Grammar Help Games

Teaching children grammar rules helps them improve their writing. Using the correct grammar ensures that a student's writing makes sense and is understood by others. Writing an exciting story, full of fantastic adjectives and metaphors, is important, but without the correct grammar the reader may be confused rather than entertained. Avoid making grammar rules boring by using some fun activities to motivate students and help them to learn.

Prefix And Suffix

Award points for the most suffixes and prefixes.

This game lets students be competitive. Write the nucleus of a word on the white board. Students write down as many different suffixes or prefixes for that word as possible in a set time. If you write up "kind," for example, students could write down "un", "man" (prefixes), and "ly", "ness", "er" (suffixes). Divide students into teams with points awarded for the most suffixes and prefixes, or for the most unusual words.

Verb Or Noun?

Prior to the lesson, write a list of verbs, all actions that your students can do; running, jumping, crying, for example. Prepare another list of nouns, this time objects that you have placed around the classroom. Begin by explaining or revising the difference between a verb and a noun. Divide the class into two halves; one half are the "adjective" team and the other half are the "noun" team. Then read out from your lists, sometimes calling out a verb and sometimes a noun. When you read out a verb, students must perform this action; when you read out a noun, students must find the object in the classroom.

Silly Sentences

Students share their silly sentences.

Start by explaining the different parts of a sentence to the class. Write lists of words for each different part of the sentence on the board where everyone can see them clearly; a list of objects, subjects, nouns, verbs and adjectives. Students need to make the silliest sentence they can out of the words you have given them. The only rule is that the sentence must make grammatical sense.

Online Games

Online games are a fun way to learn.

There are lots of games accessible online that your students will enjoy playing. Use them as a reward in class or as a worthwhile but fun activity on a Friday afternoon. Children can also access these games from home. If you are sure that all the children in your class have Internet access and are allowed to use computers at home, you could even set playing a grammar game online as a fun piece of homework. As a starting point, try Scholastic.com.

References

• Scholastic Teachers: Clean Up Your Grammar
• Scholastic Teachers: Short Circuit
• Scholastic Teachers: Super Match Game