Take Five
14
Grammar
14 Grammar games by Carmel Waldron
Carmel Waldron, freelance writer, previously Head of English at
Chesterfield High School in Crosby, Liverpool
Grammar is always greeted with a groan. This is a shame as it can’t
be denied that knowing about the building blocks of language makes
it easier to talk about language and improves standards of reading
and writing. After all, we wouldn’t teach someone to drive a car without first showing
them how the brakes, accelerator and gears work!
Carmel’s five favourite grammar games
1
The sentence race (see (17904) Sentence race). From a selection of words, phrases
and clauses, pairs of students see who can make the longest sentence. You could
follow this with a discussion on how to make shorter and longer sentences and
what effect this might have on the writing. (You could follow up further by using the
students’ set literature text to demonstrate how writers vary sentence lengths. They
could also try re-writing various sentences to see what effect this has.)
2
Noun cards revision game (see (17903) Noun cards). Students work in pairs to
separate the noun cards into four piles corresponding to the four kinds of noun.
The first pair to finish correctly wins. This works well as a starter if the cards are put into
separate boxes/bags on each desk, ready for the students’ arrival. Instructions should be
displayed on the board. Follow this starter by asking students to use each noun to make
a sentence. Higher ability students could build their sentences into a story.
3
Amount or number (see (17897) Fewer or less?). This rule is often
misunderstood! When should you use ‘less’ and ‘fewer’? When should you use
‘amount’ and ‘number’? The card game within this unit should help. Copy the sheet
onto thin card then cut up each card, ensuring that you have enough for every pair of
students.
4
Play the ‘different types of sentence’ game. In pairs, students write a short
scene from a play in which they have to use all four sentence types – statement,
question, command, exclamation – at least once.
5
In pairs, students design a PowerPoint presentation on one aspect of grammar.
They could choose from a list or draw their ‘aspect’ out of a hat. This activity
should help to make the various aspects of grammar clear to the rest of the class.
Encourage your students to use pictures, animations, sound effects or anything else
that will help their peers.
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Take Five
Whizzy and web-based ideas
Using Teachit’s Magnet application, write the
following four sentences:
‘Theseus was a Greek hero.’
‘He had many adventures.’
‘He had to perform some tasks that seemed impossible.’
‘In the end he succeeded.’
Scatter the words in tiles then challenge the students to make four
sentences. It doesn’t matter if they’re not the same as the original
sentences, as long as they make sense. Then challenge students to make
one long sentence using as many of the tiles as possible, leaving out or
changing some words and adding connectives where necessary.
1
Pay a visit to the British Council’s website: www.britishcouncil.
org.uk and you’ll find a number of grammar games which will test
and reinforce your students’ knowledge of all things grammar related!
2
Use Magnet to put the following simple sentence into one tile:
‘Mary went to the shops.’ Then type the following and scatter
into separate tiles: ‘Mary, who was very efficient, went to the local
shops to buy supplies for the office.’ Challenge students to look at the
original sentence and then see how they can make it more complex
by adding words, phrases and clauses until they have used all the
tiles. They could then try devising their own activity in the same way,
before testing one another.
3
Begin by ensuring that students understand the nine different
parts of speech and the terminology involved. Divide a sheet
of paper into two columns and, in one column, write a list of the
nine parts of speech. In the other column, write the definitions but
mix them up. Ask students to use a pencil and ruler to join each part
with its correct definition. Then use Weird Whiz from the Word Whiz
application and encourage students to make up their own sentences.
Host a competition between pairs of students to see who can make
the longest correct sentence.
4
5
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Grammar
Good grammar
lessons should:
1. use games and interactive
learning
2. show how grammar can
manipulate meaning
3. emphasise that it’s more
important for students to
learn how to use grammar in
their writing than to know the
terminology
4. help students to discover
the ways in which grammar
gives structure to their work
5. use starters for short bursts
of grammar learning, avoiding
‘grammar fatigue’!
See the site
Find the editable
resources, links, interactive
materials and special
versions of Magnet,
Cruncher and Syntex
at www.teachit.co.uk/
takefive
Build the opening to a horror story with Magnet. Use the
following paragraph, split into tiles as shown.
dark
The wind moaned through the trees
James ran
It was
His heart was pounding
They were
coming
He could hear
them
He could
smell their loathsome odour
Fear was
in his nostrils
They had
which sent
a sound
a chill of terror through him
their death chant
wildly
behind him
Then he heard
begun
Scatter the tiles then challenge students to make an opening
paragraph from what they have in front of them. Follow this with a
group discussion on the effects of different sentence lengths, e.g.
using short sentences to build tension; varying sentences etc.
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Take Five
14
Grammar
Carmel’s top grammar resource
1
(14919) Telephone tales
How it works
This is a great ‘hands on’
activity that asks students to
use their telephone numbers
as a way of writing sentences
with different numbers of
words, thus varying sentence
lengths. It’s a good way to
make them think about how
sentence construction affects
their writing style.
Tip!
Make sure the grammar
resources you use are
‘hands on’ and concrete,
rather than abstract
and didactic.
Five things to try
1
You can get students to look at how they’ve constructed their
sentences by pasting them into Syntex and playing around with
them, or by challenging other students to recreate their sentences.
2
Get students to write 10 sentences, each with the right number
of words to match their phone number. For example, if student
one had the number 07134873523 (excluding the initial 0), they
would have sentences that go: 7 words, 1 word, 3 words, 4 words,
8 words etc. Then reverse the order of the telephone number for the
next 10 sentences. Student one’s next 10 sentences would have:
3 words, 2 words, 5 words, 3 words, 7 words etc.
3
Since the digits in telephone numbers only go up to nine, you
could ask students to pair up and add their numbers together.
For example, if student two had the number 07240932455, together
students one and two would have sentences that go: 14 words, 3
words, 7 words, 4 words, 17 words, 10 words, 5 words, 9 words, 7
words, 8 words. This would be even more of a challenge and make
some sentences really ‘meaty’.
4
Ask the students to start a new story, still using telephone
numbers but this time doubling them. So student two whose
number is 07240932455 would write as follows: 14 words, 4 words,
8 words (leave out 0), 18 words etc. This challenges students to write
longer and more complex sentences.
5
Ask for a volunteer to put their longest sentence into Magnet.
Scramble the tiles then see how long it takes the rest of the
class to recreate the original sentence.
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Grammar
And four more choice grammar resources
2
(1749) Main and subordinate clauses PowerPoint
is a fun activity that gets students to contribute answers from a selection of
subordinate clauses and to make up their own. There is also a Tweakit suggestion at
the start.
3
(compsup402) Comparative and superlative is a lively, interactive PowerPoint
that asks students to identify comparatives and superlatives. This is a useful
starter or plenary activity.
4
(6190) Sorting out sentences – Jamie Oliver is a Choptalk activity that asks
students to sort out different types of sentence. The accompanying PDF offers
suggestions for how to use this activity.
5
106
(3723) Double negatives is another useful PowerPoint resource that can serve as
the starting point for class or homework activities.
2012 Teachit (UK) Ltd
Take Five
14
Grammar
The photocopiable resource – (14919) Telephone tales
When writing, one way of making sure that your work
is interesting and engaging is to vary your sentence
lengths.
This activity is a fun way of practising this skill.
Task:
1. Write down your mobile phone number. If there are any zeros in it then
change these to any number of your choice between 1 and 9. If you don’t
have a mobile phone, use your home phone number.
2. Choose one of the following titles:
Christmas
The Mistake
Theft
Loneliness
3. Select one of the following genres
Horror
Fantasy
Romance
Comedy
4. Write a paragraph for your selected title and genre making sure that the number of
words in your sentences follows the pattern of your telephone number. For example, if your
telephone number is 447798146372, then the first sentence must contain 4 words only, the
second also 4 words, the third 7 words etc.
Writing under these artificial constraints will help you to focus on sentence structure. It
will also demonstrate to you how varying sentence length can make your writing more
interesting and can also change the mood and dramatic impact of your writing.
Writing plan
Before you start writing your paragraph, sketch out a brief plan on the following page.
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Take Five
14
Grammar
Title
Genre
Characters (names, occupations, personalities, relationships to each other etc.)
Setting (where and when is the story going to take place?)
Plot (the main events – don’t worry if your paragraph only covers one event or incident)
Extension task:
Using your paragraph as a starting point, you could write more of your story. Make sure you
continue to vary your sentence lengths to make your writing more effective.
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