One way to learn and solidify phrasal verbs is to use them in a made-up story. Teachingenglish.org.uk suggests that the teacher writes five or six phrasal verbs, each on its own index card. Use these phrasal verbs in a made-up story. As you use each of the phrasal verbs in your story, place it on the board. Next, have the class repeat the story with you out loud, pointing to each phrasal verb as you use it.
Put students in pairs to tell the same story to one another using the phrasal verbs correctly. While the students are working in pairs, take the index cards, cut the particles from the verbs and put them on the board in random order. As a class, ask the students to match the verbs to the particles within the context of the story.
Onestopenglish.com suggests adopting a theme that ties the phrasal verbs to cohesive, real-life examples, including travel, relationships and work. For example, travel-related phrasal verbs include take off, go away and set off. First, tell the class that you went on a great trip recently without giving away any details. The students must ask questions in order to get the details, i.e. "Where did you go?" and, "How long were you there?" As you answer, use phrasal verbs from your themed list.
After the question/answer session, write the verbs on the left side of the board and their particles on the right side. Have the students match the verb to the proper particle and define them within the context of the story. Next, pair up the students and have them question each other about travel experiences using the same phrasal verbs.
Depending on the size of your class, break the class into four or five groups. Assign each group a common particle that is often used in phrasal verbs, such as "on," "up," "out," "in" and "down." Eslhq.com instructs that each group must find several phrasal verbs that use the particle, even if they don't know the meaning. They can use the Internet, dictionary and electronic translators to find them.
Once they've collected the phrasal verbs, have each group present them to the class and elicit -- with your help -- the proper definition as a class. Near the end of the class, write a number of sample sentences using the new phrasal verbs that were introduced by student groups. Leave out the particle in the sentences and have the students provide the correct particle.
Another activity for learning phrasal verbs is to match them to synonyms. Teflgames.com provides printable cards of both phrasal verbs and their respective synonyms for students to use in small groups. Each group should have its own set of cut-out cards. Have the students place the cards face-down on a desk. Each student in the group will randomly choose two cards, one being a phrasal verb and the other a synonym. If the student believes that the two cards match in meaning, he keeps the set.
Go around the group until each student has a set of cards that he believes to be matching in meaning. After all the cards have been collected, go around and find students who have matching cards. If they have correctly matching cards, they get a point. Those who don't have matching cards must put the cards down and start the selection process again.