “I think you haven’t been to the cinema in a month.”) Then, the student confirms if the statement is correct or not.

Students take turns making sentences and confirming each other’s statements. Encourage them to ask follow-up questions to extend the conversation.

Students can also make guesses about their classmates’ past experiences, plans, and habits.

Though getting ESL students thrilled about grammar classes may seem tough to pull off at first, it is possible to change their perception about studying sentence rules, parts of speech, and many other elements. By spicing up your lessons and making them relevant to your learners, you can give them the best English grammar learning experience and help them level up their English in no time.

Brush up on your grammar knowledge and learn the best ways to teach ESL/EFL students with Specialized Certification in Teaching English Grammar!

Back in her hometown in the Philippines, Krzl worked as a writer at a TV station before moving to Chile. After she completed her TESOL certification, she worked for language institutes and then decided to become an independent English teacher to business professionals. When she’s not giving classes, she’s either surfing along Chile’s long stretch of coastline, traveling, or practicing photography by the beach.

Trending Post : 12 Powerful Discussion Strategies to Engage Students

Grammar Games for the Classroom

Engaging grammar games for review in the middle or high school ELA classroom

Like many other skills, grammar concepts need to be reviewed. It’s okay to move on from a grammar unit when not everyone has mastered the skill if you know you will be spiraling back to that content again. Teachers can review grammar throughout the year to solidify understanding, to build confidence, to scaffold learning, and to engage students.

However, grammar review does not always have to necessitate worksheets. So. Let’s look at some grammar games to engage middle and high school students in productive review sessions.

GRAMMAR TRUTH OR DARE

Get students to review basic skills and apply concepts important to reading and writing with a friendly game of Truth or Dare.

Truth prompts can be considered basic review questions. Example: Explain the debate about the Oxford comma.

Conversely, Dare prompts might be harder questions or silly challenges. Go deeper with application when possible. Example: Give a one-minute monologue about everyone in your family without using any names – only pronouns!

I use two different versions of this Grammar Truth or Dare game : one for students who are more reserved and another for those who enjoy being goofy.

REVISION GRAMMAR AND WRITING GAME

If your students need to revise and edit their writing, integrate grammar. Put together a game board with the skills you want students to focus on. For example, students might look for comma errors, sentence variety, and parallel structure.

When it is a student’s turn, allow him or her to select the square from the game board they want to complete. As they revise their essays, students can color-code their changes with corresponding prompts on the game board.

Worried students won’t find their mistakes? Do a partner or small group format of this game, and spend time working with each group.

Not in the middle of an essay unit? It’s okay! This game can easily be used with sample writing pieces as well.

Ready to get started? Download this grammar revision Connect 4 game .

DICE REVIEW

At the end of a unit, review key concepts with a dice game. They usually enjoy adding a little flair to parts of speech and types of sentences, for instance. Have students play in small groups or with partners to keep skills fresh and add accountability.

If you picture designing a grammar lesson like creating a menu, games and activities are like the side dishes. Students need layered practice that comes in different formats. Maybe mentor sentences are one of their side dishes, and games are another.

I create game boards to build in previous concepts so that students are not only reviewing current skills but also spiraling back to previously taught concepts. Dice games can also be differentiated by student readiness levels.

BUILD-A-SENTENCE

Mentor sentences aren’t the only way to get students implementing grammar skills in writing. Ask students to begin with a basic sentence and then add onto it.

For example, let’s say the original sentence we give students is The dog barked. We can then ask students to build on to that sentence, one grammar concept at a time.

First, maybe we ask them to add a dependent clause as a transitional element.

As the mailman approached, the dog barked.

Then, we might tell students to add adverbs for description.

As the mailman approached, the dog barked ferociously .

As you can see, this process can continue for a while. Play this game as a class or in small groups. After each group has submitted a sentence to a shared class doc, study them together. Give awards for the strongest sentence. Tell students they can’t vote for their own group’s contribution so that their bias is removed and they really take time to analyze the other examples.

Add a brain-based aspect by color-coding grammar elements. Find a simplified version of this build-a-sentence grammar activity that you can use to get started here .

SCAVENGER HUNT

Help students identify grammar skills in writing by asking them to go on a scavenger hunt for specific concepts. They can look through a common text or choice reading books. For example, you might ask students to find a sentence that uses an attribution tag with correct punctuation.

Teachers can guide this activity to keep the class moving at a good pace. Set a timer and give each group who finds an example a point (in the game, not the grade book). If you prefer, students can play at their own pace. Just create a page of directions with space for students to write the examples they find in their reading. This approach frees you up to provide small group support.

TELEPHONE GRAMMAR

Students will enjoy a light-hearted game of silent telephone, reminiscent of the telephone ice breaker game where players whisper ideas to their neighbors until the reaches the last player in line.

In telephone grammar, the first person writes a grammar concept on a slip of paper and passes it to the next student. No talking allowed!

The second student reads the paper, puts it on the bottom of the pile, and writes an example on the next clean paper. That student passes the stack to the next person, who puts the example on the bottom of the pile and writes the grammar term he or she thinks best applies to the example written by the previous student. (See below – the example also includes a connection sketch.)

The goal is to finish the game and have the original grammar concept emerge. If the end concept is different than the beginning, ask students to talk about why. Exploring perspectives will give you insight as to whether they are confused or if the examples do have multiple acceptable concepts associated with them.

Troubleshooting: If students have issues selecting grammar concepts for the game, determine the topic for them at the beginning. Takes too long to complete? Divide the class into two or three smaller groups to play.

With each grammar review game, it’s important to make sure students know  why they are playing. What is the takeaway? To…reinforce content? apply to writing? manipulate language? encourage inquiry? see grammar from a different angle?

Grammar review should be fun, but not fluff. Always check to make sure grammar games align to grade-level standards in order to establish the validity for using them.

Looking for more engaging grammar review ideas? Here are a few grammar activities from Language Arts Classroom.

RELATED RESOURCE:

Looking for engaging grammar games for middle or high school? This resource contains two of my favorite review grammar games: Truth or Dare and Grammar Dice Game Boards .

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Reading Worksheets, Spelling, Grammar, Comprehension, Lesson Plans

Grammar Worksheets

Grammar is a fundamental concept that helps students to gain valuable skills in reading comprehension and writing. We've developed hundreds of grammar worksheets around topics like parts of speech, mechanics, parts of sentences, word usage, punctuation, and sentence structure. You'll find practice activities for kindergarten through high school and everywhere in between!  All of our worksheets address specific aspects of common core and teach concepts that help your students learn. Feel free to print for use at home or in the classroom.

Grammar Mechanics Worksheets

Parts of Speech Worksheets

This section includes free, printable worksheets about parts of speech: Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Articles, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Interjections, Prepositions.

Parts of a Sentence Worksheets

This section includes worksheets about Parts of Sentences: Subject, Predicate, Direct Objects, Indirect Objects, Clauses, Prepositional Phrases, and more.

Punctuation Worksheets

Sentence Structure Worksheets

Word Usage Worksheets

ESL Activities

ESL Games, Activities, Lesson Plans, Jobs & More

in Icebreakers + Warm-Ups · Listening · Reading · Speaking · Writing

ESL Grammar Activities, Games, Worksheets and Online Practice

Do you want to incorporate some fun ESL grammar activities or games into your classes? Then you’re most certainly in the right place. Keep on reading for all of the fun grammar games you need to check out for your English learners.

ESL grammar games and activities

Let’s get into the top picks for TEFL grammar games and activities to consider using in your classes. Also, check out our article on punctuation marks that will help you with your grammar lesson.

ESL Grammar Activities and Games

Are you ready? Let’s go to our top pick for English grammar games and activities!

#1: Is that Sentence Correct?

If you want to start your classes off with a quick review of material from the previous class, or round out your lesson with a little bit of review, then consider trying out this grammar activity. It’s also a stellar choice to teach English online .

The way it works is that write some sentences on the board (or have a worksheet). Some of the sentences are correct while others are not.

The students race to complete the activity, and the winner is the first team who finds all the mistakes. It’s a nice way to review some of the finer details for more complicated English grammar constructions.

Learn more here about this quick warmer activity: Is that Sentence Correct?

#2 ESL Grammar Activity: ESL Surveys

Surveys are one of my all-time favourite ESL activities. They are extremely versatile and can work with just about any topic or grammatical point. The way it works is that students have to circulate around the class, talking to their classmates to find someone who answers yes to one of their questions.

This works particularly well for the past tense, or future plans . Learn more here: Surveys for ESL Students .

#3: Past Tense Activities for TEFL Grammar Lessons

The past tense is one of the first “grammar” lessons that beginner students learn during their first few months of learning English. Sure, you can just soldier on through the textbook, but why not mix it up a bit and incorporate some of these fun grammar activities and games related to this common English lesson.

You can find them all here: Top 13 ESL Past Tense Activities . Or, you can also take a look at this article: Irregular Verb Activities and ESL past continuous games and activities.

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Bolen, Jackie (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 87 Pages - 10/24/2019 (Publication Date)

#4: Using Videos to Teach English Grammar

Did you know that there are what seems like a million and one videos for almost every single ESL grammar point? If you think your students are tired of hearing you talk, or you’re tired of talking, just have a quick look and find one of these videos.

Or, you can also find things like dramas, or interviews with examples of the specific grammar point that you’re teaching like a certain modal verb . Have students give the video a listen and jot down any instances that they hear of this specific thing. It makes a nice review activity for the end of class.

Need more information? Learn more here: Using Videos in ESL Classes .

#5: Can/Can’t English Grammar Game

If you’re looking for a fun game to help your students out with can or can’t, then you’ll want to consider this one. The way it works is that students think of a secret animal (or other things too), and write some hints for the other people in the class using can or can’t statements.

Then, you bring the whole class together and use the hints to help the other teams guess the secret thing. It’s equally fun for both children as well as adults. Try it out for yourself today: Can/Can’t ESL Grammar Game .

#6 ESL Grammar Practice: Proof-Reading and Editing

If you teach ESL writing, then chances are you’re probably focused on things like writing good paragraphs or essays. However, you can also sneak in a little bit of grammar practice as well. The way that I do this is by teaching my students about proofreading and editing. I teach them how to look for things like subject-verb agreements, linking verbs or conjunction and transitions for example.

Find out more details here, along with the checklist that I give my students: Proofreading and Editing for ESL Students .

Fun ESL grammar games

#7 English Grammar Activity for Adults: Present Perfect + Simple Past Activity

Most intermediate and advanced level textbooks have a unit where they differentiate between these two English tenses. If you’re looking for a fun activity to do related to this, then look no further!

More details right here: PP and Simple Past ESL Activity.

Or, you may also want to check out these ESL Present Perfect Activities .

You might also be interested in Present Continuous Activities .

#8: Comparative Adjectives Online Quiz

A simple grammar concept for beginner-intermediate students is comparatives. Have a look here for a fun quiz:

#9 ESL Grammar Game: Flashcard Sentences

If you teach beginners who are just starting to make complete sentences, then don’t even consider walking into a class without a set of flashcards! They’re one of the most versatile English teaching tools, and also one of the most underutilized in my opinion. In particular, they’re ideal for daily routines and telling time .

Do you want to find out one of my favourite activities for using them? Then check this out: ESL Flashcard Sentences.

#10: How to Teach Relative Clauses

Relative clauses are one of those English grammar points that seem easy enough, but they can actually be a wee bit tricky once you get into it. And, it’s also not that easy to come up with fun and engaging games or activities to get your students working on them.

But, not to worry. Help is here for TEFL grammar lessons. Take a look at these tips: How to Teach Relative Clauses .

#11 ESOL Grammar Games: Error Correction Relay Race

This is a fun way to make something old (error correction) new again by making a game out of it. The way it works is that you put together a paragraph with a certain number of grammatical errors. The students have to race to figure them all out before their classmates do.

If you want to try out this fun ESL grammar game with your students, you can find out more right here: Error Correction Relay Game.

#12: Yes/No Questions Games and Activities

If your students are beginners and you’re working on the “Be” verb in the simple present, then you’ll want to consider some of these activities or games:

ESL Yes/No Question Activities .

• 148 Pages - 03/09/2016 (Publication Date)

#13: Sentence Structure Games

If your students need some help with building simple and complex sentences, then you’re certainly going to want to check out some of these top games and activities. More details here:

Sentence Building Games for ESL.

#14: Subject Verb Agreement Games

Many students struggle with subject-verb agreements. The basics of it are simple enough, but when you start to get a lot of words in between the subject and verb in a sentence, it can get a little bit tricky.

Whether or not students struggle with this also depends on their first language. In Korean for example, the verb is at the end of the sentence, so they’re not used to English sentence order.

If you want to help your students out with this important grammar skill, then you’ll want to check this out: Subject/Verb Agreement Games .

#15: Running Dictation 

#16: ESL Grammar Practice with Board Games 

Board Games often come in the “teacher’s resource book” that goes along with your textbook. If this is the case, you’re in luck because no prep will be required but you’ll have a solid activity that your students will probably love. It also has the bonus of being extremely student-centred.

Some grammar points that work particularly well for board games are the following:

Problem and advice

Write a small problem in each square (I’m so tired), and then students have to use the correct grammar for giving advice. For example, “He should go to bed earlier.”

Reported Speech

Put students in pairs and they play against another pair. Each square has a question. For example, “Are you addicted to your cell-phone?” One student answers the question and then their partner makes a reported speech statement based on that: “I’m not addicted to my phone.” Then their partner reports what they were told, “She said that she’s not that addicted to her phone.”

Here are some ideas: Reported speech games and activities .

The Simple Past

There is any number of interesting questions you could make related to this. Students have to answer the question using the correct verb form (regular or irregular). Or, you could make a statement but leave the verb blank and the students have to fill it in correctly. For example, “She didn’t have time to _____ dinner last night.”

Must/might/could/can’t

Put a statement in each square such as, “My mother is crying.” The student has to make a statement using the specified grammatical construction. For example, “She must be upset about something.” Or, “She could have had a bad day at work.”

Future Possibilities

For example, you could write, “What would you do if you came out to the parking lot and saw that your car was scratched?” The student might answer, “Maybe I would see if the store had CCTV.”

However, almost anything can work so put your creative powers to work and come up with a fun board game for your students! It will only take 5-10 minutes to make your own game once you get a bit of experience doing it. I use Google Drive for this. I make a grid, usually 5×5, and then fill in the blanks with questions or “fun squares” (see below).

Board Game Questions

Use questions based on the grammar that you’ve been teaching during the previous classes. Have some fun squares, such as, “Switch positions with the person on your right” or “Go back 5 spaces.” The style I typically use is a question of some kind where the student has to speak one or two sentences in response to it. Or, a statement with a word missing that they have to fill in by speaking the entire sentence.

How to Play this ESOL Grammar Game

The other students in the group listen for incorrect answers, in which case the student has to move back the number that they “rolled.” You can use dice (which gets loud), two coins (2 heads = 5, 1 head + 1 tail = 3, 2 tails = 1), or a number sheet where students close their eyes and move their pen to choose a number. Or, you can have students spin their pen to point to a number on a sheet of paper.

Do you want to find out more? You’ll need to check this out: ESOL Grammar Board Games .

• Smith, Jennifer Booker (Author)
• 134 Pages - 03/31/2016 (Publication Date)

#17 Fun Grammar Activities: Hot Potato

This is a simple grammar review game, spiced up with a timer. There are plenty of phone app timers, but a kitchen timer is ideal. To play, start the potato, which can be a whiteboard eraser, ball, or any lightweight, easily seen object, moving around the class from student to student. You could also bring a potato from home!

If there is not a practical way to play in a circle, have a contingency for the last student getting the potato back to the first student, such as pausing the timer.

When the timer goes off, the student holding the potato is shown a flashcard. If they can make a grammatically correct sentence, they stay alive. If they’re wrong, they are out and must sit down. Require that students use a specific kind of grammar. For example, superlative adjectives , present perfect, simple past, etc.

Variations of Hot Potato

Vary the length of time for the timer, generally 5-15 seconds, with an occasional longer or shorter spell. A variation is to have two potatoes which look different. The person holding potato A must ask the person holding potato B a question about the flashcard using the target grammar, and that student must answer.

For example: A: Do you like oranges? B: Yes, I do/No, I don’t.

Teaching Tip for this ESL Grammar Activity:

If the class is large, this can be a very long game and the students who are out will lose interest quickly. So, I would break large classes into groups of 10-15. All groups use the same timer and flashcard—I say, “Three, two, one . . . . .” and the students holding potatoes all say their answers together.

#18: ESL Passive Games and Activities

Teaching the passive tense can be a little bit tricky. However, help is here! Check out this article for all the tips, tricks, activities, games and lesson plans you need to know to do it in style:

ESL Passive Voice Activities and Games

#19: Modal Verb Activities

#20: Quantifier Activities and Games

Quantifiers are a part of speech and are words that deal with amounts of something in English. For example much, many, few, a lot of, some, etc. The grammar and usage of them can be a little bit tricky, particularly for beginners because there are some very specific rules about when to use which ones.

If you want to help your students out with this by giving them lots of practice, you’ll want to check out the following resource:

ESL Quantifiers Games .

#21: ESL Possessive Pronouns and Adjectives

The grammar of possessives is relatively simple, but our students need to master it because these things are so important in the English language. The good news is that there are lots of fun things you can do with this grammar point. Check out some of our top ideas here:

ESL Possessive Activities and Games .

#22: ESOL Grammar Games

Do you need even more tips and tricks for teaching ESL grammar? Then you’ll definitely want to check out this short video below for more ideas to do it in style!

#23: Dictation Practice

A nice way to review any grammar concepts that you’ve been teaching your students is by doing some dictation that targets them specifically. The way it works is that you read sentences or passage to your students and they have to write down what they hear.

Want to find out all the details about this ESL writing and grammar activity? Check it out here:

ESL Dictation Activity .

#24: Reflexive Pronoun Activities

In English, there are nine reflexives that are used when the subject and object of a sentence are the same. They end in self (myself) or selves (themselves). They can be a little bit tricky to teach but the good news is that there are lots of activities and games you could consider using. Find out the recommendations:

ESL Reflexive Activities and Games .

#25: Vocabulary Auction

#26: Prefix Games and Activities

A prefix in English is when letters are added to the beginning of words to change the meaning. For example, to make it opposite or negate something. It’s an important English grammar concept for our students to know and it’s an excellent way for them to expand their vocabulary. Here are some of the best resources:

ESL Prefix Activities .

#27: Dialogue Substitution 

#28: There Is There Are

A key grammatical concept in English is when to use there is and there are. It can get a bit tricky when you take into account things like uncountable nouns and modifiers. Check out some of my ideas there.

Games for There Is and There Are .

#29: Teaching the Third Conditional 

The third conditional expresses unreal situations from the past. The grammar can be a little bit tricky in terms of both form and meaning. Have a look here for some of the top ideas for teaching it:

Third Conditional ESL . 

Did you Like These English Grammar Activities and Games?

Yes? Thought so! Then the book you’re going to want to check out is this one over on Amazon: 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults.  The key to happy, engaged students who love learning English is a variety of interesting games and activities for them to do in class. This book will help you achieve that lofty goal!

The best part is that the book is well organized into various sections, from speaking to listening, reading to writing, grammar to review and more. You should be able to find an activity or game that’ll work for your students in just a minute or two. Sounds awesome, right? It is! It’ll make your lesson planning easier, guaranteed.

You can get the book in a couple of different formats: the e-version or the physical copy. Take the digital version with you to your favourite coffee shop for some serious lesson planning on the go. Or, keep a copy of the book on the bookshelf in your office to use as a handy reference guide.

Either way, you’re getting a serious hit of ESL teaching awesome in your life. Are you ready for it? Check out the book for yourself right here:

What About ESL Grammar Worksheets?

If you’re looking for the source of all things English grammar practice and worksheets, then you’ll want to check out some of our favourite sources right here:

ESL Library

Busy Teacher

Where Can my Students Practice English Grammar Online?

My students often ask me where they can get some more practice online with these English grammar concepts. If I’m using one of the big, 4-skills ESL textbooks, I try to get the accompanying online practice. This is often the best source because the grammar and vocabulary will match exactly what you’re teaching in class.

However, there are plenty of great resources for online grammar practise too:

English Media Lab

Learn English Feel Good

Tips for Teaching ESL Grammar

Teaching ESL grammar effectively requires careful planning and a variety of instructional strategies. Here are some tips to help you teach ESL grammar more effectively.

Understand the Grammar Point

Gain a thorough understanding of the specific grammar point you are teaching. Review grammar rules, sentence structures, and usage before teaching. Identify common errors and challenges that learners may face.

Contextualize Grammar

Present grammar within a meaningful context. Use authentic materials, real-life situations, or interesting topics to introduce and practice grammar. Help students understand the relevance and application of the grammar point in their daily lives.

Visual Aids and Manipulatives

Utilize visual aids, such as charts, diagrams, or infographics, to illustrate grammar concepts. Manipulatives like flashcards or word cards can help students manipulate sentence components to understand sentence structure and word order.

Provide Clear Explanations

Present grammar rules and explanations in a clear and concise manner. Use simple language and provide examples to illustrate the concept. Ensure students understand the purpose and usage of the grammar point.

Scaffolded Practice

Progress from controlled to freer practice activities. Begin with guided exercises that provide step-by-step instructions and gradually transition to activities that allow more independent application of the grammar point. Scaffold the practice to match students’ proficiency levels.

Interactive Grammar Activities

Incorporate engaging activities that require active participation. Use games, puzzles, role-plays, pair work, group discussions, or online interactive exercises to practice grammar in a fun and meaningful way. Make grammar practice interactive and enjoyable for students.

Error Correction

Provide targeted and constructive feedback on students’ grammar errors. Focus on specific errors related to the grammar point being taught. Use a combination of explicit correction, guided self-correction, peer correction, and providing models to reinforce correct usage.

Authentic Writing Tasks

Assign writing tasks that require students to apply the grammar point in authentic contexts. Provide prompts or topics that encourage students to use the grammar structure naturally. Offer feedback and guidance on their writing, highlighting both correct usage and areas for improvement.

Integration with Speaking Skills

Encourage students to incorporate the grammar point in their spoken language. Design speaking activities, discussions, or debates that require the use of the target grammar structure. Provide opportunities for students to practice using the grammar point in meaningful conversations.

Review and Reinforcement

Incorporate regular grammar review and reinforcement activities to consolidate learning. Periodically revisit previously taught grammar points to ensure retention. Use quizzes, review games, or short exercises to reinforce students’ understanding and application of grammar concepts.

Do you Have a Recommendation for ESL Grammar Textbook?

If you’re looking for some super solid reference and practice textbooks for English grammar, my favorite ones are usually the Grammar in Use series. You can find them for beginner, intermediate, or advanced levels. Check them out on Amazon:

Of the 4-skills ESL textbooks for teenagers or adults, the one that’s best for grammar and vocabulary is Touchstone. It gets way more into the finer points of things than the books that focus more on communicative activities do. You can check it out here: ‘

• McCarthy, Michael (Author)
• 83 Pages - 08/25/2015 (Publication Date) - Cambridge University Press (Publisher)

Teaching ESL Grammar FAQs

There are a number of common questions that people have about teaching grammar to English learners. Here are the answers to some of the most common ones.

What is ESL grammar?

ESL grammar is English grammar used by people who do not speak English as their first language. Depending on the level of fluency, it may be closer or further away from the grammar that would be used by a native English speaker.

How to I teach ESL grammar?

Here are a few tips for teaching ESL grammar:

• Make it fun! Teaching grammar doesn’t have to be boring.
• Use a variety of ESL grammar activities and games.
• Don’t forget about context when teaching English grammar.
• Consider teaching fewer grammatical points but ensuring that students know them really well.
• Use guided discovery or noticing for grammar teaching.

What are the 8 parts of speech?

In English, the 8 parts of speech are: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. The part of speech indicates meaning as well as the grammar within the English sentence.

How do you write a grammar lesson?

There are a few distinct steps when writing a grammar lesson:

• Lead-in/motivation/setting the context
• Presentation
• Controlled practice
• Freer practice
• Homework task (optional)

What is basic English grammar?

Basic English grammar is the structure and system of the English language. It helps us know what order to put the words in a sentence and also gives the words meaning. Each piece of the sentence is known as a part of speech.

What are the steps in an ESL grammar lesson?

Have your say about these ESL Grammar Games and Activities

What are your thoughts about these ESL grammar games, activities, worksheets and online practice? Do you have any recommendations that you’d like to share with us? Leave a comment below and let us know. We’d love to hear from you. Also, learn how you can use grammar points to decorate your ESL classroom .

English grammar activities and games

Last update on 2022-07-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 60 books for English teachers and English learners, including Business English Vocabulary Builder and 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Teenagers and Adults . She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

You can find her on social media at: YouTube Facebook Pinterest TikTok LinkedIn Instagram

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Educational Resources to Save Teachers Time and Engage Elementary Students

Fun Grammar Activities for the 1st Grade Classroom

Do your 1st graders struggle with proper sentence structure? This was definitely true for my kiddos! Over the years I've learned that first-grade students need LOTS of practice correcting sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation. To help ensure they get the support they need, I'm sharing a few of my favorite fun grammar activities!

Addressing Grammar Practice In The Classroom

Over the years, I've noticed that my first-grade students seem to struggle over and over again with writing and correcting sentences. They forget punctuation, leave letters all lowercase, add random capitals, and miss spelling mistakes.

After watching my students, it became clear to me that they simply weren't being given enough opportunities to develop these skills. Practicing this occasionally just wasn't cutting it for my kiddos!

So, to help them actually begin to develop their sentence writing and correcting abilities, I created a year-long resource geared towards exactly that!

My Fix It Up Sentences Unit is filled with monthly activities that ask students to read a sentence, identify mistakes and correct it.

Plus, the monthly themes meant we could embrace seasonal concepts each month, which is appealing to my first graders!

Printable Grammar Activities

No-prep printables save the day when it comes to daily practice! This is definitely true for me in my classroom. The appeal of creating a monthly set of Fix It Up Sentences Grammar Activities was that it would present the opportunity for daily practice. Since my students were having such a hard time with these concepts, I knew I wanted to make sure they used the grammar activities as much as possible.

Because of this, I created both half-page printable worksheets and full pages. The half-page sheets feature 1 sentence while the full page has 5 sentences. On each page, students will identify mistakes in the sentences by circling and then re-write the sentence correctly. Both pages ask kiddos to check for capital letters, spacing, punctuation, and spelling. These checkboxes on each page help my students slow down and make sure they corrected every part of each sentence!

We use the half-pages as daily grammar activities. Sometimes we do this as a whole class and other times it might be during small groups. Typically, I'll introduce these pages as a whole class activity. My kiddos get the hang of these worksheets really quickly and are able to be independent in no time. I love that this quick and simple activity ensures that my students get practice with grammar every single day. The full pages are great for ELA centers and homework as a way to sneak in a little more practice with our grammar activities. You can also use the full page as a week of grammar practice and have students fix one sentence each day.

Digital Grammar Activities

If you know me, you probably know how much I love incorporating digital activities in my classroom. Google Slides offer such a great way to review as a class, provide instruction or assign to children who are learning virtually. When creating my Fix It Up Sentences Grammar Activities, I made sure to include a digital version as well.

In the digital version, all of the same grammar activities are included in 2 options, one with text boxes and one without.

To use this activity, I display the Google Slides Presentation on the Smart Board as the students complete their half-page worksheet with the same sentence.

When students finish, I allow them to come to the board and fix the sentence. Then we rewrite the sentence in the space provided on the Google Slides Presentation.

You could also assign these activities to students for homework, as a make-up activity, or as a technology based center activity. I love that Google Slides provides the ability for flexibility in my teaching and helps me meet the needs of everyone!

Fix It Up Sentences BOOM Cards

Finally, students can use the Boom Cards version of these activities to get even more grammar practice.

My kids LOVE to use Boom Card activities and I take full advantage of their excitement with these fun grammar activities.

Boom cards are a great way to sneak in some extra practice during centers since they are self-checking. They also have sound and verbal directions, so kiddos can be fully independent when using them!

In my classroom, I assign these as ELA centers, homework, or early finisher activities.

Typically, I'll wait until my kiddos are familiar with this activity through the Google Slides and worksheets beforehand. This ensures they'll be able to complete these grammar activities on their own.

Another great bonus to these is that my kiddos get plenty of practice typing as well!

Try Fix It Up Sentences in Your Classroom

If you'd like to try these out for yourself, enter your email below to grab a free sample! You'll be sent a mini set of generic, non-themed sentences so you can test drive this with your own kiddos!

Check Out All the Grammar Activities

If you're ready to start providing daily opportunities for working on sentence structure, spelling, punctuation, writing, and typing be sure to check out the full bundle of Fix It Up Sentences! These grammar activities will help you make sure your students are getting daily practice with sentence structure. Plus, you and your students will love the fun, seasonal themes to help keep the activities feeling fresh and new!

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Don't forget to pin this post on your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you'll be all set when it comes to planning your 1st-grade grammar activities!

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27 Classroom Games Students Will Want To Play Again and Again

Practice important skills … and have fun!

The classroom games you choose to play with students may become their favorite memories. (I still remember playing Heads Up, Seven Up in Mrs. Merar’s first grade class!) Classroom games are a great way to build collaboration and community and practice important skills. Plus, they’re fun!

Benefits of Classroom Games

Classroom games capture what kids are naturally good at—playing—to improve other skills. Games support kids’ executive functioning skills , things like planning, organization, turn-taking, and problem-solving are all skills that students need to be successful. Playing games, from Memory to Monopoly, gives kids experience in focus and concentration, working memory, and flexibility in safe spaces where they can grow and stretch these skills. Plus, they’re a fun way to learn more about how your students think and work together.

In addition to all the classroom games listed below, check out our lists of most loved educational board games and best board games for 6-to-12-year-olds .

Here are our favorite classroom games that you can use to teach, reteach, and engage students.

Games for Practicing Academic Skills

Classroom games can help students practice things that they need to know—like multiplication tables, vocabulary words, and science facts. They’re great ways to do a quick review or practice for a quiz.

Math (or Fact) Baseball

Divide the class into two teams. One team is “at bat” and scores runs by answering questions that are worth one, two, or three bases. You “pitch” the questions using flash cards. If the at-bat team answers correctly, they move around the baseball field and rack up runs. If the at-bat team does not answer correctly, the defending team can respond correctly to earn an out. Once the at-bat team has three outs, they switch.

You can also put students into pairs and have them play a partner version.

Why we love it:  This game is great for upper elementary students who are able to follow the game and will love the strategy of earning runs.

Beach Ball Toss

Write questions on the sides of a plastic beach ball. You can write questions about a story (plot, theme, setting, characters, structure), about math (write numbers 1 through 6 on the beach ball and students have to select a math problem based on the number they choose), or simply silly questions that students can answer. As students catch the ball, they answer the question. When they’ve answered, they throw the ball to the next player. If you’re working with material that may be new for some kids, you can give each kid one “pass” and they can share the problem-solving with another student.

Why we love it: It’s flexible and works with students’ eye-hand coordination.

Buy it: Beach Balls at Amazon

Learn more: More Than Elementary

Create a list of topics that students can visualize (think: science concepts, vocabulary words). Students work either in two teams for the entire class or in small groups that are divided into two. One student selects a card and has to draw an image that the other team uses to guess the word. The rest of the group guesses the term that’s being drawn. Add a timer for an added challenge. Provide additional differentiation by allowing students to provide one, two, or more letters in the word as well.

Why we love it: Kids who have strengths in drawing and thinking outside the box can really shine.

Learn more: Differentiation Daily

There’s the Simon Says you know from the playground and the Simon Says classroom game. In this Simon Says, tell students to do something that lets them show off what they’ve learned or practices a skill. So you might say, Simon Says spell “conundrum.” Or Simon Says solve this equation. Play either as a whole class with you as Simon or in small groups with cards of prompts that students can use when they take turns being Simon.

Why we love it: In addition to practicing skills, students also practice listening and impulse control.

20 Questions

Prepare cards with related words or topics. Group students into teams of two to four students. One at a time, students choose a card and the others have to try to guess what the card is by asking questions that can only be answered with a yes or no. Keep track of how many questions are asked, because you’re only allowed 20 questions to get to the answer. Have students put aside the cards they didn’t get for review.

Why we love it: Students practice working memory as they add new information to what they already know.

Also, Guess in 10 is a great 20 Questions–style game played around various topics, including animals, countries, and cities.

Buy it: Guess in 10 at Amazon

Memory is a game that students can do with any content—vocabulary words paired with their definitions, chemistry terms paired with images that depict them, or text structures paired with graphic organizers. First, have students create card pairs. Shuffle the cards and put them on the table. Take turns flipping cards over and finding the matching pairs.

Why we love it: Memory is so versatile you can use this game with anything from procedures to vocabulary to history facts.

Buy it: Blank Memory Cards at Amazon

In charades, students choose a card and act out the information on the card. For a unit on weather, you may have the words cloud , tornado , or hurricane for example. Scaffold this game with three rounds. In the first round, students can explain the topics using a few words. Then, in the second round, they can only use one word to describe what they are acting out. And in the third round, they have to be completely silent, using only their bodies to act out each word.

Why we love it: This game gets students up and moving around and thinking creatively about how to show what they know.

Learn more: Savvy Apple

Put students in the hot seat to review the plot points of a story, practice answering questions, or review for a science test. First, choose vocabulary to review. Then, select a student to sit in the hot seat. The other students ask questions about the topic or information. The student in the hot seat must answer as quickly as possible. If their answer is correct, they stay in the hot seat. If they get a wrong answer, they can pass the seat to someone else. (You can take the pressure out of this game, which can make some students nervous, by removing the timed aspect.)

Why we love it: Hot Seat is a great way to get students to practice information they need to have right at the tip of their tongue.

Scattergories

Scattergories can be played for academics or for fun. It also helps students improve their creative thinking. You’ll need a list of at least 10 categories—mix serious topics with silly ones. Then, select a letter of the alphabet. Have students brainstorm words to go with each category that starts with that letter. So, if the categories you have are Weather, Bees, and Favorite Places, and the letter is H, students might write: hurricane, hive, Hawaii. Give a set amount of time for students to complete their own brainstorm, then share out. Students can rack up points for the number of categories that they complete. And sharing out helps them connect their brainstorming with everyone else’s.

Why we love it: The boundaries that kids have to work in when playing Scattergories is ideal for inspiring creativity.

Get printable Scattergories sheets on Pinterest.

Fix It Relay Race

Divide the class into teams of four to six students, and prepare sentences that each have an error—it could be a factual error for content classes or grammar or spelling mistakes for language classes. Arrange students in a line, with students standing a few feet apart. The first student in each team must correct one mistake in the sentence they are given. Then, they pass the card to the next teammate. The next student corrects another mistake. This continues until each team member has seen the card and they think all the errors are corrected. Then they run the card to the front to complete the relay.

Why we love it: Teams work together to complete each task.

Buy it: Fix It Sentences at Teachers Pay Teachers

This is another classic game that can be adapted to any academic content. Each student gets a card that is taped to their back or their forehead. The card has a name of a person you’re studying or a topic on it. Then, the students circulate and ask questions of other people to try to figure out who or what is taped to them.

Why we love it: This game is easily differentiated by providing students with personalities that you know they are familiar with, and by providing them with questions to ask or a checklist of personalities that they can be thinking about as they figure out who everyone is.

Word Scramble

Each student or group has a word. The goal is to pull as many words out of the original word as possible within the time limit.

Why we love it: Word Scramble encourages flexibility, and students may be surprised at what they see in each game.

Stickyball Bingo

Create a bingo board on your whiteboard with the words that you want students to work with or the math problems you want them to do. Then, have students throw a sticky ball at the board to select their game.

Why we love it: When their aim is poor, students may have to answer questions that push them out of their comfort zone.

Musical Chairs

Prepare a list of discussion questions or prompts. Students choose a card, then walk around the room while music plays. When the music stops, they find a partner and work on the questions they see on the card. You can prepare cards with math or science problems, questions from social studies, getting-to-know-you questions, or silly questions. Changing the type of questions that students are working with keeps this game fresh.

Why we love it: Musical chairs really gets students up and moving, and if you remove the loss of a chair each time, all students can stay in the game.

Check out these school-appropriate songs kids love .

Flashcard Duel

Students each have a set of flash cards and use them to “duel.” In pairs, students show each other a flash card one at a time. If they answer the card right, they get to keep the card. If they don’t, their partner keeps the card.

Why we love it: It’s fast-paced and easy for students to pick up and play during a few minutes of downtime.

Classroom Games for Communication

Games that require students to talk and listen to each other are great ways to encourage communication.

Yes, No, Stand Up

Have a list of sentences prepared. When you read a sentence, students stand if their response is yes and stay seated if it’s no.

Why we love it: Students practice listening skills and inhibition by standing or not in response to your questions.

Blind Square

Use a long rope and blindfolds. Have students stand in groups of four, then put the blindfolds on and hold the rope between them so it creates a square. They have to work together to put the rope down on the floor in front of them.

Why we love it: This game is great for middle schoolers to learn to work together.

Odd One Out

Prepare this game with a set of words or phrases written on slips of paper. Have students work in pairs or small groups to categorize the words or phrases as they relate to each other. Students have completed the game when they find the odd one out. So, students may have a group of four people from the Revolutionary War but only three who were presidents, so the one who is not a president is the odd one out.

Why we love it: Odd One Out requires students to use critical thinking and working memory as they come to each answer.

Can You Hear Me Now?

This is a fun warm-up or cool-down for the day. It’s also a great classroom game to play if you’re teaching virtually. Play as a class or in groups. Each student takes a turn describing an item for the others to draw one step at a time. For example, if the object were “cat,” the description might be: Draw a circle. Draw two triangles on top of the circle. And so on until a cat is drawn. It’ll surprise students how their directions are interpreted, and how hard it is to get people to follow their directions.

Why we love it: This is a humorous way to reinforce that students need to be clear in their directions and listen to yours.

Classroom Games for Collaboration and Team Building

Games that require teamwork are ideal for helping kids practice collaboration in short bursts and around a common, if silly, goal.

Minute To Win It

Challenge your class to compete in tasks that can take under a minute. You could:

• Speed-stack paper cups.
• Roll a coin between fork tongs.
• Transfer pom-poms with chopsticks.
• Build a tower out of marshmallows and toothpicks.
• Pass a balloon from one person to another without using your hands.
• Put together a puzzle.

Why we love it: It’s a quick way to engage students and shift students into a positive frame of mind.

Learn more: Fun and Easy Minute To Win It Games

Over the Electric Fence

Put two chairs in a row, and tell students that they are connected by a wire that is 3 feet high. Even better, string a rope 3 feet high. Students have to imagine that this is an electric fence and if they touch it they are dead. They’ll help everyone get over the fence and work together to do so. Make it even more challenging by telling students that they have to hold hands while moving everyone from one side of the fence to the other.

Why we love it: Students will have to slow down and figure out exactly how to solve the problem.

Create a square in your classroom using tape. Then, place plastic cups or cones around the inside of the square. This area is the minefield. Break students into pairs. One student is blindfolded and the other leads them. The students have to cross the minefield without touching or knocking down the plastic cups. The non-blindfolded student gives directions and the blindfolded student must follow them to cross the minefield without blowing up a “mine” or knocking over a cone.

Why we love it: Students will get out of their comfort level while playing this game.

Start with general everyday scenes (eating dinner, brushing teeth). Have two people act out a scene while everyone else watches. After a time, stop the scene and have someone swap out for a new player. Then, they have to change how the scene is being done. They could, for example, turn eating dinner into taking care of a pet. Once students are familiar with the game, make it more challenging with prompts from the book you’re reading or history scenarios (e.g., Washington crossing the Delaware turns into the French Revolution).

Why we love it: This game gives older students the opportunity to work with a variety of people and get creative connecting scene to scene.

Check out more team-building activities for kids and cooperative games for kids .

Classroom Games for Fun

Sometimes you need classroom games that simply let students have fun and blow off steam!

Freeze Dance

This is a great brain break. Put on music and dance (challenge kids to a Floss-off or the Macarena to get everyone moving). Then, pause the music and any student who unfreezes before the music starts again is out.

Why we love it: You’ll see some students come out of their shells once the music starts.

Heads Up, Seven Up

Why we love it: This is a classroom game we remember from our elementary school years, and now we’re passing it along!

Tic-Tac-Toe

Use a version of tic-tac-toe during the dreaded indoor recess or as a brain break.

Tic-tac-toe with Hula-Hoops:

Human Tic-Tac-Toe:

Why we love it: Whichever version you choose, tic-tac-toe is a quick game that’s always a winner.

Place a number of objects (up to 20) on a table (or post on a slide with 20 words or pictures) and have students take one minute to try to memorize as many as they can. Then, cover the objects or hide the slide and have students write down as many as they can remember. Play this game once a week or so and see how students improve their memory strategies.

Why we love it: Students will sharpen their focus and memory skills trying to remember as many objects as possible.

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Teaching online check out these top online educational games ..

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