5 Ways to To Teach Grammar WITHOUT a worksheet!

Grammar can be a boring subject to teach! Although, a good paper and pencil gets the job done, why not spice things up a bit! Use these 5 activities to spice up your grammar block. All engaging activities to get your students MASTERING their grammar skills! (For any grade and any skill!)

I like to keep this one limited! I like to pull it out on a day my kiddos have been cooped up. They really get excited when we bring out the shopping carts! Okay so here's what ya do. I have 2 small shopping carts. (You do not need shopping carts to do this activity- although it is a fun twist to the game!) The shopping carts are WAY to small for my third graders too but that is what makes this game EVEN more fun!

Decide which grammar skill you are going to be shopping with. This week we were learning adjectives. I wrote/ used task cards various words on index cards. I wrote nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Then I taped all of the words onto the board. I have laid them on the ground before as well.

Then I split the class into 2 groups. I split my kids to make the teams academically even. We review what adjectives are and review the rules!

When I say go one person from each group runs to the board, with the cart, grabs a card (hopefully an adjective), puts the card in the cart, and then runs back.

This is a huge hit in the classroom especially with my rowdy boys! After everyone has shopped, we go over every word and count which team had the most correct! Whoever wins gets bragging rights!

This activity is a wonderful assessment on each individual without them knowing!

We love to play scoot! Better yet, we love to play scoot and then check our answers with QR codes!

How to play scoot: Place your task cards around the room (either one on everyone's desk or tape them around the room) The child does the problem on the card and writes their answer on their recording sheet ( in the correct box) then when I notice just about everyone is done I yell in a very obnoxious voice SCOOT! Then each child moves to the next card. Do this unit you have completed all of them or until time allows!

This alone is a great engaging activity! However if you have access to iPads or a device to scan QR codes I highly recommend this next part! We have 6 iPads in our room but my 2 fellow third grade teachers each have seven. Therefore we have a total of 20 iPads at our disposal (when planned ahead!) We grab all of the iPads and a new writing utensil. Each child walks around their room checking their answers by scanning the QR codes. If their answer is correct they star the box. If their answer is wrong they write the correct answer with their crayon. This way I can see which ones they answered incorrectly. Now The first time I completed this activity scoot and QR code reading it took about 40 minutes. However, with a lot of modeling and a little pushing we can complete the entire activity in 15 minutes! They love it and it is a quick assessment in which they provide their own feedback! They leave the lesson knowing exactly what they need to work on. I have them turn in their papers after they are done checking their QR codes so I can see how each child did.

Visit my store for lots grammar skills with task cards plus QR codes!

Pronouns

Linking and Helping Verbs

Contractions

Noun, adjective, or verbs

We love to use Pic Collage! Pic Collage is an app on the iPad. Even if your not one to one you can still use this as an enriching activity, as a center, or in groups or pairs! This week. for example, I had my kiddos use pic collage to compose a list of adjectives that describe a noun! Then they got to find pictures to go with the nouns.

I know our standards are pushing poems! Poems can be hard an unfamiliar to students! I decided to incorporate poems into my grammar! This is an activity for early finishers as well! This week made acrostic poems with adjectives. With verbs we made a concrete poem with verbs describing the picture. With pronouns we used Simile poems.

We did this on Pic collage. Then they uploaded pictures to go with their poem or words! See my Technology Tuesday series for more information about Pic Collage!

Technology Tuesday;Pic Collage

My kiddos LOVE partner work. With a LOT of modeling and going over routines we are in full partner work swing! They are really good about not telling each other the answers and not coping what their partner has! We have several guidelines when working with partners & highlighters!

Take a look at my TPT store for multiple grammar bundles!

We love using sentences strips! I have my students come up with a sentence using adjectives, verbs, commas, contractions, ect. (whatever your skill may be). They write their sentence on the strip! You would be surprised how fun this is!

We have also used post it notes! Many times I have each child read their good fit books and look for sentences with the skill we are working on. Then they write the sentence on the post it and we talk about them as a class!