How can I turn grammar lessons into a game?
- Grab your worksheet or questions that you want to use
- Set the questions up around the room at various places
- Decide on a scenario that will interest your class
- Write out some clues that will let the children figure out the mystery game
- Let the children find and then solve each question
- As a reward for each question give them a clue that will help them to solve the question!
I will walk you through each of these steps in more detail so you can use grammar games for classroom lessons!
Grab your worksheet or questions that you want to use
Setting up grammar games in the classroom is fun and the children love it but sometimes the educational content takes a step back! I personally love fun English grammar games to practice tricky concepts.
This type of game works best if you use questions that have single answers – math questions, direct answers etc. Essay style or opened responses are harder to deal with. When selecting questions consider which would work best for grammar games for the classroom.
Set the questions up around the room at various places
I like to turn the questions into pieces of evidence like this one:
Although you can just as easily put the question out and have them find it and solve the problem.
Decide on a scenario that will interest your class
All kinds of things can be a ‘crime’ to your class, I use stolen items, missing people and secret identities!
Write out some clues that will let the children figure out the mystery game
This is the most difficult part. You will need to decide whole the criminal is and then give your class clues so they can work it out. Choose around 4 or 5 different suspects and make sure they all are different in some ways but similar in others. Then give clues such as ‘the criminal didn’t have red hair!’ this eliminates the red haired suspects.
Begin the game play!
Let the children find and then solve each question
They can then bring it to you for checking or you can have an official checker in the room to help you with this
As a reward for each question give them a clue that will help them to solve the question!
When their answers have been checked, they receive a clue as a reward! When they have figured out who done it they can announce their findings.
If this seems a bit complicated and time consuming
You can grab a copy of my Mystery game here. This game includes everything you could need to practice grammar in a fun mystery way. I am currently adding more games to my store, based on different topics and standards so please feel free to email me at thegingerteacher@gmail.com if you have anything you would like me to cover.
What kind of scenarios should I use?
This does depend on your class and their ages, I like pretty innocent set ups such as who ate the last cake? Or where are the PE shorts hidden. Although if you are comfortable with it, you can use murder! Who killed square man? (if you get this joke we should be friends)
How many clues should I leave the kids?
For an hour’s lesson I usually leave about 8 to 10 clues. This gives them lots of time to answer the questions, look through all the clues and solve the puzzle.
What do I do once they solve the mystery?
If they are working in teams I usually have them announce their results and defend them (particularly if there are any disagreements about who did it).
Then the teacher can do a big reveal of the culprit!
Why would you use my pre-made game instead of your own?
I spend a lot of time making my resources as fun and interesting as possible. You can of course make your mystery games but I like to save teachers time and let them just enjoy teaching a fun and engaging lesson.
What makes my pre-made games different?
For a start they are very low prep!
Teachers need to print out the resources, give a detective book to each student (provided in both colour and black and white versions), place the evidence around the room and then you are set.
To start the lesson your kids will need to look for the evidence markers, they will look closely at the different pieces of evidence to answer questions from their detective books. The evidence pieces are not just there to have the children answer questions, they also contain little extra clues which might help our young detectives.
When they find a piece of evidence they can answer the questions show the completed answer to either the teacher or a designated student that will see if the answers are correct.
Once the answer has been checked the kids earn a clue! They can stick these clues into their detective books to keep them safe! (or copy them in if you want to cut down on the printing)
When the children have collected all the clues they can crack the case! My games have more than one piece to figure out, they need to find out who did it, why and how! So there are extra parts to discover.
When the children announce that they have solved the case, the teacher can reveal if they were correct! Then I have included detective badges and certificates to reward the kids for all their hard work.
