This game is useful for helping students recognize specific things such as types of words, pronouns and verb tenses. To begin, read a preselected portion of text and instruct the students to listen for a specific type of word or part of speech, such as a noun. Read the text again, instructing the students to stand up each time they hear a noun in the text. Expand the activity by dividing the class into two groups and having each group listen for a different thing.
This game is useful for helping students build their vocabulary and understand how to use synonyms. Arrange the students so they are standing in a circle and give one student the ball. When the teacher calls out an adjective, such as "beautiful," the student holding the ball throws the ball to his classmate who then must say a synonym for the adjective, such as "pretty." Each student must call out a synonym in five seconds or he is out of the round. The last student remaining wins the game.
This game is useful for helping students learn parts of speech. Separate the class into several small groups. Give each group a set of color-coded cards labeled with the eight parts of speech, including noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, verb, interjection, conjunction and preposition. Write a sentence on the board and let the teams take turns going to the board and correctly labeling each sentence. The first team to label five sentences correctly wins the game.
This game is useful for helping students practice grammar. First, create a list of sentences that have missing parts of speech such as prepositions, nouns or verbs. Write each missing word on an index card and randomly tape the cards around the room. Separate the class into two teams. Read a sentence with the missing word and one student from each team will find the word on the classroom wall. The first student that finds the word gets a point for his team. The first team to 10 points wins the game.