Who says grammar has to be boring?! This post shares easy ways to teach grammar that boost engagement and achieve results. These ideas for teaching grammar can be fun for students and low-prep for teachers!
GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED–Be sure to sign up for my email newsletter to get first dibs on giveaways, contests, and exclusive freebies! PLUS–for January 27th & 28th, 2020–you can win a FREE no-prep grammar bundle! See contest details at the end of this post. BIG thanks to everyone who participated! π
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Effective (Yet Easy) Ways to Teach Grammar in Your Classroom
Hey, adults, raise your hand if you LOVE learning about parts of speech? Ok, what about commas-donβt you just adore those little marks?!
Wait, I knowβ¦you want me to talk about changing passive voice into active voice! Thatβs what youβre waiting on!
HA! Learning grammar isnβt high on many people’s interest list. If learning grammar is tough on grown-ups, imagine being a kid!
Yet, grammar activities don’t need to be boring in order to be rigorous.
Below you will find effective, yet easy ways to teach grammar in your classroom.
These fun grammar activities keep students engaged and excited about learning!
1–Part of Speech Detectives: A Fun Grammar Activity
One of the easy ways to teach grammar for parts of speech is with a game I call Part of Speech Detectives.
This activity doesn’t require much teacher prep. Students use ANY book and practice finding Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Pronouns, etc.
To jazz it up more, I give my kids magnifying glasses and βdetectiveβ hats (lined with scarves that can be taken out and washed of course, LICE ARE NOOOO JOKE!)
These props add to the effect of kids feeling like real detectives looking for their parts of speech. This makes the grammar lesson fun for students.
My former 2nd graders used sticky notes that are color-coded to each part of speech.
I usually include color-coded directions on the board that help students further differentiate the parts of speech.
My 4th graders call this same activity “Look in a Book” and they record their findings on a sheet in one of our literacy centers.
Identifying parts of speech while reading is an easy way to combine grammar practice with reading fluency and comprehension.
These games are easy ways to teach grammar in your classroom because students enjoy “hunting” for their parts of speech.
2–Daily Grammar Strips: An Idea for Consistent Grammar Practice
Another one of the easy ways to teach grammar in your classroom is to incorporate consistent, yet simple daily practice with grammar concepts.
Instead of spending 30-45 minutes teaching an inductive grammar lesson every single day, my kiddos enjoy snippets of grammar practice.
Putting their grammar practice in strips makes it feel manageable and not overwhelming. Plus it is super-low prep for teachers.
Each strip has a day of the week written on it. I use my daily grammar strips for things like:
- interactive notebooks
- grammar center activity
- homework or classwork mini-lesson
- exit slips and lesson warm-ups
I even put the strips on a book ring for quick grammar practice at the end of the day when we only have a few minutes of class time left. (Every minute of learning time counts!)
Spiraling your grammar instruction with consistent daily practice effectively helps students learn grammar concepts throughout the year.
For more information on how you can apply these Daily Grammar Strips in your classroom, check out this page here.
3–Task Cards (With a Twist): More Fun Grammar Practice
Confession timeβ¦I might be addicted to task cards. Especially since I can organize them in these little boxes of wonderfulness!
Since we use task cards a lot, I have to find ways to put a fun twist on them.
So for grammar, I began making the task cards with different shapes and forms.
These cell-phone shaped grammar review task cards have become a major hit with my students!!
Here’s how they work:
- Each cell phone has pretend text messages written with lots of spelling and grammar mistakes.
- Students must correct each text by writing the message out in full without grammar mistakes.
- Then they extend the grammar practice by writing their own text messages with grammar mistakes for a partner to correct.
Allowing your students to βbe the teacherβ excites them when working with grammar concepts.
This fun grammar activity also helps older students who struggle with spelling. They get exposure to grammar and spelling rules with the practical “cell-phone” application.
4–Find the Teacherβs Mistake: Grammar Collaboration Activity
Another idea for easy ways to teach grammar is through collaboration activities like “find the teacher’s grammar mistakes.”
Bragging about my “Perfect Grammar” makes my kiddos desperate to find MY grammar mistakes.
I write paragraphs on anchor paper and purposely put in mistakes. I divide my kiddos into groups, give them sticky notes, and have them write the corrections on the sticky notes.
They do not write directly onto the anchor paper so that I can re-use them for more center practice. You can even laminate your anchor charts for durability to use each year.
Once they correct the grammar mistakes, each group rotates to examine the other groupsβ work or to see if they missed any grammatical errors.
Face it. The point of learning grammar is to become better writers and communicators. Yes, we should teach and practice grammar in isolation. However, the power of it comes from learning it in the context of writing.
Finding mistakes in longer writing passages activates a higher level thinking skill beyond rote memory of grammar rules. But then having to explain grammar in context takes the thinking even higher.
This fun anchor chart grammar activity helps achieve both!
PLUS anytime I can get students out of their seats and motivate them to work collaboratively makes me a happy teacher!
5–Using Technology for Grammar Engagement: An Easy Way to Teach Grammar
For more easy ways to teach grammar, I use technology.
Here are my favorite ways to use technology to reinforce grammar skills:
β’ I love the free app Popplet that allows students to make graphic organizers. For grammar, we make word webs that I also use to sneak in some vocabulary practice too.
β’ Free literacy apps like these help infuse fun ELA and grammar practice using technology.
β’ Google Slides for Grammar Lessons: Here’s an example of a Verb Tenses grammar lesson that keeps students engaged with grammar concepts through technology:
β’ QR Codes: I am a QR Code Loving Teacher!! And my kiddos love the mystery of them. Students move around the room to record grammar corrections/answers on their recording sheet.
β’ Plickers is a free online program that teachers can use as a easy way to review grammar and play grammar games in the classroom.
6–Pause for Mini Grammar Lessons During Read-Alouds
For each grade Iβve taught, I use read-alouds.
All kids enjoy hearing good reading. Modeling expression, fluency, pacing and good reading strategies make your kiddos better readers too.
So I use read-aloud time as an easy way to review grammar concepts and rules.
These quick grammar βtouchesβ help kids to constantly connect grammar with reading, writing, and communicating.
So they understand that grammar isnβt an isolated skill. It affects how we speak, read, and write.
Win FREE Grammar Activities for Your Classroom
GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED–Don’t forget to sign up for my email newsletter to get first dibs on giveaways, contests, and exclusive freebies! I am hosting a fun grammar giveaway on January 27 & 28th, 2020 for teachers across grade levels.
You can win my FULL Look in a Book Bundle that offers no-prep grammar worksheets for parts of speech practice.
These standards-aligned printables can be used for so many grammar activities in your classroom. Check them out here for more details.
Congratulations to Judy, a teacher from Denver on winning the Part of Speech Bundle. Thanks to all the amazing teachers who participated in this fun contest! Here’s how to enter the grammar contest:
I offer a FREE sample of this Part of Speech Bundle for Nouns Practice. No email address required to grab these free grammar printables HERE.
- Choose ONE of the easy ways to teach grammar from this post.
- Comment below on how you may use that grammar activity in your classroom. Include the grade level that you teach in your comment.
- Receive an additional entry when you share this post on Facebook!
CONTEST NOW CLOSED. Easy-peasy! That’s how you enter the giveaway. A winner will be randomly chosen and announced here by January 29th, 2020!
Teachers in and outside the U.S. can participate. Good luck on winning and thanks for participating!
33 Responses
I teach 4th grade and would love to use the cell phone grammar activity. This activity will be something this age group would be interested in doing. It’s real-to-life for them. Thanks.
I love the grammar strips for our interactive notebooks. We are reunnign out of things to add to our ISN’s and this is great. I teach 4th grade in AZ
I love the teacher mistake anchor chart. I have a blended 3rd and 4th grade classroom, so I could easily differentiate it to where the 3rd and 4th graders are hunting for different kinds of mistakes.
I love this idea Alyse! The anchor chart grammar activity is a great way to differentiate to meet different learning needs. π
3βTASK CARDS (WITH A TWIST): MORE FUN GRAMMAR PRACTICE
I teach 4th grade. I think this will be really engaging for my students.
I love using technology in my 3rd grade classroom. Most of my students are socioeconomically disadvantaged and have limited means of accessing technology. I would love to use-USING TECHNOLOGY FOR GRAMMAR ENGAGEMENT: AN EASY WAY TO TEACH GRAMMAR. This help their stamina on the computer but also gets them used to doing things on the computer.
My favourite is using TASK CARDS (WITH A TWIST): MORE FUN GRAMMAR PRACTICE. I think this a great idea to use in the classroom. My kids love using task cards to complete any activity. It makes is fun and allows movement too.
I love the idea of teaching grammar throughout an IRA ! I teach first grade in brooklyn, ny ! My students and I have been enjoying going on scavenger hunts while reading Identifying nouns, Proper and common nouns and most recently adjectives ! Thanks so much for this blog, as a new teacher I love hearing how others navigate through their content :))
Kimi
Thank you for your Contest. I like the cell phone grammar cards. I think they would get the kids interested and is a fun way to incorporate grammar lessons. Grade 4/5
I love teaching with the grammar strips idea. I teach 3-5 ELA, and I would use these as a quick bell ringer as students walk in. π Thanks!
Hello,
I am a 4th grade teacher international teacher in Honduras, originally from Minnesota. One easy way to teach grammar that I would like to adopt more into my classroom, is using technology. It is easy prep for me at home, at the students would be very engaged (anytime there is technology). I might even incorporate it into google classroom somehow. Excited to be entered into the contest!
Thank you for sharing!
I like your grammar strips idea! I would use them as an exit slip at first. If the student missed the concept, they would enter that strip in their notebooks with an explanation of the correct answer. Thanks for the great ideas!
I should have added that I teach fifth grade!
I teach seventh grade, but grammar is still a hurdle! I love your task card idea. I have used similar things before, but never thought about doing them for grammar. Sounds like a win!!
Good Morning!
I teach Special Education 7th grade through 12th grade. All of the resources look to be fantastic, but I am especially interested in the Grammar Strips. It looks like these could be a great bell ringer for students to work on when come into the room. I feel these would help them begin to transition and focus from their previous class to our language arts class.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Tanya,
I have been following you since last summer and love your fun and interactive teaching strategies! I used to teach grammar with a traditional mini lesson every morning but kids were not transferring their learning to their writing. I love your ideas because they are great for my 3rd graders, especially those who struggle and don’t want everyone seeing them doing kindergarten work. I can’t wait to post a paragraph on anchor paper and have kids rotate through, making corrections and checking each other’s work as they rotate around the room. So fun! Thanks for your ideas that get kids moving!!!
Judy in Denver
Judy,
Congratulations! You won the Part of Speech Bundle contest. π Thank you so much for participating; I hope these grammar printables help your 3rd graders enjoy grammar more. I sent the file to you by email. Let me know if you have any trouble opening it. Happy Teaching
Honestly si could use all of these to help with having grammar. I have a 4th grade class that really struggles with grammar. It is their lowest grades on report cards. I will immediately try the color coded sticky notes because my students love sticky notes.
Melissa,
My kids love using sticky notes too! π
The grammar bundle looks awesome. I will be trying the sticky note activity today. I teach 2nd grade.
Going on a grammar hunt in the book they’re reading is a great idea! I also like the suggestion for having them fix your mistakes on an anchor chart. Thanks for the great blog post!
I make mistakes in sentences and you’re right…kids love ‘catching my mistakes ‘! 1st grade
You are so right Beth; students in all grade levels love “catching the teacher’s mistake” π
Such great ideas!! Something as simple as #1 are so much more fun than worksheets! Definitely going to use these ideas in my 4th grade classroom here in Hawaii π΄
Hi Tanya! I red your insights about grammar teaching and was impressed.. Your techniques are so different and inspirational. Thanks a lot for sharing..
By the way, I am an English teacher from Turkey, though I have not so much experince yet, I try to develop myself every day,make an effort for this. And I have some questions about grammar teaching. How can I best transfer the essence of the grammar point when teaching inductively?
If you reply,I’ll be happy.. Thank you
Hilal,
How cool that you teach English in Turkey! That sounds awesome. Inductive teaching with grammar can be a lot of fun. Write sentences on strips with the same general grammar or spelling mistakes, but don’t tell students what the mistake is. Tell them that something is incorrect with each strip and challenge them to work together to find the mistake and to explain in their own words WHY this is a grammar error. Hope this makes sense Hilal. Thanks again for your comment. π
Hi Tanya,
It’s me Ousmane.. I am from Senegal but I am currently in the USA, NEW YORK for one semester. I like your insights about teaching. and the way you are making learning accessi ble to kids. I am sure these tips will be very helpful for my EFL students. Thank for sharing
Hi Ousmane!
I am so excited you found the post. I wrote a note to myself to look for more strategies teachers like you can use with teaching EFL students. I hope these ideas here will help you get started! Thanks so much, –Tanya
Hi Tanya!
Iβm an English teacher from Ukraine. Teaching grammar can sometimes be a drudgery, but iβm really thankful to you for sharing these creative and engaging activities with us.
You are awesome!
Merry Christmas!!!
Thank you so much Natalia for your dedication to teaching. I’m glad these ideas are helpful. You are awesome as well. Merry Christmas to you. π
Hi, I am an elementary special education teacher (cross-categorical) and I teach reading, writing, and language all afternoon. I love the idea of becoming grammar detectives with my students! We love doing classroom transformations and using props in my classroom, so the grammar detective idea would be a hot one in my classroom! Thanks for sharing it!
Hi,
I am reading you from Kazakhstan, Central Asia.
Thank you for sharing ideas.
Wow…all the way from Asia! That’s cool. Thanks Samoka π