Once students become comfortable with the basic parts of speech -- nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections -- allow them to apply their knowledge in this fun game.
Begin by labeling eight paper sacks with the different parts of speech. Ask the students to produce 10 to 20 examples of each type of word. Write the examples on index cards and place them in the appropriate bags. Then, divide the students into small groups and instruct each group to retrieve one word from each bag. Give each group a couple of minutes to create a sentence that uses all eight words. After the time is up, encourage students to share their sentences in front of the class.
After discussing proper nouns, divide your class into three or four teams. Write the heading of a proper noun on a piece of chart paper, such as country names, company names or sports teams, and provide each team with one sheet. Ask the teams to list as many proper nouns that correspond with their categories that they can think of in an allotted period of time. The team who states the most proper nouns wins the game.
Select one student to leave the classroom. Discuss with the student which manner-describing adverb he would like to use, such as quickly, loudly or slowly. When the student returns to the room, the other students give him instructions to follow. For example, they could instruct him to walk around the room, hop on one foot or sit down. The student must perform these actions in the manner of his selected adverb. Other students try to guess the adverb he selected. Whoever guess correctly gets a turn to select an adverb and perform actions.
Ask students to bring in examples of what they believe is poor grammar. When a student brings a piece to share, she chooses a partner to serve as a prosecuting team. Two other students volunteer to serve as a defense team. The two teams prepare arguments about why the example either is or isn't a bad example of grammar. The rest of the class serves as a jury and votes on whether the example is correct or not. Send the grammar-offending articles to a section of the classroom to serve as examples of grammar misuse.