Activities That Can Be Used For Any Grammar Point

(TESOL Ideas--Any Grammar Point, Workshops)
Google Docs Folder HERE
Video version: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Playlist



This is a professional development seminar I lead at my school.  The idea was to collect as many ideas as possible of activities that could be used for teaching any grammar point.
The seminar was divided into two parts.  In the first part I presented my ideas, in the second half everyone else brainstormed their own ideas in small groups, which were then presented back to the group, and which I collected and tried to write down.

Below, and on Google Documents at the links provided, are the materials for the seminar.
First of all is hand-out summarizing all the activities, which is reproduced below, and also on Google: drive, docs, pub.  (On the blog version, I've added in links to relevant examples).
Before the seminar, I tried to prepare by writing out what I was going to say.  The text of that is also reproduced below, and on Google: drive, docs, pub.
I also prepared a power-point presentation, which included examples of relevant activities to illustrate it.  (Actually it's a Microsoft Word document, but I used it as if it were a power point, but putting the view settings on full screen.)
This one is NOT reproduced below.  (It's too long, plus it contains a mixture of pages that are both landscape and portrait, so it wouldn't fit easily into a blog post screen.)  But the Google  Version is Here: drive, docs, pub.

The ideas that were collected from my colleagues at the seminar are also reproduced below, and are at Google Here: drive, docs, pub.  It goes without saying that this last group is not my own ideas, and so can take neither the credit or the blame for any of them.  (My intention was to collect only ideas that could be used for a variety of grammar points, but some of the ideas my colleagues came up with were for specific grammar points only, or were in some cases for vocabulary and fluency instead of grammar.  Despite the fact that this didn't meet the strict criteria I had in my head, I decided to included all the ideas anyway.)

Activities That Can Be Used For Any Grammar Point

Find Someone Who

* Students have to walk around the room and find people who match various descriptions

* This is already used as a first day of class ice-breaker, but it can also be used to emphasise certain grammar points, e.g. “Have you...?”, “Can you...?”, “Had you...?”,

Variations:

* Find Someone Who Can Say Yes

*Instead of having students transform the indirect questions into direct questions, the question forms are written out directly.  E.g., instead of "Find someone who has a dog," the prompt is written as "Do you have a dog."  I use this for lower levels and young learners.
Examples:
--Past Perfect
--Used to
--Adjectives for describing personality
--Present Perfect

* Have students write their own questions using the target language
Examples:
--Present Perfect

* Classroom survey

--Students have a list of questions (using target grammar) and have to survey several people in the class
Examples:
--Present Perfect
--How Questions
--Too much, too many, enough

*Human Bingo

--Similar to find someone who, but instead of completing a linear list of questions, the questions are arranged in a bingo grid, and students have to get five in a row
Examples:
--Present Simple and Present Continuous

* Human Bingo: Same and Different

--Instead of asking yes or no questions, students fill in the gaps to make sentences that are true for them, and then find other students who are the same or different.  The goal is to get either five sames or five differents in a row.
Examples:
--Will, Will Not, May

Hangman (Wheel of Fortune) For Whole Sentences

                Prepare several secret sentences using the target language.  Write the blanks (but not the letters) up on the board.  Students are divided into teams, and attempt to guess the letters in the sentence.  If they guess a letter, they get one point for each time that letter appears in the sentence.  If they can guess the whole sentence, they get 10 points.  (But I sometimes add a penalty for incorrect guesses, e.g. they can lose 10 points if they attempt to guess the sentence, but guess incorrectly.)  Some classes get into this, and some classes don't, but if they get into the game it's a good way to encourage them to try to seek out the patterns in the target language.

Around the Room Memory Game

                Start at the beginning of the room.  One student says a sentence containing the target language.  The next student has to remember the previous sentence, and then add their own sentence.  Each successive student has to remember all the sentences that came previously, plus add their own sentence.

Guess Your Partner's Answers

* Students are given a list of questions containing the target language.  They have to guess how their partner will answer each question.  They get one point for each correct answer.
Examples:
--Can and Could Guessing Game
--Used to Guessing Game

Dictation

* The teacher reads several sentences containing the target language.  The students write the sentences down.  They get one point for each sentence perfectly transcribed.
Examples:
--Wish Dictation
--Present Perfect Dictation

--Used to Dictation
--May/Might for Future Dictation

Variations:

* Group writing

                Have students work in groups to write down the correct answers

* Running Dictation

                Sentences containing the target language are posted around the room (or just outside of the room).  One partner looks at the sentences, remembers the sentence in their head, and then dictates the sentence to another partner who writes them down.  The partner who looks at the sentences cannot write, and the partner who writes cannot look at the sentences.

* Telephone Dictation

                Students are arranged in rows.  The person in the first row looks at sentences containing the target grammar, and must say these sentences to the person behind them, who passes them onto the next person behind them.  The student in the back of the row has to write the sentences down.
Examples:
--Gerunds Running Dictation
--Reported Speech Running Dictation
--How About, Let's, Would You Like To Running Dictation

Scrambled Sentences

                Students are put into groups and given word cards, and must arrange them into sentences.  They glue the word cards onto a board in sentence form, and groups are given one point for each correct sentence.
Examples;
--Modal Verbs Scrambled Sentences
--Active and Passive Scrambled Sentences
--Past Simple Versus Present Perfect Scrambled Sentences
--Too Much Too Many Scrambled Sentences
--Should Scrambled Sentences
--Wish Scrambled Sentences
--Let's, How About, Would You Like To Scrambled Sentences

Find Your Partner

                Students are given one half of a sentence and must find the other student with the matching half.  (Or complimentary sentence--e.g. active passive).
Examples:
--Past Continuous Find Your Partner
--Will for Offers Find Your Partner
--Too Much Too Many Find Your Partner
--Present Passive and Past Passive Find Your Partner
--Present Passive, Past Passive and Present Perfect Passive Find Your Partner
--Present Simple Passive and Present Continuous Passive Find Your Partner
--Let's, How About, Would You Like To Find Your Partner

Variation:

divide the sentence into three parts, and have the students find two partners.

Examples:
--Too Much Too Many Find Two Partners

Memory Card Game

                As with Find Your Partner, sentences are divided into two halves (or there are two complimentary sentences).  Sentence halves are put onto cards.  The cards are put face down and, just like the classic game of memory, students have to turn over the cards to try to find a match.
Examples:
* 1st and 2nd Conditional Memory Game

Variations:  For a whole class memory game, the teacher writes the numbers on the board, and keeps a secret answer key for which numbers correspond with which sentences.  When a student chooses a number, the teacher reads out the corresponding sentence.
Examples:
* Reported Speech Memory Game

Or a combination of cards and board work--e.g. half of the target language is given to the students on cards, and they have to try to match the cards to the numbers on the board, which correspond to various sentences in the teacher's answer key.
Examples:
* Simple Past Tense Memory Game

Brainstorming

                Students are put into groups, and given a prompt containing the target language.  The students have to come up with as many sentences as possible responding to the prompt within a given time limit.  At the end of the time limit, the group with the most acceptable sentences is the winner.  The prompt could also take the form of a picture, which students have to describe using the target language.
Examples:
* First Conditional Brainstorm Activity
* Second Conditional Brainstorm Activity
* Should and Shouldn't Brainstorm Activity

Hot Potato Sentences

                Students are given a prompt, and must respond to it using the target language.  Then the next student must respond to the same prompt using the same target language, but with a new sentence.  If a student cannot think of a new sentence, or repeats a previously mentioned sentence, they are out.  (Or lose a point.  Or have to sit in the middle.  Or something, et cetera).  Can be played as a whole class or in small groups--I usually set it up by playing as a whole class first, and then move into small groups.
Examples:
* Should for advice: What should I do?

Guess My Sentence

                Students are put into small groups.  They are given a sentence on a card, and they must come up with hints to help the other people in their group guess the sentence.
Examples:
* Modal Verbs Guessing Game

Variations:

 It is possible to vary the focus of the game by having either the mystery sentence be in the target language (and the students are given a fair degree of freedom in creating the hints), or the mystery sentence is more free, and the students have to create the hints in the target language.

Karuta (Japanese Game)

                The students are put into small groups, and given a list of cards with the target language (which they spread out among themselves).  The teacher reads prompts, and the students try to grab the card matching the prompt.  Whichever student grabs the card first gets to keep that card.  At the end, the student with the most cards is the winner.  (You may have to introduce penalties for students who grab wrong cards--e.g. lose one point, miss a turn, et cetera).
Examples:
* Modal Verb Karuta
* Second Conditional Karuta

* Will for Future Prediction Karuta
* Computer reading for elementary students: Prompts here, Cards Here
* Tiger reading for elementary students: Prompts here, Cards here

Sorting Activity

                Used for when you have two grammar points--e.g. past simple versus present perfect.

                Students are given a list of sentences, and have to sort them into different categories.
Examples:
* Present Perfect and Past Simple Sorting Activity
* Phrasal Verb Sorting Activity
* May and Going to Sorting Activity

3 Sentences: 2 Truths and a lie

                Students are put into small groups, and have to write 3 sentences containing the target language.  Two of these sentences must be true, one of them must be a lie.  Their group has to guess which of the 3 sentences is a lie.
Examples:
* Past Perfect 2 Truths and a Lie
* Present Perfect 2 Truths and a Lie

                Variation:

                 Two sentences contain a certain grammar point, the 3rd sentence another grammar point.  Students read only part of the sentence, and the group guesses which sentences are which grammar point--e.g. "things I may do versus things I will do", "things I must do versus things I should do," et cetera.
Examples:
* Will and Might

Grammar Auction

                Students are given a list of sentences containing the target language.  They have to place bets on which sentences are correct, and which sentences are incorrect.  (Or alternatively, try to buy the correct sentences in an auction).
Examples:
* Modal Verb Grammar Auction

Scrambled Story

                Write up a story (or dialogue) containing the target language.  Cut up the story into different parts.  Put students into small groups, and have the students try to put the story into the correct order.
Examples:
* Story using Wish
* Modal Verb Story
* Past Passive Story
* First Conditional Story
* Second Conditional Story
* Too + Adjective Story

Board Game

                Create a board in which each square contains a speaking prompt containing the target language.  Students roll a dice, and move their marker around the board, responding to the speaking prompt on each square.
Examples:
* Wish Board Game
* First and Second Conditional Board Game

                Variation:

                Each square contains a command in the target language, that the students have to respond to.
Examples:
* Modal Board Game
* Adverb Board Game

Songs

                 Bring in a song containing the target language.  Have students listen to it for comprehension, or alternatively have them fill in the gaps at points containing the target language.

                Of course, this assumes you can think of a song repeating the target language enough times to justify using it.  This may not work for all grammar points, but the Internet is a big help with this.  A lot of TESOL song sheets are already made up if you just Google your target grammar point plus "ESL" plus "song", or something.
Examples;
2nd Conditionals
* If I Were a Boy by Beyonce 
* If 6 Was 9 by Jimi Hendrix 
Gerunds
* Wishing and Hoping by Dusty Springfield
Modal Verbs:
* I Should be Proud by Martha and the Vandellas
Negative Verbs
* You Don't Own Me by Leslie Gore
Passive
*The Banks are Made of Marble by Pete Seeger 
Present Perfect
* I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2   
Reported Speech
* The Letter by The Box Tops
*Then He Kissed Me by The Crystals
Will for Future Predictions
* Que Sera Sera by Doris Day 
Wish
* Sometimes I Wish I Were a Boy by Leslie Gore 

Crosswords

                Make a crossword puzzle containing the target grammar point. 

                There are various online resources for this, but I like: http://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/ since it allows you to save the crossword as a PDF file, so you can save it in your folder and keep it for future use.
Examples:
* Gerunds Crosswords
* May and Going to Crosswords
* Present Perfect Passive Crosswords
* Present Passive Crossword Puzzle
* Present Simple Passive and Past Simple Passive Crossword Puzzle

* Past Tense labels Crossword Puzzle
* Past Simple and Past Continuous Crossword Puzzle
* Present Perfect Crossword Puzzle
* Reported Speech Crossword Puzzle
* Irregular Verbs Crossword Puzzle
* Wish Crossword Puzzle

Activities That Can Be Used For Any Grammar Point Speech

            Good afternoon.  The title of this professional development session is “Activities That Can Be Used For Any Grammar Point”. 

            Most of these activities I discovered when I first started teaching Young Learners a couple years ago.  In the General English Program classes I could get away with being a little bit lazy and not preparing much, but I discovered in the Young Learner program I needed to have a lot of games and activities ready to go in order to keep the class from disintegrating.  Over the past year or so, I’ve discovered that there are certain old-stand-by activities that I found were fairly reliable, and that I kept coming back to again and again whenever I needed to put some sort of game or activity into the lesson.  So I thought I’d do a PD where I would quickly run through my most reliable activities, and share them with anyone who’s interested in sharing ideas.

            Now, some of you in this room have been teaching longer than I have, and probably have more ideas and better ideas than I do, so instead of having me talking the whole time, we’re going to do this as a workshop.  My goal is to run through all my activities as quickly as I can, and then we’ll turn the rest of the time over to you to share your own ideas, and hopefully at the end of this session we’ll all come out of here with a long list of new ideas.  So if I’m still talking after 20 minutes, somebody kick me, okay?

            And by the way, this isn’t only for Young Learner classes either.  Many of these can work just as well with older students.  Some of these ideas are probably better than others, but the idea for today is to brainstorm as many ideas as possible, and then everyone can just take what they like, and ignore whatever they don’t like.

            I’ve given you a handout so you don’t have to take notes.  I’ll also put up on the front screen some of my own examples of each activity, partly to provide an example in case my explanation isn’t clear, and partly just to illustrate how some of these activities can be adopted to a wide range of grammar points.  I put a copy of this document in the server, so you can follow along with me on your own computer screen if you want.  A lot of these worksheets I made up could be better, to be honest.  The pressure sometimes of having to come up with a new activity for each class can sometimes produce some rushed jobs, and for some of these it might be obvious that near the end I was struggling to think of example sentences.  But hopefully they’ll give you a sense of how the idea could work, if someone more competent had been writing the worksheet.

            Okay, first of all, Find Someone Who.  In the interest of trying to create a thorough list, I’ve included some of the very obvious ones, so just bear with me here, we’ll go through it quickly. 

            Most people already use this as a first day of class ice-breaker, but don’t forget you can also use it for individual grammar points.

            As “Find Someone Who” is traditionally designed, it’s supposed to be an indirect question that the learner has to transform into a direct question.  My Young Learners were not doing this well.  No matter how many times we practiced transforming the question, the majority of the class was still reading directly off the worksheet once the game started.  Maybe that was my failure as a teacher, but I started redesigning the activity as “Find Someone Who Can Say Yes,” with the question form already written.  They were still getting practice reading the question even if they were no longer getting practice making the question.

            Another variation you can do is to have the students make their own questions. 

            Or, something similar to “Find Someone Who” is a classroom survey activity, where they have to go around the room and ask certain questions to a certain amount of people.

            Human Bingo is also similar to “Find Someone Who”, but in this case the answers are arranged on a bingo grid, and they have to get find people who can answer yes in five blocks in a row.

            You can use Human Bingo for yes and no questions, but you can also use it for same and different questions.  Here the students fill in the gaps to make sentences that are true for them, and then they have to walk around the room and compare their answers with their classmates.  If their classmate has the same answer as them, they write S in the box.  If their classmate has a different answer to them, they write D in the box.  The goal is to get either five Ss or five Ds in a row.  In this example here, they are completing sentences with may and going to, and then comparing their answers with their classmates.

            Next is Hangman.  I call it “Hangman”, but actually in this version nobody actually gets hung.  Two teams are just competing to solve the puzzle first.  It’s probably more similar to Wheel of Fortune than Hangman, but I still call it Hangman. 

            It’s similar to Hangman, but instead of guessing a word, the teams are trying to guess a whole sentence.  You write the blanks on the board, the students try to guess the letters.  They get one point for each time the letter appears.  For example, if they guess E, and E appears 6 times in the sentence, they get 6 points.  If they can guess the whole sentence correctly, they get 10 points, but I put in a 10 point penalty for guessing the sentence incorrectly to discourage reckless guesses. 

            Some classes get into this, and some classes don’t, but if you have a class that really gets into it, it can be a lot of fun.  And when they really want to win, they have a lot of motivation to try to figure out the patterns in the target language.  If you do 4 or 5 sentences, they usually have a very good idea of the form of the target language by the end.  And of course I try to have fun with this by trying to think of the most ridiculous, humorous illustrations of the target language that I can. 

            Next is around the room memory game.  I think different people have different names for this one, but basically the first person says a sentence using the target language, and then the next person has to remember the first person’s sentence, plus add their own, and every additional person has to add one more sentence so the number of sentences you have to remember just gets bigger and bigger. 

            Next is “Guess Your Partner’s Answers”.  Students have to fill out a worksheet making statements that are true for them using the target language.  Then they try to predict their partner’s answers.  Ideally they would check their answers by asking their partner, so they would get some speaking practice in at the end.  Here’s an example using things they can or can’t do now, and things they could or couldn’t do five years ago. 

            Next is Dictation.  This is another obvious one that I think everyone knows about already, so I don’t want to spend too much time on it.  The teacher reads out sentences, the student writes down the sentences, and they get one point for each correct sentence.  You could have them do this individually, or in groups.  You could also have a running dictation, where the sentences are posted up somewhere around the room or outside the room.  The students are put into pairs.  One partner goes to look at the sentence, and must remember it in order to dictate it to the partner sitting down, who writes it.  The partner who looks at the sentence can’t write anything, and the partner who writes can not look

            Or you can do telephone dictation.  For this activity the students are arranged in rows.  You put the sentences up at the front of the room.  The person in the first row looks at sentences, and then must say these sentences to the person behind them, who passes them onto the next person behind them, et cetera.  The student in the back of the row has to write the sentences down.

           Next is scrambled sentences.  You write out sentences on a table grid like this, print it out, cut up all the car, mix them up, and the students have to arrange the cards back into sentences.  They glue the sentences onto a blank grid in groups.  They get one point for each correct sentence.  I use this activity for young learners only.  They seem to really like the tactile element of gluing the words onto the paper.  Although I won't lie, this activity is pretty preparation heavy.  It sometimes takes a long time to cut out all the cards.  The words are arranged on my paper in the order I originally envision these sentences, but of course I give points to any correct sentence.  Sometimes they come up with a lot of sentences I wasn't even expecting

            Next, find your partner.  This is another classic game everyone already knows, so I won't spend a lot of time explaining it.  I'm not sure if you can do this with every grammar point, but you can do this with a lot of grammar points.  Sometimes you divide a sentence in half, and sometimes you have complimentary matching sentences, like active and passive, et cetera. The students each get a card and they have to find someone with a matching card.  For some grammar points you can get away with dividing the sentence into three parts.

            Next, Memory Game.  Some people call this concentration.  This is the classic card game we all played as kids, but it has sentence halves or matching sentences on it.  Basically any grammar point that you can use for "Find Your Partner" you can also use for Memory.

            You can give the students cards, and have them play in small groups.  Or you can play as a whole class, and put a number grid on the board where each number can correspond to one card.  Or some sort of combination of cards and board work, for example the students draw cards from a pile, and have to try to match their cards with the grid on the board

            Next, brainstorming.  Put the students into groups, and give each group some sort of sentence or maybe a picture.  They have to write as many sentences as they can using the target language within a time limit.  Then at the end whichever group has the most sentences is the winner.  Although you probably want to check the sentences first to make sure all of them are correct before you award points.

            Next is something I call "Hot Potato Sentences".  There's probably a better name for this actually, but this is the name I've been using.  The students are given some sort of prompt, and they go around the room.  Each student says a different sentence responding, in the target language.  If a student cannot think of a new sentence, or repeats a previously mentioned sentence, they are out.  Or they lose a point.  Or they have to sit in the middle.  Or something bad happens.  This can be played as a whole class or in small groups--I usually set it up by playing as a whole class first, and then move into small groups.

            Next is "Guess My Sentence".  The students have a card with a sentence on it.  They have to get the other people in their group to guess the sentence.  There are two ways you can do this.  One way is that all the mystery sentences themselves are in the target language.  The other way is that the mystery sentence has some sort of situation on it, and the students have to describe it using the target language.

            This next one, Karuta, is a game I picked up in Japan.  Anyone taught English in Japan before?  The students are in small groups, and they spread out all the cards in the group.  The teacher reads a prompt, and the students have to grab whichever card matches the prompt.  The student  who grabs the card first gets to keep that card.  At the end, the student with the most cards is the winner.  Sometimes with younger learners, they just start grabbing everything at random, so you may have to introduce penalties for students who grab wrong cards, like losing a point, or missing a turn.

            Okay, next is a sorting activity.  The students are given a list of sentences, and they have to sort them into categories.  This obviously only works when you have two or more types of sentences you can contrast with each other.

            Next is the classic two truths and a lie game.  I think this is another game everyone knows already, right?  You have to come up with 3 sentences, two of which a are true and one of which is a lie.  People try to guess which of the three sentences is a lie. 

            You can use this game to practice certain grammar points as well.

            Now, the beauty of this game is that it can in theory be done without any preparation at all, but for the younger learners, and some other classes, I find making a sheet full of prompts will help to keep them focused.  For higher levels you can probably do this without any prep.

             

            I've also used this for contrasting things I will do with things I might do, so you can adopt it to other grammar points perhaps.

            Next is the grammar auction.  Again, this is a classic one, so we won't spend much time on this.  Students are given a list of sentences containing the target language.  Some of the sentences are correct, some of them are not.  I think according to the name "Grammar Auction", you're supposed to auction off the correct sentences, but I usually find that takes way to long, so I just have them bet on whether they think the sentences are correct or not.

           

            Okay, next is a scrambled story.  For this activity, you write up a story, or some sort of dialogue, containing the target language.  Then cut the story up into pieces, and put the students into small groups, and see if they can put the story back together.

            I've included several of my own examples here.  As with all of my stuff, the execution is probably a bit flawed.  These aren't great stories.  But just take these as an example of the idea, and imagine if these stories had been written by someone else who was a better writer.

            It's a little bit prep heavy the first time to make up a story, but then of course it's a one time investment, and you can re-use the story every time you re-teach the grammar point.

            The board game is another popular one.  We've got loads of these in the teacher's resource room already, but if you can't find one for the grammar point you're doing, you can create your own.

            There are two ways to do this.  Either each square on the board contains a speaking prompt using the target language, or it contains a command.  The students roll the dice and travel around the board.  I've included my own examples once again.  And once again, some of the prompts here aren't all that great, but use it as an example of the idea.  All of these examples here were made with my old template, but Chris recently gave me a new template (drive, docs, pub) which I plan to use from here on out.

            Songs.  Songs are great.  I'm pretty sure most of us do this already, but I'll just mention it here.  If you can find a song that uses the grammar point you're teaching, it's a great supplement to use in the lesson.  I've been finding that the Internet is a great help for this.  There seems to be a lot of TESOL songsheets already made up on the Internet.  So, for example, if you Google "song using the present perfect" or something, you'll find a lot of material that other TESOL teachers have already created.

            Okay, and last but not least is crossword puzzles.  I use these all the time in my classes  Perhaps I use them too much.  I'll often debate with my young learners whether crosswords are a fun activity or just a worksheet.  I think they're kind of fun, but my young learners think they're just another boring worksheet.

            Anyway, there are lots of sites on the Internet that allow you to make your own crosswords.  I tend to use: http://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/ .  I don't know if there's a better one out there or not, but this was just the first site I found when I was doing a Google search, and I've come back to it ever since.  I like it because it allows you to save the crossword as a PDF file, so you can save it into your computer and build up a collect of crossword puzzles in your own files.

           

            Okay, so those are all of my ideas.  Let's hear what everyone else has.

Ideas from my Colleagues

Student Presentations

                Instead of having the teacher present the grammar point, assign students to come to the front of the class and present the rules/formation/usage of the grammar.

Drawing

                Students sit back to back.  One student describes something, the other student draws it.  Then swap roles.  Can be adjusted for most grammar points, but works well for superlatives, comparatives, adjectives.

2 Balls

                There are two examples of the target language written on the board--a correct example and an incorrect example.  Students throw the ball at the correct example to try to get a point.

Blank Crossword

                Like the crossword game, but with no questions written down.  Just a blank crossword grid.  Students try to write down their own questions and answers using the target language.  Alternatively, the answers are supplied for the crossword, and the students have to write the questions.

Alibi

                A crime has been committed.  Two students play policemen, and interrogate two other students as to their whereabouts on the night of the crime.  The interrogated two students have to construct an alibi, using the target language.  Then the roles switch.  At the end, the students discuss who had the most plausible alibi, and who was probably the criminal.

Circle Writing

                Students write down a story using the target language.  The first student writes down a sentence using the target language, and passes the paper on to the next student, who continues the story (ideally) using the target language.  Works especially well for 3rd Conditionals (If I hadn't been sick, I wouldn't have stayed home.  If I hadn't stayed home, I wouldn't have watched TV. Et cetera).  But can possibly be adopted to other grammar points.

Writing Completion

* Divide whiteboard into three even parts.  Put students in three teams.

* Each team is give a different colour marker.

* The teacher writes a heading or beginning of a paragraph for each team.  For example:

Last summer I....

Yesterday evening my family....

Last week my friend...

* The teacher yells "Go" and teams begin writing, one member at a time.  Each member writes three words at a time.

* After 5 minutes or when the board is full, the teacher yells "Stop"

* The teacher counts the points: one point for each word; subtract one point for each grammar mistake as they go through each team's work.

* Afterwards, the teacher can discuss the accuracy or quality of the writing with the students.

Body Grammar

                All the students line up in a row.  The teacher gives each student a word.  The students have to arrange themselves in the correct order to form a correct sentence in the target language.

Sentence Battleships

                This is a game that students play in pairs against each other.  Students are given a sentence in the target language (or make their own).  They write the words of the sentence onto a grid in random order.  Their opponent cannot see the grid, but makes guesses as to the spaces.  (Similar to the classic board game battleship).  If they get a "direct hit", their opponent tells them the word.  They try to guess each other's sentences.

Fortune Teller

                (Ideal for future forms, but with some creativity can be possibly adopted to other grammar points).  Students make a fortune telling device, and write the color, number, and then the fortune in the target language.  Students then go around the room and get other students to pick numbers and colors.  They reveal the appropriate fortune corresponding to the number and color.

Review of the Past Week/ Weekend

                (Probably for past forms only).  Students talk about their past week or weekend.  Teacher encourages students to use the correct past form.

Storyline Cut-Up For Songs with a Narrative

                Find song lyrics that tell some sort of story (and possibly featuring the target language).  Cut the story up and mix it up, and students have to re-arrange the story in order.  Then play the song for them.

Slap the Board (For Vocab)

                Lots of vocabulary words are written up everywhere on the white board.   2 students face away from the board, and then when given the vocabulary word, turn around and  try to touch the word.  The student who hits the word first gains a point for their team.  In addition, the student who loses the round must give the definition for the word, and the winning student must use the word in a new sentence.

Taboo (For Vocab)

                Use for vocab and/or compound words.  Students are given a word on a card.  They must explain the meaning of the word to the other people in their group.  To make things more difficult, they cannot use certain words (which are also written on the card). 

Visual Grammar

                Students are given a picture, and have to describe the picture with a sentence using the target grammar.

Musical Modals

                Called "Musical Modals" but can be adopted for any grammar point.  The teacher writes down a list of questions or speaking prompts containing the target language.  The teacher keeps a list for their own reference, but also writes down each question/speaking prompt on a separate card.  The cards are passed around the class as the music plays.  When the music stops, the students must stop passing the cards.  The teacher then asks a certain question (or gives a certain speaking prompt).  Whoever is holding the card with that question/speaking prompt must give their answer.  The teacher then removes that card from circulation, and the game starts again.  Continue until all the cards have been removed.

Moving Objects

                Works best for prepositions.  One student gives directions on where to place an object (e.g. "under the table") and the other student moves the object.

Tic-Tac-Toe (Knots and Crosses)

A tic-tac-toe grid is written up on the white board.  In each box, one word is written.   For example, a lesson on phrasal verbs might have a grid that looks similar to this:

in	out	to
on	off	over
up	down	away

 The students are divided into competing teams.  If they can successfully use one of the words in the box in a sentence (using the target grammar for the lesson) they can put their cross or circle in that box.

Report a Sentence

                Use this simply to focus students attention on the form of the target language.  The students all stand up.  The teacher says a sentence using the target language.  If any of the students can repeat the sentence exactly, they are allowed to sit down.  (Variation:  Sometimes the teacher says the sentence, and sometimes the sentence can be played off of the CD.)

Report a Story

                Used after a reading or listening exercise that contains a story.  The students first read (or listen) to a story.  Then they are put into groups, and have to try to reconstruct the story from memory.  They re-write their version of the story up on the board, and the teacher helps them with accuracy.  Can be used as  a general fluency activity, or can be used with a story that makes heavy use of a particular target grammar.

Matching Sentence Halves

                Students are given several cards.  Some cards contain the first half of a sentence using the target grammar, some cards contain the second half of a sentence.  The students match the correct halves together.

Grammar Books

Several teachers recommend the grammar games be supplemented with a more organized approach found from some of the various grammar work books found in the Teacher's Resource Center.  In particular, English File, Cutting Edge, and Total English were all recommended.

Jeopardy

                Used for reviewing grammar points--particularly useful for reviewing tenses.  Played much the same as the classic Jeopardy game show, but the categories are all grammar points.  A team will select a category (for example: past tense), and then will have to make a sentence using the category of the grammar point that they have selected.  Correct sentences using the target grammar are awarded the set number of points.

Find Sentences in Target Grammar

                The teacher brings in an extract of authentic writing.  Students are divided into teams, and are told to look through the extract to find examples of the target grammar.  They are given one point for each example of the target language they identify.

[Addendums:
Choose Your Victim, which I got from a colleague, can also be used for any grammar point.
Also, although it's less of an "activity" and more of a worksheet, the worksheets in which the form of the verb is introduced by having students fill in the appropriate boxes is also an activity that can be adopted to any grammar point.
Examples:
* Verb Tense Review Sheet
* Question Formation Sheet
* Forming Short Answers Sheet
* Forming Negative Verbs Sheet
* Active Versus Passive Form Worksheet
* Present Simple and Present Continuous Worksheet ]