Activities
English language arts, or ELA, encompasses reading, spelling, writing, phonics, and anything else associated with written or spoken English. Games are a great way to introduce new concepts and practice things students are learning. When students are having fun, they’ll buy in and be more likely to remember what they’ve learned.
Here are a few fun ELA games to get you started!
1. Phonics hunts
Give your students a list of letter teams or blends you’re working on in the classroom and challenge them to find as many words that have those teams in them as they can. Encourage them to choose a book they enjoy, provide pencils and paper to record words, and see how many they can find. This game can also work with spelling words or sight words.
2. Sentence creation
Fill a jar or bowl with a list of words that encompass a theme, such as verbs, adjectives, or prepositions. Have students choose a word and write a complete sentence that includes the word. Make the game more challenging by including several themes, such as nouns, verbs, and adverbs and ask students to identify the part of speech they choose from the jar before they write their sentence.
3. Sentences unscramble
Write down some grade and age-appropriate sentences, leaving spaces between each word and punctuation mark. Cut each sentence apart so one word or punctuation mark is on each piece of paper. Give each student a scrambled-up sentence and have them put it in the correct order.
4. Make words
Cut small squares of paper and write a letter on each. Give each of your students a certain number of letters and challenge them to see how many words they can make from the letters you’ve given them.
5. Grammar scavenger hunt
Give your students a part of speech, such as noun or adverb, and challenge them to find as many examples as possible from a book or story. Repeat the game several times using different parts of speech.
6. Charades
Play a game of charades with an ELA twist. You might ask students to act out action verbs or retell of a scene in a story you’ve been reading in the classroom.
7. Adjective guessing
Have each student choose an item that would be well-known to all the kids, such as basketball, French fries, or dogs. Ask the students to use as many adjectives as they can to describe the item they’ve chosen. The rest of the class will try to guess what the item is based on the adjectives.
8. Tongue twisters
Saying tongue twisters can boost fluency! Provide your students with several examples and challenge them to read them out loud as fast as possible. Take the activity further by having the students write their own tongue twisters to share with their peers.
9. Match the sound
Print out a variety of simple pictures so all students have one of each picture. Present a letter or phonics sound and have the students find the card that has the same sound at the beginning. Repeat the activity several times also focusing on sounds in the middle and at the end of the words.
10. Timed picture writing
Give each student a picture from a magazine or that you print from the computer. Challenge them to write a story in a certain amount of time. Their story must include clear characters, setting, and plot. The class can vote on which story is the best.
11. Synonym or antonym
Call out a word, such as “beautiful,” and then say “synonym” or “antonym” and the students will shout out their answer as quickly as they can. Call out different words, varying how often you say synonym or antonym. This game would also be fun played in teams or if students wrote their answers instead of shouting them out.
12. Spelling bee
Hold an informal classroom spelling bee practicing sight words or words that follow the phonics sounds you’re working on.
Any of these games will boost your students’ ELA skills in a fun and memorable way!
