Helping verbs, also known as auxiliary verbs, are essential in understanding sentence structures and improving students’ writing skills. Here are 19 engaging activities to help students learn and practice helping verbs.
1. Helping Verbs Flashcards
Create flashcards with helping verbs on one side and their definitions on the other. Students can use them to memorize and review the different helping verbs.
2. Charades
Students act out sentences with helping verbs, while others try to guess the verb being used.
3. Helping Verbs Memory Game
Create pairs of cards with a helping verb on one card and a corresponding sentence or definition on the other. Students lay the cards face down on a table and take turns trying to find matching pairs.
4. Auxiliary Verb Songs
Create or find songs that include helping verbs, such as YouTube videos or lyrics from popular songs, to reinforce their usage in a fun way.
5. Fill-In-The-Blank Worksheets
Provide sentences with missing helping verbs, having students fill in the blanks with the appropriate words.
6. Word Scramble
Create scrambled sentences and have students rearrange the words into correct order, focusing on proper placement of helping verbs.
7. Poster Presentations
Divide students into groups and assign each group a specific helping verb. Each group designs a poster illustrating their assigned verb’s meaning and uses it in various sentences.
8. Helping Verbs Bingo
Create bingo cards featuring different helping verbs in the squares and play in class using sentences as clues.
9. Sentence Switching
Pair students together, having them take turns constructing sentences with assigned helping verbs and getting their partners to switch the verbs without changing the overall meaning of the sentence.
10. Auxiliary Verb Quiz
Administer quizzes testing students’ knowledge of different helping verbs, their definitions, and unique applications.
11. Matching Game
Provide students with lists of main verbs and helping verbs, having them pair the correct helping verb with each main verb.
12. Journaling
Encourage students to write daily journal entries using as many helping verbs as possible, strengthening their writing skills and increasing comfort with these essential words.
13. Role-Plays
Assign students various scenarios, creating dialogue using helping verbs in their conversations.
14. Comic Strips
Have students create comic strips featuring characters who use helping verbs in their speech bubbles.
15. Whiteboard Races
Write down incomplete sentences with blanks for helping verbs on the whiteboard. Split students into teams, having them race to fill in the blanks with correct verbs.
16. Collaborative Stories
Divide students into groups, creating stories where each student contributes a sentence using at least one helping verb before passing on to the next person.
17. Helping Verb Concentration
Provide a list of helping verbs and ask students to concentrate on one or two specific examples a day, ensuring mastery of these important words.
18. Cloze Passage Practice
Supply passages with missing helping verbs, requiring students to fill in the appropriate words based on context clues.
19. Speed Debates
Arrange a series of debates where students must argue their points using as many helping verbs as possible in a short amount of time.
Incorporating these 19 activities into your lesson plans will not only improve students’ understanding and usage of helping verbs but also make learning this essential grammar component enjoyable and engaging.
