3 Fun Grammar Ideas to Increase Student Learning

Combining fun and grammar instruction is a great way to increase student engagement. Learn 3 great ideas to boost student learning today.

1.  Fun Grammar Idea: Parts of Speech Sticky Notes

Here’s a fun grammar idea to use throughout the year. There are so many ways to use sticky notes to teach grammar. For basic skills, write nouns and verbs (or other parts of speech) on sticky notes. Put them up around the classroom. (I could see this on a Jamboard for virtual classroom settings.)

Have specific areas for students to place the sticky notes. This could be labeled chart paper, labeled boxes drawn on the whiteboard, etc. Challenge students (teams or individuals) to locate a specific part of speech and stick it in a spot you’ve determined.

To get more complex, add other parts of speech into the mix. The teacher says “adverb”, and the students go off in search of an adverb, bringing it to the predetermined location. Review the selections before the next person in the group searches for another part of speech. Add parts of speech as needed.

You can do this with intention and, at the end, the last person (or the group) must make a sentence out of the sticky notes. Another challenge could be to make the longest sentence possible (yet still grammatically correct). You might want to have articles like “a” and “the” and “an” there in the sentence creation area. The first group to create a correct sentence gets to share in grammar pride (or prize).

2.  Fun Grammar Idea: Dress Up a Sentence

Write a boring sentence on the board. 

THE CAT RAN.

Under the sentence, draw boxes for different parts of speech: adjectives, adverbs, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, etc.

As a class, brainstorm words that fit into these categories and write them in the boxes below the boring sentence. Next, either as a class, a group, or individually, students “Dress Up” the boring sentence using the words in the boxes (or others that occur to them).

The fluffy orange and brown cat sprinted quickly up the sidewalk.
OR
The fluffy orange and brown cat with the long white whiskers strutted proudly up the sidewalk with a terrified gray mouse dangling from its mouth.

You see that playing with parts of speech can bring life to a potentially boring subject. When students are told that they’ll need another adverb to describe how the cat ran, the job of an adverb starts to make sense.

3. Fun Grammar Idea: Verb and Adverb Charades

I love this last game. It’s easy to use and to change to suit your needs. It can be played individually or in teams. Have two stacks of cards: verbs and adverbs. Each stack is a different color. The student who is acting picks a card from each stack.

You may have to explain to the student how to act out the verb in a specific manner. Make sure the adverb can combine with the verb.

However you decide to play the game, have students guess the verb first. Offer a point for the correct verb. After, students guess the adverb. Offer a point for the adverb (or you could offer 2 points for the adverb). The acting out of the verb is teaching students that adverbs give more information on HOW the verb (action) is carried out.

This game is sure to stick in the minds of students, and it’s so easy to refer back to during lessons. An extension of the game can be that students come up with the verbs and adverbs.

Well, I can go on and on. These are just three fun grammar ideas that are no cost to the teacher. You can find more grammar ideas here on my blog, where I offer even more ways to make grammar fun.

I love using color by codes pages to supplement my grammar instruction. Find an entire year’s worth of fun grammar coloring pages below.

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