You can take the classic children's game Memory up a notch and teach fifth-graders about different parts of speech. You will need to make your own Memory cards with different words on them that are certain parts of speech. For example, make 10 cards with words that are nouns, 10 cards with words that are adverbs, and continue on with the other parts of speech. None of the words should be matching. The children take turns turning over cards. They must identify the part of speech that is on the first card and then find a matching part of speech, for example, noun and noun, to make a match.
When you are teaching your students about homonyms, words that sound the same but have two different meanings, have them create silly drawings or plays about the wrong usage of the word. For instance, you could use the word "bill," which can mean things that need to be paid or the beaks of animals. A child could draw a picture of "bills in the mail" with several birds in the mailbox, or a group of students could act out a parent talking about bills in the mail and have the other students show a mailbox full of stuffed birds. The other children can vote on their favorite drawing or skit.
Have your students figure out the proper uses for apostrophes in a fun setting by playing apostrophe arranging. Write several different sentences on a chalkboard or whiteboard. In each sentence, there should be at least one word that needs an apostrophe, but do not include the apostrophe when writing the sentences. Have the children come up to the board and fill in the apostrophes in the appropriate places. Depending on the demeanor of your class, you can time each student or use a buzzer or bell when a student puts an apostrophe in an incorrect location.
Play a game of charades using adverbs and everyday activities. Have children write out an adverb on a sheet of paper, and on a notecard, have each child write out a sentence about something she does or says during a regular day. For the adverbs, children could write "angrily," "quietly" or "sneakily," and for the sentence, the child could write "go to the grocery store." Put the slips of paper in one bag and the notecards in a different one. Each child takes a turn and draws an adverb and a sentence. Have the child act out the adverb and the sentence, and the other students can guess what adverb is being demonstrated.