Speed Up for Tenses is a verb tenses game for young students to test and build their knowledge of verb tenses. In this game, you are given a sentence with a verb at the bottom screen. You have to identify the correct tense of this verb in the given options, and click on it to win the race. This game will help students form and use the simple verb tenses. Past tense slap. A very simple activity. Students are put into teams. The teacher either shows a verb flashcard or says a verb in the infinitive and the have to slap the table if they know the past tense version (e.g. Teacher: 'Throw', Student: 'Threw').
Let’s face it: grammar lessons are often a bore.
And not just for students!
If you’re tired of doing the same old exercises, we’ve got a solution for ya.
We’re going to help you integrate grammar games into your lesson plans for fun in the classroom.
How to Use Grammar Games in the ESL Classroom
Most seasoned teachers will tell you that learning games are an awesome resource for ESL students.
Grammar games are particularly useful in an ESL classroom to make sure that grammar points are being absorbed by students.
While traditional grammar exercises on paper are useful at the beginning of the establishment of a grammar point, games are actually even more useful at the end. While a student can usually successfully reproduce a grammar point on paper once he or she has learned it, it’s more difficult to reproduce a rule like this in a freer setting, such as a game.
Students have to think on their toes and keep their brains running faster than ever.
When games are properly explained and the rules are well-thought-out and established by the teacher, they can be a great way to reinforce grammar points that have already been introduced in class. However, as with any language game, it’s important not to let the fun of the activity eclipse its usefulness. Games may be fun for the student, but they do require effort and planning on the part of the teacher!
Before integrating a grammar game into your class, be sure that the grammar point has been established and absorbed by most, if not all of the members of the class. Make sure to appeal to all different learning styles and ensure that no student slips through the cracks (as best as you can).
And of course, choose games wisely: pick a game that reinforces a grammar point that you’ve recently taught. Be vigilant about enforcing the rules — not only rule of the game, but also grammar rules by making sure that students are producing grammatically correct sentences all along the way.
Of course, the game should be fun too, so don’t enforce grammar points that haven’t been covered yet. It’s also best to avoid grammar points that have very recently been covered and need more study time before students are prepared to use them in games. When students make mistakes with grammar points that aren’t the main point of the game, those errors don’t necessarily need to be penalized.
Overall, the goal is to ensure that students feel comfortable and confident about speaking up and participating during the game!
1. Play Charades to Practice the Present Perfect
English is somewhat unique in that it has several present tenses. Students often get confused between the simple present — I walk — and the present continuous — I am walking. That’s because, in English, a true present event, one that’s still in process, isn’t expressed using the simple present.
Enforce this rule with a game of charades. Prepare slips of paper in advance, using well-understood activities that are easy to act out and using vocabulary that your students know. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Building a house
- Making the bed
- Setting the table
- Cooking /making a meal
- Doing homework
- Driving a car
Have the student act out the activity on their given slip. Students can volunteer ideas as to what the student is doing, but they must be correctly formatted in the following way:
- You’re making the bed!
- Eric is riding a horse!
- He’s mowing the lawn!
Any student who doesn’t formulate the sentence correctly will have to sit out that round, and they won’t get points for their guess — even if they mentioned the right activity. Examples of incorrect sentences are ones using an infinitive or partial infinitive (Make the bed!) a simple present (He makes the bed!) or a grammatically incorrect present continuous (He making the bed!).
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2. Use the Storyboard Game to Practice English Past Tenses
English, like many languages, has several different past tenses. Use this to your advantage by playing a game of “Storyboard.”
The teacher will need to prepare the story in advance. Draw or find pictures that create a logical (or illogical!) story. Place them in a jumbled order on your whiteboard.
Students have to arrange the pictures in order to tell a story, but they can only do it by telling you what happened before and after.
For example, imagine that there are four pictures in this story (your story for class should have about ten but, for the sake of the example, we’ll start with four). The pictures are on the blackboard in the following order.
- A man standing outside his house in a bathrobe.
- A newspaper boy throwing the newspaper onto the porch.
- A man drinking coffee.
- A door slamming.
A student must talk about the first picture in relation to the others, so that you put them in the right order:
“The man was outside in his bathrobe because he saw the newspaper boy throw the newspaper onto the porch.”
When you hear this sentence — and ask fellow students to correct, as needed, for grammar and order — you’d put picture 2 first and then follow it with picture 1. Another student would then have to add picture 3 to the story:
“The man was drinking coffee before he saw the newspaper boy throw the newspaper onto the porch.”
You would then put picture 3 before picture 2. Another student:
“The door slammed and locked the man outside. The man was standing outside after the door slammed.”
Once the students understand the game, you can select a volunteer to take your place putting the pictures in order. Encourage fellow students to correct any mistakes you may hear by asking, “Is that correct?”
3. Write a Communal Story to Learn Helping Verbs like Could, Should and Would
Could, should and would can be difficult to understand for many ESL students. Many other languages use verb tenses to express these ideas, so the idea of using a helping verb can be difficult to grasp. Practice these words by having your students write a communal story.
The teacher starts the story by giving an idea to wrap the writing around: for example, a main character or plot point. Then students volunteer their ideas by using could, should and would. Imagine that the story is about an elephant who runs away from the zoo. Students may say:
- What would he do? Maybe he would try to find some peanuts!
- Could we make him a pink elephant?
- Should we include a sidekick? Like a monkey?
Designate one student as the scribe to jot down brainstorming notes. When you’ve come up with the communal story through this blackboard brainstorming session, each student writes his or her own version down in their personal notebook, including all of the details that you’ve decided on as a class. Allow students to read one another’s stories or read their versions aloud to see just how many different versions of the same story you’ve come up with together!
4. Try “Mother May I?” to Learn English Helping Verbs Like May, Can and Could
Use this classic playground game to your advantage.
“Mother May I?” uses a familiar turn of phrase for a physical game that’ll get students up out of their seats and keep them from getting drowsy at their desks!
Start with the traditional version of the game. Students line up at the back of the room, and the “mother” stands at the front. You, the teacher, should be the first mother.
When a student wins the game they’ll become the mother. A student asks, “Mother, may I…” and then makes a request that’ll bring them closer to the front of the classroom — take two steps forward, hop once forward, take one lunge forward — and the mother either says, “Yes, you may,” or “No, you may not.” The student who reaches the front of the room first wins. Any mistakes send you back two steps!
You can then modify the game to use “can” and “could” in a similar way.
Oh, and One More Thing…
If you liked these fun games, you’ll love using FluentU in your classroom. FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons for you and your students.
It’s got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you’re looking for songs for in-class activities.
You’ll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids’ singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.
On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.
For example, if a student taps on the word “brought,” they’ll see this:
Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like “fill in the blank.”
Irregular Past Tense Verb Game
It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about English!
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.
“Fluffy cat sneaky mouse yummy cheese.”
What’s missing from that sentence?
Well verbs, of course!
Adding verbs between “fluffy cat,” “sneaky mouse” and “yummy cheese”immediately lets us enjoy the colors and energies of both language and imagination in full action: “A fluffy cat saw a sneaky mouse eating some yummy cheese!”
For our students to enjoy these perks of English as well, we need to get them more comfortable with verbs.
ESL Verb Games: A Great Way to Learn and Play
Combining the variety of English verbs (action, linking, auxiliary, modal, etc.) and their complex usage, it is obvious that learning English verbs is a process riddled with challenges for our students.
Microsoft access templates library. For us ESL instructors, teaching students about English verbs requires creativity that may often take us beyond conventional classroom activities, into the wonderful land of ESL games.
Why Teach ESL Verbs with Games?
Language learning is hard work – especially learning English, with that tricky grammar! Using games to teach English not only alleviates the pressure and stress of language learning, but also encourages teachers and students to create a friendly environment in which the language is both meaningful and useful.
Teaching verbs with ESL games will also:
- Provide a welcome break from the usual routine of language instruction.
- Encourage students to interact and communicate in meaningful manners.
- Model real-life context of language use.
- Create opportunities for lesson review in a pressure-free environment.
- Make language come alive while helping students to sustain the effort of learning.
When you integrate games – such as ESL verb games – into your lessons, students are invited to take part in personalizing new English verbs by putting them in meaningful contexts. Through experimentation, interaction and live communication, ESL verb games can provide excellent opportunities for learners to learn, use and understand how English verbs work in real-life situations.
If you are looking for some creative ways to engage your students in the rules and varieties of English verbs, here are five fun but powerful verb games to start using in your classroom today.
1. Hot Verb-Tato
Ever heard of the game Hot Potato? Well, Hot Verb-Tato is actually the variation of this timeless schoolyard game. But instead of just tossing a bean bag, balloon, ball or even a real potato to each other, the student with the “potato” needs to say a verb before passing the “potato” to another student.
Directions:
Arrange the students in a circle. Pick a round, easy-to-handle object as your “potato.” Put on some lively music (ESL music or nursery rhymes are great choices). On start, each student must say a verb and pass the “potato” to another student. When time runs out, the student holding the potato is subject to some lighthearted punishment.
To make the entire experience educational and fun, the punishment can be anything from singing the ABC song to answering three questions in English. Students may also be given three random verbs and asked to use them in three meaningful and related sentences (like a three-sentence story).
Alternative:
In classes with more advanced students, you can challenge students by limiting verb varieties by only allowing verbs that start with certain letters. For example, you could say, “For this round of Hot Verb-Tato, we can only say verbs begin with a, b and c.”
2. Pantomime Verbs
This is the perfect game for all levels, but especially for shy beginners. The game is great for expanding verb vocabulary, while teaching students about rhyming in English.
Directions:
Explain the meaning of “rhyme” to your students and start practicing with nouns. After the students get the hang of the game, start with verbs by dividing the class into two to three teams (depending on your class size).
Begin by saying, “I’m thinking of a verb that rhymes with ______.” (Try to use single syllable words and verbs). Students will raise their hands when they have a guess. The first student who asks, “Is it this?” and acts out the right verb, earns a point for his/her team. Set the goal for points and the team that reaches the threshold wins the game.
Alternative:
For advanced classes, the student who first pantomimes the right verb can start the game.
3. Visual Verbs
Online Past Tense Verb Game
Visual verbs is a great verb game to help ESL students practice different verb forms.
Directions:
Have a list of level-appropriate verbs ready before the game, and divide up the students into two teams. Write the teams on the board and draw three columns under each team, labeling the columns as “base,” ” past” and “past participle”. Each team will choose one player to go to the front of the class. Give each representative a different verb and ask them to act out their verbs without speaking.
The teams have to try to guess what verb their player is acting out. The student who guesses the verb correctly for their team will have to come to the front of the class and fill out the three forms of the verb in the columns.
The game continues until the team runs out on their list of verbs, then they can start to steal from the other team’s list by guessing their verbs. At the end of the game, give a point for every correctly spelled and formed verb. The team that has the largest amount of points at the end is the winner.
Alternative:
If you have a more advanced ESL class, you can prepare two lists of verbs: one easy and one hard. Assign point values to the verb list based on their difficulty (For example, two points for “easy” verbs and five points for “hard” verbs). If students can’t guess the hard one, they could pass and suffer a one-point deduction.
4. Verb Snip
This is a great activity for all ESL levels. Verb Snip is a perfect game to challenge students to think creatively and expand their verb inventory. Because of the nature of the game, you may also use Verb Snip as a game for spelling practice!
Directions:
Arrange the students in a circle with one student in the center. As the pointer, the student in the center will count to five, point at someone, and ask him/her to spell a three-letter word (For example, “Dog, D-O-G”).
Then the student in the center will slowly count to ten, and then point at a different student and say “Snip!” The selected student must name three verbs that start with the letters spelled in the previous word. So for the dog example, D-O-G, the student can say, “Draw, Order, Go.”
Then the pointer will sit down and the student who just answered the pointer will continue the game by choosing a new three-letter word for someone to spell.
Alternative:
In a more advanced class setting, allow the pointer to choose words with four letters or more. However, students are not allowed to repeat words. You also could ban words with certain letters (like “x”, “y” and “z”).
5. Story Time
Story time is a combination of story and memory game. Students love the game because it challenges their language skills and linguistic creativity.
Directions:
Prepare a bag with verb cards. Form a circle. The teacher begins by picking a verb card from the bag and forming a sentence with the verb.
The bag will be passed to the next student in the circle who will pick a card, repeat the teacher’s sentence, and form another sentence that contains the verb on his/her card.
The game continues with more sentences that need to be repeated (this is where the memory part comes in). The goal is for students to use verbs to make meaningful sentences while connecting them to the other people’s sentences to form a story.
Alternative:
You can also turn Story Time into a written game by dividing the class into different groups. Each group should have their own bag of verb cards. At the end of the game, each team will send a representative to the front of the class to read their story aloud. The class then gets to vote for the “Most Creative Story.”
By spicing up your ESL lessons with some of these games, your students will learn verbs in a fun, interactive way – which is sure to make the words stick. And now that you have seen the power of ESL verb games, it’s time to enjoy the creativity and even make some of your own!
Oh, and One More Thing…
If you liked these fun games, you’ll love using FluentU in your classroom. FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, cartoons, documentaries and more—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons for you and your students.
It’s got a huge collection of authentic English videos that people in the English-speaking world actually watch on the regular. There are tons of great choices there when you’re looking for songs for in-class activities.
You’ll find music videos, musical numbers from cinema and theater, kids’ singalongs, commercial jingles and much, much more.
On FluentU, all the videos are sorted by skill level and are carefully annotated for students. Words come with example sentences and definitions. Students will be able to add them to their own vocabulary lists, and even see how the words are used in other videos.
For example, if a student taps on the word “brought,” they’ll see this:
Plus, these great videos are all accompanied by interactive features and active learning tools for students, like multimedia flashcards and fun games like “fill in the blank.”
It’s perfect for in-class activities, group projects and solo homework assignments. Not to mention, it’s guaranteed to get your students excited about English!
If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to teach English with real-world videos.