Games That Make Grammar Fun

Learning grammar in the classroom can be tedious and it often relies on rote memorization. This is not always effective, and students are left confused and apathetic about something that does not have to be difficult and is very important in everyday life. We use grammar everyday every time we speak, and we are judged by the grammar we use, but there are fun ways for children of all ages to internalize the rules of grammar.

Mad Libs
Mad Libs have been around for decades. They are stories with words left out. One person asks the other players for various parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, or even exclamations. Once all the blanks are filled in, the facilitator reads the story out loud with the given words filled in. The game simple, fun, and even mindless, but players must understand parts of speech in order to play, and they will learn them quickly by the examples of others.

Fun with Grammar: 75 Quick Activities & Games that Help kids Learn About Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs & More Average Rating: 7 total customer reviews...

Where Is The Cat?
This is a great game for home schoolers, small classrooms, or a group of kids studying for their test on prepositions. It is fun because it incorporates rhythm and memory, but at the same time, it helps the players learn and remember their prepositions. The first player says, “Where is the cat? The cat is under the stairs,” or uses some other prepositional phrase. The next player must remember what the first person said and add another phrase: “Where is the cat? The cat is under the stairs, in a box,” and the game continues, with each player repeating what they have heard and adding another prepositional phrase on top of that. When a player loses track, he is out, and the game continues.

What Does Not Belong?
In this game, some preparation is needed. Cards are made with groups of words. Perhaps there are three nouns and an adjective, or maybe they are synonyms and the fourth is unrelated. Each card contains three words that are grammatically similar, and the players must state which word does not belong and why.

Awesome Hands-on Activities For Teaching Grammar Average Rating: 9 total customer reviews...

Scavenger Hunt
Each student has a magazine, and the race is on to see who can find the most nouns, verbs, adjectives, or whatever given part of speech is the focus, in a set period of time. They must circle the appropriate words, and when the time is up, they check one another for mistakes. This is a great game for verb tenses as well.