Build or buy a matching game that fits your classroom's purpose and language level. If you're teaching English as a second language, match words from the students' original language to English words. If you're teaching English to students who have a firm grasp on the language, match simple words to more complex words that are similar. For example, match "picture" with "photo" and "shoot" with "fire." Use a thesaurus to find a wide range of words. Require students to state the similarities and differences between words when they find a match.
Practice a social situation through role-playing. Always pick a social situation appropriate to your classroom. Kindergarten through middle-school students can practice shopping at the store or having a friend over for a sleepover. High school students can practice job interviews or on-the-job situations. Divide the students into different roles. Instruct them to role play. Pay attention to the types of words that students use. Correct them when you see language that doesn't fit the social situation.
Develop a spelling game that allows the students to move around. One classic game, commonly referred to as "Around the World," requires students to spell progressively harder words as they move through stages. Another game operates like "Telephone." Instruct students to sit in a circle. Spell a word to one student, who passes it on to the next. Find out what word is spelled at the end, and discuss the differences. As a third option, organize a classroom Spelling Bee competition and offer prizes. Think up other games on your own and tailor them to fit your classroom.
Assign each student a type of speech and break them into two teams. Duplicate the parts of speech so that each team has the same parts. Keep the parts of speech simple for younger groups, staying with nouns and verbs. Increase in complexity for older students, adding in adjectives, adverbs, gerunds and other parts. Give each student a piece of paper, and tell each team to create a sentence. Each student represents a word in the sentence, and the word must represent her part of speech. Award points for using the part of speech correctly, length of sentence and creativity of words used.