10 Grammar Adventures

10 GRAMMAR ADVENTURES Year 4 Grammar Activities Lim Kai Shuen & Helena Kumar

Introduction This e-book is designed specially for year 4 teachers in which it serves as a guide on the various ways to teach grammar effectively in a classroom. Many teachers face a number of challenges when it comes to teaching grammar as it can be boring and often mere drilling of grammar into the students. However, we all know that grammar is the backbone of a language as it helps to develop the ability to fluently communicate orally and in writing. Hence, the authors have compiled many different grammar activities which can be used in classrooms to teach grammar in an interesting and enjoyable way to students. This e-book offers some ideas that will assist teachers to spice up grammar lessons and map out instructions in a way that best serves the needs of their students.

Each activity in this e-book is explained in detail and includes, the topic, learning objectives, materials needed, duration of activity, method of preparation, instructions, enrichment and support activities as well as the rationale of the activities. These activities aim to foster a positive attitude in students towards learning grammar.

"If you want to break the rules of grammar, first learn the rules of grammar" - Kurt Vonnegut

Contents 1. Adverb

PG 1

2. Adjective

PG 4

Act it out

Riddle Game

3. Articles

PG 6

4. Collective Noun

PG 8

5. Connectives

PG 11

Word Hangman

Find Your Partner

Make Up Sentences

6. Personal Pronoun

PG 13

7. Possessive Pronoun

PG 16

Pronoun Memory

Goofy Cards

8. Preposition

PG 19

Bob the Robber

9. Punctuation

PG 21

10. Verb

PG 24

Kung Fu Panda

Verb Snip

#1 Act It Out Topic: Adverb Learning objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Act out a variety of verbs and adverbs silently

Prior Knowledge:

Students should already know: 1. The role or function of adverbs.

Materials: 1. A stack of verb cards 2. A stack of adverb cards

Duration of Activity: : 30 - 40 minutes

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Preparation 1. Create a set of verb cards using colored paper and a set of adverb cards using a different colored paper.

2. You can make your own verb and adverb cards or you can print the verb and adverb Verb & here. d cards attache Adverb cards

Instruction 1. Stack the verb cards upside down in one pile and stack the adverb cards in another pile.

2. Demonstrate the game by choosing a verb card and a adverb card at the same time. Tell the students that you are going to act out the two words you choose from the verb and adverb stack and they have to guess what the word is.

3. Act the two words out by relating the adverb with the verb chosen.

4. Instruct the students to form a sentence based on what the teacher has acted out.

5. Once students are clear with the instruction, taking turns, have each student come up to the front.

6. The student has to draw one card each from the stack of verb and adverb cards, then act it out. Remind them that they are only allowed to act silently.

7. The remaining students will need to guess the act and form a sentence based on what they guessed.

8. Use popsicle name sticks to choose the next student. Ensure that every student has a chance to play.

9. If a student is not familiar with the word selected, teacher has to whisper the meaning to the student.

Support:

1. Students who need support can work with a peer.

2. Offer students picture cards to reinforce struggling students’ understanding of verb and adverb.

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Rationale Charades is a fun game that is enjoyed by many students regardless of the age. A major benefit of playing charades in the classroom is that it helps to develop students’ listening, speaking, and reading skills, while it also strengthens and improves their vocabulary. Besides that, the importance of creativity in language learning is an aspect to consider. This activity has given the opportunity for students to imagine freely in order to act it out as well as to enhance their capacity to generate sentences creatively. With the help of this game, the learning of adverbs takes place unconsciously because the game provides spontaneous and meaningful communication.

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#2 Riddle Game Topic: Adjective Learning objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Describe people, animals and objects using adjectives

Prior Knowledge: Students should already know: 1. The concept of nouns and verbs.

Materials: You do not need any materials for this activity!

Duration of Activity: 20 -30 minutes

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Preparation You do not have to prepare anything for this activity!

Instruction 1. Get students to choose one noun (animals, people, vehicles and objects).

2. Instruct students to create ‘Who am I?’ riddles using adjectives to describe the noun they choose.

3. Show students an example of a 'Who am I' riddle as they might not be familiar with it.

4. An example of a riddle: if a student chooses superman as the noun, the riddle can be, 'I am strong and I wear a red cape on top of my blue suit'. Who am I? 5. After students have created the riddle, taking turns ask them to read the riddle out to the class and students must guess the riddle.

Rationale This activity is a simple yet fun activity as it does not require any materials or preparations. This activity will require students to think creatively to construct their own riddles. It provides students with an opportunity to be mysterious and imaginative making the process of learning adjectives much more interesting.

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#3 Picture Dictation Topic: Article Learning objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Describe a picture they have drawn with the use of the correct articles.

Prior Knowledge:

Students should already know: 1. How to form basic sentences with the correct use of prepositions of place correctly.

Materials:

1. Pencil 2. Paper 3. A stack of picture card

Duration of Activity: 30 minutes

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Preparation 1. Prepare blank papers for the students to drawn on.

2. Prepare picture cards. You can print your own picture cards from any website or you can use the picture cards attached here. Picture Cards

Instruction 1. Have students to work in pairs. (Student A and Student B) 2. Stack the picture cards upside down in one pile on the table.

3. Student A will choose a picture card. Teacher has to ensure student B does not see the card.

4. Student A describes the picture to student B with the use of articles (a, an, the).

5. Student B will draw what he or she hears from student A. 6. Repeat the activity by taking turns.

Rationale This activity is a very natural way for students to practice and use articles. This activity caters to the auditory learners and visual learners as they are required to look at the picture card in order to explain to their partner, while the partner has to listen to what their friend has said in order to be able to draw.

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#4 Find Your Partner Topic: Collective nouns Learning objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Identify collective nouns and their meaning.

Prior Knowledge: Students should already know: 1. Proper and common nouns

Materials: 1. Set of collective nouns.

2. Tape

Duration of Activity: 15 - 20 minutes

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Preparation 1. On a blank A4 paper, write half of a collective noun and then the other half on another A4 paper (ensure there is enough for each student to have one half of the collective noun).

2. For example, on one A4 paper, write 'a parliament of' and on the other half write 'owls'.

Instruction 1. This activity can be used as a starter to teach students about collective nouns.

2. Mix up the prepared collective nouns and give each student one half of a collective noun.

3. Each student must tape their half of the collective noun on their shirt, making it visible to the whole class.

4. Instruct students that they are to find the other half of their collective noun.

5. Once a student has found his or her partner, check and ensure that they are matched correctly.

6. Get the students who found their partner correctly to sit together.

7. After all the students have found their respective halves, write all the collective nouns on the board and discuss the meaning with them.

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Rationale This activity gets the students moving around the class and as teachers we know how much students enjoy that. Hence catering to the kinesthetic learners in the class by replacing the traditional way of memorizing collective nouns with a moving activity. In addition, the actively will foster students reasoning skills as they will need to reason logically and creatively as to which half of a collective noun matches the other half. For example, students will have to think logically of how 'a parliament of' suits the word 'owls'. They could come up with reasons such as because owls are all so rigid and organised hence making them like a parliament. It will get students to think out of the box.Â

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#5 Make Up Sentences Topic: Time Connectives Learning objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Make up a sentence with two ideas joined by a connective.

Prior Knowledge:

Students should already know: 1. How to make basic sentences using verbs, nouns, and adjectives.

Materials:

1. Board game 2. Spin Wheel

Duration of Activity: 20 - 30 minutes

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Preparation 1. Print out the boardgame and spinwheel materials attached here.

2. Print according to the number of students in the class.

3. Provide one counter for each student.

Game Materials

Instruction 1. Divide students into groups of 3 or 4 with mixed abilities.

2. Taking turns, students must spin the spinner.

3. Students will move their counter based on the number shown on the spinner. For example, if the spinner shows 1, the student has to move their counter 1 space.

4. When a student lands on a space, he or she has to make up a sentence including the time connective listed on that particular space. For example, if the time connective on the space is “Yesterday”, the student has to make a sentence using the word “yesterday”. The sentence could be “I had a wonderful lunch with my friends yesterday.”

5. The winner is the one who reaches the finish line first.

6. This game is played in groups. Hence, you will not be able to check all the answers. Therefore, you can assign the high ability students to check the sentences in each group.

Rationale Playing board games is useful and convenient to be used in any classroom for all levels. Research suggests that board games can be helpful in building social skills and self-esteem, as well as teach kids about rules and values. It creates a fun environment for students to learn and practice vocabulary, speaking and listening skills. This board game includes pictures of everyday activities, routines, actions and places. It caters well for students who need support to make sentences using connectives as well as visual learners. The board game gives a purpose for students to construct sentences which is to reach the finish line as compared to merely writing sentences in notebooks as drill practices.

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#6 Pronoun Memory Topic: Personal Pronoun Learning objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Identify personal pronouns 2. Match personal pronouns with proper nouns

Prior Knowledge:

Students should already know: 1. The examples of proper nouns

Materials:

1. Blank Index cards (each child will need 12)

Duration of Activity: 30 - 40 minutes

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Preparation 1. Prepare 12 sets of blank index card for students.

2. You can create the index cards using blank A4 paper.

3. Fold the A4 paper into 8 pieces.

4. Cut A4 paper out according to the folded size.

5. It is recommended to used hard or thick A4 paper.

Instruction 1. This activity can be implemented as a practice activity after introducing the concept of personal pronouns.

2. Give each student a set of 12 prepared index cards.

3. On one card, instruct students to write a sentence with a proper noun. Get students to underline the proper noun.

4. On the second card, get students to write the personal pronoun that could replace the proper noun written on the previous card. For example, the first card could read: 'I want to wash the shirt and the second card could read: 'it'.

5. Students continue writing sentences with a proper noun and personal pronouns until they have six sets.

6. Next ask each student is to find a partner and have them shuffle all of their 24 cards together.

7. Then, ask students to arrange their cards face down on the desk in straight rows and columns. (classic memory game arrangement) 8. Students must take turns to turn over two cards at a time looking for a personal pronoun that can replace the proper noun in the sentence.

9. If they find a match, they read the sentence using the pronoun, keep the pair of cards, and take another turn. If they are wrong, they turn the two cards back over and the next person takes a turn.

10. Play until all of the cards have been matched. Whoever has the most pairs at the end of the game wins.

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Support For a lower level class setting, you can allow students to arrange the sentence card and personal pronoun card separately on the desk. This will reduce the complexity of the game as they will not face the challenge of opening two sentence card at the same time.

Rationale This activity is suitable for upper primary students as it requires a lot of individual work that is not fully guided by the teacher. This activity is recommended as a replacement for the traditional worksheet drilling method. The activity still focuses on reinforcing students knowledge on personal pronouns, however it is made into a fun game instead of merely completing worksheets. The activity also promotes cooperation among the students as it involves a pair game. It does not only provide students with an opportunity to practice personal pronouns but also to learn to be patient while waiting for their turn.

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#7 Goofy Cards Topic: Possesive Pronoun Learning objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Create sentences using possessive pronoun.

Prior Knowledge:

Students should already know: 1. The concept of nouns and verbs.

2. To construct simple sentences.

Materials:

1. Noun and verb flash cards

Duration of Activity: 20 -30 minutes

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Preparation 1. Prepare a set of noun and verb flash cards (each child should get one noun and one verb) 2. You can write your own noun and verbs on a deck of cards or you can print the Noun & Verb noun and verb cards attached here. cards

Instruction 1. Divide the class into two or three teams depending on the class size.

2. Each team should have a stack of the prepared noun and verb cards.

3. Taking turns in teams, one student at a time must draw one card from the noun deck and another from the verb deck.

4. The student must generate a grammatically correct sentence using the words drawn. In their sentence, students must include a possessive pronoun.

5. For example, if a student draws the cards 'tomato' and 'hike', the sentence could be: The tomato lost it's rubber duck when it was hiking.

6. If the student can form a grammatically correct sentence which includes a possessive pronoun, the student's team gets a point.

7. Play the game until the deck of cards finishes and the team that collected the most points win.

Enrichment:

For a higher level class setting, ask students to construct two continuous sentences.

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Rationale This activity is guaranteed to produce a class full of laughter as students have to come up with creative sentences for nouns and verbs that might not even match such as 'tomato' and 'hike'.

Besides that, students will learn to be collaborative and cooperative through this activity as it is a team game. Hence, instilling teamwork among the students. They will learn to be cautious and responsible when they constructing their sentences as it will affect the whole team's points. Thus, they will have to participate in this activity seriously as they do not want to be the reason their team looses. In addition to that, this activity provides teachers with the opportunity to correct students grammar errors while they construct sentences. It also allows the teacher to teach the exception rules of using possessive pronouns as students make mistakes while constructing sentences.Â

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#8 Bob The Robber Topic: Preposition Learning objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Recognize and identify prepositions of an object.

Prior Knowledge:

Students should already know: 1. How to describe the position of an object.

Materials: 1. Objects in the classroom

Duration of Activity: 30 minutes

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Preparation 1. Before students enter the classroom, move some objects in the classroom away from its original place (basically mess up and disorganize the classroom).

2. For example, move the marker and duster from the teachers desk to the students desk.

Instruction 1. Inform the students that there is some bad news. Tell them that their classroom was robbed. The objects in the classroom are not the same place as they were yesterday.

2. Many objects are now in different positions, therefore you need their help to place all the objects back to their original place.

3. Put students into pairs to make a note of what the robber has moved around, and ask them to make sentences on a piece of paper or mini whiteboard using prepositions of place.

4. For instance, The marker is in the wrong place. It should be on the teacher's desk.

Remind the students to underline the prepositions used.

Rationale The use of concrete objects in the classroom help to make learning memorable, enjoyable and relevant for the students as they could apply what they have learned in a real-life context. In addition, this activity caters for different learning styles such as kinesthetic learners and visual learners.

It requires students to move around the classroom and they have to identify which objects do not belong to the original place. By doing so, it also helps to develop their analytical skills as they need to analyze which objects in the classroom has been moved.

Besides analytical skills, this activity promotes critical thinking skills and teamwork as they are required to work in pairs and to construct sentences using preposition of place.

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#9 Kung Fu Panda Topic: Punctuation Learning objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Use punctuation accurately in sentences.

Prior Knowledge:

Students should already know: 1. How to form basic sentences using a subject and object or nouns and verbs.

Materials: You do not need any materials for this activity!

Duration of Activity: : 30 - 40 minutes

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Preparation You do not need to prepare anything for this activity!

Instruction 1. Teach students the four punctuation actions (Full Stop, Comma, Exclamation Mark, Colon) 2. Full Stop - Throw a short, right-handed punch at the air in front of you. Make the noise, Ha! 3. Comma - With your right arm bent so that your hand is in front of your face, make a short twisting motion at the wrist to signify the comma shape. Make the noise, Shi! 4. Exclamation Mark - draw a long vertical line from top to bottom with right hand followed by a full stop. Make the noises, Ohhhhh! Ha! 5. Question Mark - Make a cutting movement with the hand curve. Draw from the top to bottom of the question mark shape, followed by a full stop punch. Make the noises, “Shi, Shi, Shi! Ha! 6. Next, give students some time to memorize and practice the 4 moves.

7. Create a tournament called The Kung Fu Battle. Students must be divided into groups of three players; two combatants and a referee.

8. The combatants face each other and the referee decides who is the winner of the battle.

9. The referee says “capital letter”, and the two combatants have to bow to each other while repeating the same phrase.

10. Then, display sentences without any punctuation on the board or screen using presentation slides.

11. The combatants must read the sentences and perform the correct move and sound to match the punctuation that should fit into the sentences displayed.

12. For example, the sentence displayed could be “Walking to the shop, I whistled.”

The combatants will have to perform the action and sound of a comma that comes after the word 'shop' and a full stop that comes after the word 'whistled'

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13. The referee will have to decide the winner of the battle by checking which combatant completes the correct move and sound the quickest.

14. Repeat the activity by displaying new sentences for the next round.

15. The combatants and referee can take turns to change their roles for each round.

Rationale This activity caters for a wide range of learning styles, such as kinesthetic learner, auditory learners, and visual learners. Students have to observe carefully and remember the actions together with the sounds that correspond to the punctuation marks. By doing so, it develops their short-term memory and concentration as they are required to perform the actions and sounds quickly and correctly. Moreover, this game helps students unconsciously learn the form and use of the punctuation marks with the sentences provided for them where it acts as a reference for them to understand the correlations between punctuation marks and conversation activity.

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# 10 Verb Snip Topic: Verb Learning objectives: Students will be able to: 1. List verbs

Prior Knowledge: Students should already know: 1. To spell three letter words

Materials: You do not need any materials for this activity!

Duration of Activity: 10 - 15 minutes

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Preparation You do not have to prepare anything for this activity!

Instruction 1. Arrange students in a circle.

2. Ask a student to volunteer to stand in the center as the pointer.

3. The volunteer in the center will count to five, point to another student, and ask him/her to spell a three-letter word (For example, “Bag, B-A-G”).

4. Then the volunteer in the center will slowly count to five again, and 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.

5. For the noun spelled B-A-G, the student can say, “Bowl, Act, Glide.”

6. Then the volunteer sits down and the student who just answered the volunteer will come up to the center as the pointer for the next round.

Support: In a lower level class setting, you can ask the pointer to count to 10 or 15 before pointing to another student to name the three verbs. This will give the students more time to think of verbs that match the spelling of the three letter word mentioned.

Enrichment: In a higher ability 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”).

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Rationale This activity can be used as a recap on verbs. In year 4, students should already know what is a verb and how to use verbs. However, before teaching other grammar items, we cant out students to have a strong foundation on nouns and verbs. Hence, this activity can be a interesting and fun activity to ensure students foundation on verbs is strong. Furthermore, this activity is appropriate for students of all ability level. An alternative activity which is more challenging and complex is stated in the instruction for higher ability students. Thus, ensuring the activity is not demotivating for a higher ability class setting.Â

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References Adverb Games: Ideas for Fun Adverb Activities in the Classroom. (2012, February 14).

Retrieved from https://www.brighthubeducation.com/lesson-plans-grades-1- 2/50403-fun-grammar-activities-for-teaching-adverbs B, J. (2013, February 06). It's Not Mine, It's His: 3 Powerful Possessive Activities.

Retrieved from https://busyteacher.org/14534-3-powerful-possessive activities.html Chou, E. (2017, July 27). 5 Quick and Fun Verb Games to Liven Up Your ESL Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator- english/esl-verb-tenses-games-for-the-classroom/ Five fun activities to teach prepositions. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/five-fun-activities prepositions Fun activities for practising A, An and The. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.tefl.net/elt/ideas/grammar/fun-activities-for-practising-a-an the Literacy Planet. (2017, October 23). 11 Classroom Games for Teaching Kids About Adjectives. Retrieved from https://www.literacyplanet.com/au/news/11classroom-games-teaching-kids adjectives/ Verner, S. (2016, July 18). Pronoun Power: 6 Lively Activities for Making Little Words Work Big. Retrieved from https://busyteacher.org/23982-pronoun-power-6 fun-activities.html View a plan. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://lessonplanspage.com/famous-americans/