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Try one of these fun and competitive games to get their minds working and their spirits revved up.

Check Out These Games to Practice Parts of Speech

1. 1

   Puzzle Me This

   In this game for three to four players, students race to get all the pieces of a puzzle first. For each group of four, you will need one standard die, a list of sentences, and four full page magazine photos (or other pictures) cut into twelve squares and shuffled. Put the pieces to each picture in a separate envelope. Each student chooses one envelope, and s/he will be racing to get all of the pieces to complete her puzzle before the other people in the group complete theirs. Roll to see who goes first. One each player’s turn, they roll the die. They then have to identify a word in that sentence with the part of speech that they rolled (1-noun, 2-verb, 3-adj., 4-adv., 5-preposition, 6-player’s choice). If a player gets the answer correct, he gets to take one puzzle piece from his envelope and put it on the table in front of him. Play continues around the table. The first player to get all his pieces and put his picture together wins the game.

2. 2

   Part of Speech Jeopardy

   To set up this game, you will create a grid of sticky notes on your front board. You should have five columns titled adjectives, adverbs, nouns, verbs, and prepositions. Each column should have five sticky notes under it. Write a sentence on the STICKY side of each note. Make sure each sentence contains the part of speech in its column. Then stick the notes to the board. On the nonsticky side, write a point value for each question starting with $100 and going to $500 moving down the column. Divide your class into three teams. Have one person from each team come to the front of the room. The youngest person chooses a category and a dollar amount. You remove that sticky note from your board and read the sentence. If a player knows the answer, he or she raises her hand. The first student who raises her hand gets to answer. If she chooses the word from the sentence that matches the column title, her team earns those points. Three new students come up to the front. The player from the team that won the last round gets to choose the category and dollar amount. Play this way until all your sticky notes are gone. The team with the most points wins.

3. 3

   Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

   You can play this game by reading sentences aloud or projecting them on your front board. Each student will need note cards labeled with the five major parts of speech. You should also have a list of dollar amounts on the board or a poster ($100, $200, $400, $500, $1000, $2000, $4000, $8000, $16,000, $32,000, $64,000, $128,000, $250,000, $500,000, $1,000,000) with a marker for each student (magnets or clothes pins labeled with student names work well). Project a sentence on the board with one word underlined. Students should then choose the card that has the part of speech for the underlined word. Each student holds his card facing front and close to his body so only you, the teacher, can see. Everyone who chose the correct card gets their marker moved up one level. If someone chooses incorrectly, they get moved down one level. Project another sentence and have students choose the correct part of speech card. The further into the game you go, the longer and more complicated the sentences should become. The first person to reach the top of the chart wins the game and the fictional million dollars.

4. 4

   The Sticky Game Board

   This game is designed for use with up to four players. If you want to have your whole class play, just make up enough sets so everyone can play in their own group. Start by writing sentences on index cards. Each card should have a sentence written on it which contains at least one noun, verb, adj., adv., and preposition. Each group will also need one standard six-sided die and a pack of small sticky notes. Students set up the game by 1. shuffling the sentence cards and putting them face down 2. laying out a path of twenty-five sticky notes on the desk and 3. choosing a small object to be their game marker (paperclip, penny, etc.). On their turn, students roll the die to see which part of speech they must identify in the sentence (1-noun, 2-verb, 3-adj., 4-adv., 5-preposition, 6-player’s choice). They then choose a sentence card from the stack and choose the correct word in the sentence. If their answer is right, they roll again to see how many spaces they move along the sticky trail. The first person to reach the end of the path wins.

5. 5

   Pick a Stick

   This simple review game can be played as a whole class, in small groups, or by individual students at a learning center. Start by writing several words each on one popsicle stick. Label paper cups with each part of speech you have written on your popsicle sticks and keep one blank cup to hold all your sticks. On their turn, a student chooses a stick, reads the word, and puts it in the correct cup. Have students take turns or work independently to sort all the sticks into their proper cups.

Reviewing parts of speech may be basic, but it doesn’t have to be boring. Try one of these games with your students and get them engaged while they have fun learning.

Do you have any great game ideas for reviewing parts of speech?

Share them in the comments section below.