Grammar Gimmicks

by Cathy Brooks Walker, Hopewell-Loudon Junior High School, Bascom, Ohio

Do you remember your middle school days? Do you ever remember rushing to English class in anticipation of the day's grammar lesson? If you were like most teenagers, instead of grammar lessons, I am sure you were hoping for a really l-o-n-g fire drill or praying for a natural disaster of any kind that would postpone this unbearable torture called grammar.

We all know how dramatic teenagers can be. Use your students' flair for drama and create unconventional grammar lessons that resemble familiar games that they love and will want to play over and over. Below are some suggestions I use with my classes. These lessons can serve as a quick get-the-class-started activity, as a review of previously learned concepts, or as a complete structured grammar lesson. You can easily adapt them to your classroom and your style of teaching. So reach for your graphic programs, add your own creative flair and pizzazz, and, voilà, you will have a recipe for a "happening" classroom― a classroom with active and energized learners trying to anticipate what you might have waiting for them next.

Grammar Wall

Create a place where students can write down what they are feeling, thinking, or learning. Take a large piece of paper, put it on a wall or blackboard (or whatever kind of board you have) in your room, and let students write on it. Tell students to write their thoughts in complete sentences on the wall with markers. Have a variety of colors, but designate one color that students can use to correct any grammar errors written by fellow classmates. Ask the students to explain why they corrected the sentence. I find my students are always willing to tell other classmates the errors of their ways, so here is a productive way to harness that natural tendency to see the mistakes of others.

Preposition Activities

Prepositional Roll

This activity helps students to see how prepositions connect a noun or pronoun and another word in the sentence. Create your own game boards like the one shown below. The top row and the left-hand column can contain nouns and pronouns. Fill the other squares with prepositions.

Students can play this by themselves, in pairs, or in small groups. All they need is a game board and two dice.

To play the game:

• Roll one die at a time.
• If you roll a "2," go across the top row two spaces. On the game board above, you will have landed on baby.
• Roll the other die. If you get a "3," then you go down the left column three spaces. On our game board, you will have landed on fence.
• Look for the square where the row and the column intersect― in our case, at from.
• Write a complete sentence connecting fence and baby using the preposition from.

Variations of this game include having students create their own game boards (once they are familiar with how the game works) and using vocabulary words, spelling words, etc.

Twister Game

Use the Twister game to show students prepositions and their relationship to other words in a sentence. Ask a couple of students to play the game. While the two students are moving around the Twister mat, have the other students write sentences describing what is happening― for example, "Susan's leg is under Bob's arm." Have students change roles, letting participants become writers and writers become participants. Share sentences, and help students recognize prepositions and prepositional phrases and how the phrases work in sentences.

Pick a Preposition

I use index cards onto which I draw or paste pictures of flowers. After writing a preposition on each, I laminate the cards and attach a magnet to the back. Then I hang the cards on my blackboard, and I have the students pick a flower. They have to use the preposition in a sentence, explaining what noun or pronoun is being connected to the other words in the sentence.

Prepositional Poems

Creating Poems Using a Template

Provide students with a variety of pictures they can choose from, such as snowflakes, cars, houses, animals. After they choose a picture, they can write a themed poem (unrhymed is fine) about it using the template shown below:

Creating Poems Using Only Prepositional Phrases

Ask students to choose a situation (or suggest one to the students) and write a poem using only prepositional phrases. For example, you might ask students to write such a poem about going to gym.

Games

Go to your local Salvation Army or Goodwill thrift shop, and head for the game area. You will discover a variety of games, selling anywhere from 50 cents to a couple of dollars, that you can adapt to the study of grammar. You will be amazed at what you can find that will get your creative juices going!

Fishing for Homophones

I go to my Print Shop program and print out many different types of fish. On the back of the fish, I type homophone pairs like threw, through; too, two, to; and sight, site, cite. I laminate these fish and then put magnets on the back. When my students come into the classroom, they take a fish off the blackboard, look at the homophones, and put them in a sentence, demonstrating they know how to use each one properly.

Sealed Envelopes

Greet your students at the door with sealed envelopes that contain the directions for the day's lesson. The only catch is that the students can't open the envelopes till you tell them to. Build up the suspense, and hook them into your lesson for the day.

Hint: I use the envelopes that have the clasps so I can reuse them.

Greeting Cards

Take old birthday cards or any other greeting card that you get during the year. Highlight a word or several words on the card. Have students look at the highlighted word(s) and tell what part of speech is being used.

Create-a-Word

Create-a-word is a lesson on understanding compound words. I go to my Print Shop program, print out some graphics I like, create clues to put on the back of the graphics, laminate them, put a magnet on the back, and hang my creations on the blackboard. Then I have students pick one, read the clue, and compose an answer to write on the board. Examples include:

• At night we have moonlight. In the day we have __________. (daylight)
• A sport played with a ball and bat. (baseball)
• A piece of jewelry you wear on you ear. (earring)
• You turn this to open a door. (doorknob)
   

Game Boards

The website http://jcschools.net/tutorials/gameboard.htm helps you create your own game boards in PowerPoint. Use these game boards to practice:

• Vocabulary words
• Proper and common nouns
• Singular and plural nouns
• Punctuation marks
• Base words, prefixes, and suffixes
• Story comprehension questions

This site also gives you templates for game cards, spinners, and dice to help make your games complete.

Hint: I go to dollar and other discount stores to look for cheap plastic or rubber ants, critters, etc., to use as game pieces. For example, for the game board for Ant Picnic, I use plastic ants for the pieces. The students love it!

Adjectives

Ticket Trios

Either buy, print out, or otherwise make tickets. Add a trio of nouns to each ticket.

Ask students to write an adjective that could be used to describe each of the three items. For example, suppose a student had a ticket, like the one shown above, with the trio of words library, mouse, whisper. An adjective that would make a good answer is quiet.

Some other trios you might use are:

whistle, music, siren (noisy, loud)
noun, fraction, English (proper, common)
watch, coin, earrings (gold, old, expensive, lost)

The students will come up with many creative ideas, and if I can't make the connection, I ask them to explain their thought process; many times it is very clever.

The Describing Game from an Adjective Perspective

Take colored index cards or different-shaped colorful cut-outs, and put adjectives on them, such as thick, smooth, fresh. Have students pick up a card and come up with as many nouns as he or she can think of that the adjective describes. (This could be a noun lesson as well.)

Variation: Pass out the adjectives. Ask students to change each adjective into a comparative (er) or superlative (est) form.

Adverbs

Make a set of "hidden adverb" cards, and ask the students to discover the hidden adverb and then write a sentence using it. To create a hidden adverb:

• Substitute one letter in the adverb to make a different word (frequently you have to change the order of the letters to do this). Underline the new letter. For example, for the word well, you might drop one l, add a b, and change the word to blew.

Instructions to students might be something like:
Replace the underlined letter with a different letter, and then rearrange the letters to spell a word that is often or always used as an adverb. Post a class list of adverbs for students to consult as they work.

Nouns

The Describing Game from a Noun Perspective

Take colored index cards or different-shaped colorful cut-outs, and write a noun on each one, like boat, sunset, anniversary. Have students think of as many adjectives as possible that could describe this noun. (This can also serve as a lesson about adjectives.)

Common and Proper Nouns

Make "common" and "proper" cards such as these:

Be sure you make a pair for each topic, one for the proper noun and one for the common. Pass the cards out to students as they walk into the room. The students have to give an answer to their card.

Examples: A kind of shop in the mall common (shoe store, candy store). A kind of shop in the mall proper (Penny's, Barnes and Noble).

Concrete and Abstract Nouns

Make cards with various abstract and concrete nouns written on them.

I attach magnets to the backs. As students are walking into the room, I give each student a card with a word on it. On the board, I have a chart.

The students have to put the words in the correct spot. Classmates can disagree if they think a word has been put in the wrong place.

Types of Sentences

Exclamatory and Imperative Sentences

On flash cards, write an exclamatory sentence on one side and an imperative sentence on the other side. I make exclamatory sentences yellow and imperative sentences orange. Then throughout the year, when we write these types of sentences on the board, we use yellow and orange chalk.

The sentences are scrambled so that the student has to figure out the right order of the words, which leads to a good discussion on patterns found when writing these types of sentences.

Declarative and Interrogative Sentences

On flash cards, put a declarative sentence on one side and an interrogative sentence on the other side. I find it helpful, as below, to make the declarative sentence one color and the interrogative sentence another.

Ask students to read the interrogative sentence and write an answer to the question, turning it into a declarative sentence.

Then have the students read the declarative sentence on the card and turn it into an interrogative sentence.

Put the Pieces Together

Type a list of sentences, laminate the list, and cut the sentences into chunks of at least three or four words. Put magnets on the back of each part, and scramble the sentence parts as you put them up on the board. Ask the students to take the parts and make complete sentences. All sentences should make sense.

Ad-Mania

Collect grocery ads for the week. Cut out a wide variety of products like pancake mix, juice, Kleenex, and carrots. Put about ten or twelve products in an envelope, one envelope per student or small group of students. Ask students to use the words on the products and put together complete, detailed sentences. Have students share with the class. Students can critique the sentences for grammar, punctuation, clarity, etc. As a variation, you could have students bring in grocery ads, cut out the products, put them in envelopes, and exchange them with another person or group.

Verbs

Shooting Hoops to Learn Verbs

Past, Present, Future

Go to your Print Shop, and create basketballs (or get a picture of a basketball and make multiple pictures using a copier). On the back of each basketball, write a verb and the tense you want the student to write; for example, you might write study (present), taste (past), and heat (future).

Irregular Verbs in the Past Tense

I use this game to help students learn the past tense of irregular verbs like lie, write, bring, and do.

• As above, create basketballs, and on the back of each, write a verb.
• Put all the basketballs on the table (you could also attach magnets on the backs and put the basketballs on the board).
• Ask each person to pick up a basketball.
• Have each student read the word on the back of the basketball and write the past tense of the verb either directly on the board or on a separate piece of paper.
• Let students share their answers. Classmates must agree with the answers or tell what they think the right answer is.

Suggestion: Get a Nerf basketball and hoop, and let students take shots as a reward for getting correct answers. For example, a student might be allowed to shoot a basketball after he or she gets a specified number of correct answers or when he or she finds a mistake. Or you might use a special mark on some of the basketballs to designate difficult questions. If a student chooses a hard question and answers it correctly, the student can take a Nerf shot or two.

Verb Concentration

My students enjoy playing concentration, so making a variation of the game by having students match irregular verbs has proved to be an almost effortless way to study irregular verb forms. For verb concentration:

• Make cards like the one shown.
• Cut the cards apart to make individual word cards.
• Turn the individual cards face down, and mix them up. (You can do this, or your students can.)

Students play the game just like they would other concentration games, turning one card over and then another to try to match the irregular verb forms.

Abbreviations

Using words such as United States, January, and Street, create a number of graphics. Put magnets on the backs, and put them on a board. Cover the words so when the students come in, they won't know the word they are going to choose. I tack up a wanted poster with the word alias on it to help connect the fact that an abbreviation is a shortened version of a word or phrase. Students have to choose a word from the board and then write the abbreviation for it. You could also do the opposite: Write the abbreviation, and then have students tell what it stands for.

Parts of Speech Treasure Hunt

Everyone loves a treasure hunt! Assign students to teams to do this activity. Give a treasure box to each team to hold correct answers― you might even have each team design its own box.

• Type sentences that are long enough to contain a variety of parts of speech.
• Highlight the various parts of speech, using different colors for nouns, verbs, prepositions, etc.

• If you place the sentences on the board, cover them so the students can't see them. In the spirit of the activity, you can make your covers look like the top of a treasure chest. The idea is for the students not to see the sentences beforehand so they will not pick ones they feel sure they know.
• Ask students to pick a sentence and tell you what parts of speech are highlighted.
• If a student gets the correct answer, then he or she can put the sentence in the team's treasure box.
• The group that gets the most sentences in the treasure box wins.

Cathy Brooks Walker graduated from Ohio State in 1982 in home economics education. In 1986, she took advantage of a retraining certificate offered by the state and started classes to get her elementary certificate. In 1993, she taught one section of seventh grade English. Since that time, she has become a full-time seventh and eighth grade language arts teacher. She has been a presenter at OCTELA, eTECH Conference, and local in-services, and she was also nominated for Disney Teacher of the Year. She has also written grants to bring authors, plays, and resources into the classroom. One of her greatest growing and learning experiences as a teacher occurred when her son started school and was diagnosed with ADHD, the inattentive type. It took over three years to understand what was causing his struggles in school. In this process, she learned some invaluable tools to break down learning so all students can feel successful. This experience served as a crucible of her ideas.

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