y Grammar doesn't have to be something that students struggle to memorize from a textbook. textbook.

In fact, that rarely even works y Students learn grammar much better when they have a chance to use it within different contexts. contexts.

y Games are a great way to teach grammar because they keep students engaged and learning. learning.

y Games require them to talk with one another, hold their attention and help them to relax, not worrying about making mistakes. mistakes.

y They also help students absorb grammatical conventions naturally and thoroughly.

1. Simon Says Use this game to practice verb tenses , explaining how Simon Says works and telling students they should follow instructions given only in the proper tense. tense. When you say, "Simon says raise your arm," they should do so, but if you said, "Simon Says raised your arm," they shouldn't. shouldn't.

2. Bingo Give each student a bingo card with words that represent different parts of speech. speech. Students will search their cards for such words, placing a bingo chip on any that match. match.

ocean smart look peace early

cold see who cob lad

he spy FREE for few

late slowly to itself into

often these too

because

we

3. Command Prepositions Divide students into eight teams and have them guess the preposition that describes your action. For example, you could action. set a pencil "in" a pencil holder or rest your hand "on" a book. book.

4. Correct the Sentences Race Write 10-15 sentences that contain an 10error on the board. board. Divide the class into eight teams. teams. The teams race to catch and correct all the errors in the sentences, writing their answers on a sheet of paper. paper.

1. I do not know that girls. girls. 2. It was me who first found that reference for our group project. project. 3. The strange noise startled they. they. 4. There should be no quarrel between Sarah and he. he. 5. If you were me which of this two shirts would you buy. buy.

5. Word Association Relay Useful for practicing spelling. Each team then sends a student to the board to write down an associated word. word. if the first word is apple, the student could follow with words such as banana, red or fruit. fruit. After writing a word, the student returns to the back of his line and the next person takes a turn. turn.

 Set a time limit. limit. When the game is over, check both

word

lists. lists. Give points for each correctly spelled word. word. For extra speaking practice and vocabulary review, have students explain why each word was chosen. chosen.

6. Fill in the Blanks Suitable for individuals or teams of all ages. Prepare a simple list of words that all have one or two letters missing. Give students a list and have them compete to be the first to fill in the blanks correctly. Customize the game to suit more advanced students by using paragraphs with entire words missing.

Examples: Examples: e a r ___ r ___ (uncommon) r o u in___ du s t ___ i ___ ___ ___s ___ (hardworking) o c e c ___ m p l ___ ___ a t ___ ___d ___ i ( complex, difficult ) s o w ___ r ___ t ( superlative of bad ) n t a v i ___ f o r m ___ ___ i ___ e ___ ( full of information )

7. Heads and Tails Start by calling out a random word. word. The next person must use the last letter of that word to come up with a new one. For example, if one. the starting word is cat, the next word might be tree Give students stricter guidelines to increase the game's level of difficulty. difficulty. Do not allow repeats. repeats.

Give students stricter guidelines to increase the game's level of difficulty. difficulty. Do not allow repeats. repeats. Restrict words to a specific category or only allow words that contain a certain number of letters. letters.

Examples: Examples: cat cat tree tree employee employee eat eat teacher teacher razor razor

8. Spelling Relay Divide the students into eight teams. teams. Tell teams that you will give them a word to spell. Once you say go, students can go up to the board one at a time and begin to write the word. Each team member can write only one letter, before moving back to his line and giving the chalk to the next team member.

If a student sees an error in the spelling of his team, he can use his turn to erase the incorrect letters. If the incorrect letter is three or four letters back, he must erase all of the letters leading back to the incorrect one. If a student erases a letter or group of letters, that move constitutes his turn.

The last student to answer once the word has been correctly spelled circles the word to indicate completion. completion. If the team has spelled the word correctly, they win a point. point. If they have not spelled the word correctly, the other team can continue to spell the word correctly and win the point. point. Tally the points and declare the team with the most points at the end of the game the winners. winners.

9. Parts of Speech Basketball Create a list of 40 to 50 words. Include words. nouns, verbs, adjective and adverbs on this list. list. Collect four empty trashcans, and label each trashcan with one part of speech using computer or construction paper. paper. Divide them into eight teams. Ask each student to stay in his seat until his turn.

Call up one student at a time,, and give the student a sheet of paper from the set. set. Once the student receives the sheet of paper, he needs to hold it up to his classmates and read the word on the sheet. sheet. Ask the student to identify the part of speech of the word aloud. aloud. The classmates give a thumbs up if he is right and a thumbs down if he is incorrect. incorrect.

If he guesses incorrectly, a member of the other team can come up and guess, stealing the point. point. Once a student has correctly identified the part of speech of the word in question, allow the student to crumple up the paper and take a shot for the can labeled with that part of speech. speech. If the student makes the shot, award his team two points. points.

If the student fails to make the shot, award them one point, rewarding them for the correct part of speech identification. If he guesses incorrectly, a member of the other team can come up and guess, stealing the point. point. Once a student has correctly identified the part of speech of the word in question, allow the student to crumple up the paper and take a shot for the can labeled with that part of speech. speech.

10. 10. Spell Bound Students are asked to circle around a group of chairs as music plays. plays. When the music stops, the person that remains standing must challenge a seated person to spell a word. word. If the challenged person spells it If he does not spell it correctly, then the challenger takes his place. place.

11. 11. Role Playing rEncourage the class to talk about a variety of professions, social positions or identifiable people within society. society. rGuide the students to discuss particular characteristics associated with each type of person. person. r Ask each student to pick one kind of person he would like to change roles with. with.

r Let each student draw a scenario from a container. container. r Write situations in the form of a sentence on the paper strips and drop them into a container. container.

12. 12. Puppet Theatre A puppet theatre is entertaining and appropriate for all grade levels. levels. It provides students with an opportunity to interact and build their communications skills. skills. Provide a box stage for the class and a variety of puppets. puppets.

 Each small group must then create a story for their puppets Encourage the students to be creative or simple, depending on their language capabilities at the time of the lesson. lesson. Give each team no more than five minutes to perform. perform.

13. 13. TELEGRAMS / MESSAGES Each student tries to write a telegram (or short email message!) using the letters of their name as the initial letters of the words Day. e.g. TED = Treasure Every Day. LONDON: LONDON: Living On Nothing Drives One Nuts. Nuts. NonENGLAND: ENGLAND: Every Nice Girl Loves A Non-alcoholic Drink. Drink. TOKYO: TOKYO: JAPAN: JAPAN: Living On Nothing Drives One Nuts. Nuts. SWEDEN: SWEDEN: Jokes About Politicians Are Normal. Normal. Sociable Women Eat Doughnuts Every Night

ANAGRAMS As an alternative to a straight spelling test, the words can be given with jumbled letters:

ployedde ocscer elitsoh danredenge umbn

tiouscienlycons

deployed soccer hostile endangered numb

conscientiously

14. 14. FIND YOUR PARTNER. PARTNER.

| Each label contains a real person's name or the name of a character from fiction or television cartoons. cartoons. | Each named person should have a natural partner, for example ROMEO, there should also be a label with the name JULIET stuck on somebody's back. back.

Questions must be of the type that can either be answered with YES or No: No: Am I man or a woman? Alive or dead? Filipino or American? Real or fictitious? Am I a character from a cartoon or a book? Am I rich? Am I famous? Have I been in the news recently? Am I someone from your country? Britain? Do I work in sport / music / entertainment / the cinema / the theatre?

ROMEO POPEYE Micky Mouse King Juan Carlos Nelson Mandella Richard Burton Tarzan Prince Charles

JULIET OLIVE OIL Minnie Mouse Queen Sofia Winnie Mandella Elizabeth Taylor Jane (jungle girl) Princess Diana

TOM the cat Prince Philip Stan Laurel Andr Agassi John Lennon Bonnie (gangster) The Lone Ranger Cindarella

JERRY the mouse Queen Elizabeth II Oliver Hardy Steffi Graff Yoko Ono Clyde (gangster) Tonto (cowboy) Prince Charming

15. 15. Chain Spelling (Shiri-tori) ShiriThe teacher gives a word and asks a student to spell it. it. A second student should say a word beginning with the last letter of the word given. given. The game continues until someone makes a mistake, that is, to pronounce the word incorrectly, misspell it or come up with a word that has been said already, then he/she is out. out.

The last one remaining in the game is the winner. winner. It can be made difficult by limiting the words to a certain category, e.g.. food, tools, or nouns, verbs, etc. etc.

16. 16. GETTING TO KNOW A LITTLE MORE ABOUT YOUR CLASSMATE Teacher gives every student a piece of paper on which they write a sentence about their personal life. life. This sentence can be about school, family, music, friends, the last vacation, etc. etc. When they finish writing their sentences they fold the paper and give it to the teacher. teacher.

Tell students that the information they are going to write is "a secret" and not to show it to their classmates. classmates. Tell students to write their names on the papers. papers. After collecting all the papers, ask the students to write the numbers from one to 10 (or 20, depending on the 20, number of students you have in that moment in the classroom) in their notebooks. notebooks.

Teacher reads the sentences in random order (without saying the name of the student), and the students write the names of the people they think wrote sentences. After reading all the sentences, say the question number and read the sentence again for each piece of paper and ask the students to name who they thought wrote it. Tell the students the name of the student who wrote that sentence. Students should write (C) for correct guesses and (I) for incorrect guesses.

17. 17. Tell Me About Myself Works well with students at prepreintermediate level or above It is an original way of introducing yourself (as a teacher) to a class for the first time. time. Prepare in advance, on an overhead transparency or white-board, a mind whitemap of yourself. yourself. Use single words, numbers, dates, symbols and illustrations where possible. possible.

18. 18. Survivor Spelling Game Call out a spelling word. word. The first student begins by saying the word and saying the first letter. letter. The second student the second letter of the word The third student the third letter, and so on until the word is spelled correctly. correctly. If he commits a mistake, they sit down and start from the beginning again until the word is spelled correctly. correctly.

 The last student then pronounce the word correctly and give a definition in order to stay standing. standing. The student who is left standing is the "survivor" and wins the game. game.

19. Spelling Review Make students review spelling in a way. You can create similar spellings as following ones: I.1.2.C.U = I want to see you Are you O.k? R.U.O.K? = Is T = Iced tea I.C.Q = I seek you I.O.U. = I owe you E.Z. = Easy

funny the

B.Z. = Busy I.1.T = I Want tea I.8 = I ate U.2 = You two/ you too. Y? = Why C.U.$$$.9 = See you at nine 2E.Z.4U = Too easy for you R.U.D.Z? = Are you dizzy?

20. 20. Time Indicators r Students practice using different subject pronouns, verb tenses, and the time words and phrases that go with them. them. r They must also be able to recognize different forms of the same verb, especially irregular verbs. verbs. r Play using only four verb tenses (present, past, future, and present progressive). progressive). r One student says a time word or phrase (e.g. (e. next year, a few days ago). ago). r A second student must complete a sentence using the proper verb tense. tense.

r That student then says a different time word or phrase. phrase. r Verb tenses may be repeated if necessary, but verbs may not. not. r Subject pronouns may be repeated only after they have all been used once. once.

Examples: Examples: First student: "At the moment . . ." "At Second student: ". . . I am sitting in a classroom." Second student: "Last year . . ." Third student: ". . . they went to Europe." Europe." Third student: "Every day . . ." Fourth student: ". . . she takes the bus to work."

21. 21. The Game of Truth Make a lot of small cards with interesting topics written on them, such as: as: LOVE, JEALOUSY, PIRACY, MONEY, SMOKING, ,DINKING, CLONNING, BRIBING, FRIENDSHIP, DEATH PENALTY, PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT, FAMILY. FAMILY. Look for topics that make students speak. speak.

Every student in the class will take turns in taking a card. He or she will talk a little about the topic in the card he or she selected. For example: MONEY: for me money is very important , but is not the most important thing.It is only a way to reach things.Success is not measured by the money you can get.,etc. Allow student to express their feelings even if it is not their turn.

22. 22. The Brag Game A simple game for Present perfect. perfect. Makeup about 20-30 sentences in Present 20Perfect describing various activities one would share to brag. brag. Students draw a slip of paper with a statement like that, he/she says it aloud to the group and they try to outdo him/her by thinking up a statement which would be more impressive. impressive.

It might look something like this: this: Student1 Student1: "I've eaten lunch with Al Gore" S2: So what? I've eaten lunch with Bill Clinton!" S3: So what? I've eaten lunch with Al Gore and BillClinton" BillClinton" S4: So what? I've eaten Gore and Clinton for lunch" When they can't come up with something, they just say WOW looking impressed and move on to the next statement. statement. S1: Spielberg has asked me to play in his new movie. movie. S2: So what? I've asked Spielberg to play in MY new movie. movie. S3: WOW

23. 23. Stop On the top of a page each student writes the following: category following: names: names: NAME, PLACE, ACTION, ANIMAL, OBJECT, FRUIT/VEGGY and TOTAL. TOTAL. Someone starts saying the alphabet, A, B, C...etc. ...etc.

Someone else interrupts the alphabetalphabetteller shouting : STOP!!! Suppose the alphabet teller was interrupted on letter K, All the participants in the game should try to find words that start with letter K to fill out that chart. chart. The team that finishes filling all categories first shouts STOP!!

The participants compare their words. words. The words repeated by two players are worth 50 points ;the words repeated by three or more are worth 25. 25. The words that are not repeated by anyone are worth 100 points. The empty categories are "0". points.

Each player adds up all the points he got for the letter in turn and put the result in the "TOTAL" At the end of the game all the subtotals are added and the one who gets the highest score is the winner. winner.

24. 24. Story Telling & Memory Game t Students sit around in a circle. circle. Ask one child to say a sentence in a story form e.g "once there was a boy". boy". The next child will have to repeat that sentence and add something more to it like "once there was a boy whose name was John In this way the children keep building up a story as well as remembering what the previous sentences

31. 31.

25. 25. Sentence Race Prepare a list of review vocabulary words. words. Write each word on two small pieces of paper. paper. That means writing the word twice, once on each paper. paper. Organize the pieces like bundles, 2 bundles, 2 sets of identical words. words. Divide the class into 8 teams. get them to teams. make creative team names. names.

Distribute each list of words to both teams. Every student on each team should have a paper. Both teams have the same words. When you call a word, 2 students should stand up, one from each team. The students must then run to the blackboard and race to write a sentence using their word. The winner is the one with a correct and clearly written sentence.

26. 26. Pronunciation Bingo THIS BINGO IS FOR NOUN-VERB STRESS NOUNThe idea is to make a bingo game contrasting the pronunciation of nouns and verbs with the same spelling. spelling.(Use a stress mark ()to show the students that nouns are stressed in the first syllable and verbs on the second). Examples: second). Examples: prgressprgress-progrss prsentprsent-presnt prtestprtest-protst cntractcntract-contrct dsertdsert-desrt rbelrbel-rebl sspectsspect-suspct

cnsolecnsole-consle cnflictcnflict-conflct rcordrcord-recrd cnvictcnvict-convct nsertnsert-insrt prmitprmit-permt etc. When you name the cards let the students listen to the words but not look at the cards. This is the way by cards. which they will distinguish the difference. difference.

27. 27. Prepositions Game Prepare a text that contains prepositions. prepositions. Take out the propositions and print them on a separate sheet. sheet. Put each preposition is on a piece of paper, then put all of them in an envelope Divide the class into groups and give each group an envelope. envelope.

 Tell the students that you are going to read a text and whenever you raise your hand they should bring a suitable preposition and put it on your desk and that the fastest team would get points. points. Read the text with each groups' order and cancel a point for each mistake. mistake. Finally read the text with correct prepositions. prepositions.

28. People Who ... The aim is to complete sentences and also take advantage of the contributions in order to generate debate and interaction. Just hand out the following sheet with the heading PEOPLE WHO ... and tell the students they have to complete the sentences with realism-not just adding on realisma grammatically correct ending.

PARK THEIR CARS ON THE FOOTPATH ... WHO DON'T PAY TAX ... WHO THROW LITTER ON THE GROUND ... WHO GIVE MONEY TO CHARITIES ... EAT CRISPS AT THE CINEMA ARE ... WHO DRINK AND DRIVE ... WHO TRAVEL A LOT ... WHO SAVE LOTS OF MONEY ... WATCH TV ALL DAY ... GO TO THE OPERA ... EAT FROG'S LEGS ... CLIMB EVEREST ... HUNT WHALES ... EAT TOO MUCH ...

DRIVE TOO FAST ... WHISTLE AT GIRLS ... SMOKE IN PUBLIC PLACES ... EARN A LOT OF MONEY ... SNORE ... Etc .......... (Add more!) NB: The idea is to get personal, individual endings. For example, "People who eat crisps in the cinema ...",

annoy me should eat them before the show make a lot of noise have a right to do so (!) Everybody has a different answer-and answeropinion. You practice grammar and you get students talking.

29. 29. GOOD MORNING BALLS You have three different coloured balls, (they should be very light weight, small balls.) balls. Get the class to make a circle. circle. Then give three people a ball. ball. Red Ball - Good Morning Green Ball- How are you? Ball-

Blue Ball - Fine thank you and you? The class members pass or gently throw the balls and the person who receives them says the meaning of the balls. balls.

30. Guess the Object .Prepare cutout pictures that are 41. 41 pasted or taped to index cards. One student selects a card and must describe it in English until another student can guess the object. The cardholder should verbalize the description.

The Select pictures that reflect the vocabulary level of the students. students. Later on, complicated pictures that suggest actions, scenes and relationships could be used. used.

31. Verb Review Game Give the students 5 minutes to review a list of both regular and irregular verbs. The teacher writes something like this on the board : "things we do with our feet" The teacher checks the students' lists of verbs. Each verb counts for one point. Any verbs appearing in more than one list are eliminated.

The teacher writes another topic on the board, "things we do with our mouth", for instance. The student or team with the most points is the winner.