4 Ways to Make Grammar Fun in Secondary ELA

The picture shows four teens writing. Three are looking down focused on their work. A girl is looking up smiling. The text says, "4 Ways to Make Grammar Fun."

Do your students groan when they know they will be working on grammar? Mine do. It isn’t as easy to create fun, engaging grammar activities as it is when working on reading or writing. But grammar doesn’t have to be boring. Here are four ways to make grammar more engaging.

Three parts of speech mazes are laid out: verb phrases, adverbs, and proper nouns. A hand is coloring in the proper noun maze with red marker.

Grammar Mazes

Grammar mazes are fun, and students love when they can use markers or colored pencils. You can also turn grammar mazes into a race to see who finishes first. My older students thrive on that type of competition. The mazes shown above are parts of speech mazes. Each page has one focus, and students color in any box that contains that part of speech until they make it to the end of the maze.

Four parts of speech category titles are laid out. A hand is laying cards under each category. It is placing the Eiffel Tower under the category Proper Nouns.

Grammar Sorting Games

Grammar sorting games are incredibly versatile. Although they can be used for independent work, grammar sorting games are perfect for group work. They can be used as a pre and post unit activity. They can be used for review, or they can be used as a station activity. If it’s a large set, it can be broken up for a station activity for multiple days.

Two fall color by code worksheets are laid out. The one on top is colored in. It's a picture of leaves falling on a basket of apples. A few color pencils sit on top.

Grammar Color by Code

Grammar color by code activities are always engaging. In the fall parts of speech color by code activity shown above, students match the different parts of speech to a color and fill in the picture. Students would much rather color a picture than do another worksheet.

A laptop screen shows an irregular verb activity. There are sentences to fill in using the word bank at the top.

Digital Grammar Activities

Digital grammar activities are engaging, and they’re also quick. These activities are great for early finishers, when you’re crunched for time, or when you need a quick sub plan. The digital irregular verb activity shown above is a drag and drop activity. With Boom cards and Google Apps, there are many different options for digital activities.

I hope you’re leaving with an engaging grammar idea to use with your own students. Happy teaching!

Laura

Check out the resources:

Parts of Speech Mazes

Parts of Speech Sorting Game

Fall Parts of Speech Color By Code

Digital Irregular Verb Activity

Digital Quotation Mark Activity