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Verbs for teaching


5 Fun Activities for Teaching Verbs in the Primary Grades

Looking for some activities for teaching verbs to your Kindergarten, 1st, or 2nd grade students? 

Whether your students are just starting to learn about the parts of speech or are well on their way to being grammar gurus, these five activities will make learning about verbs a ton of fun!

Activity #1: Play Simon Says with action words. 

Introduce the concept of verbs as action words with a game of “Simon Says!”

First, brainstorm a list of action words with your students to use for the game.

You can also use these ready-made word cards from my Kindergarten Grammar Alive curriculum – just cut them out and make a stack or stick them on a binder ring for easy access:

This activity works well as part of a mini-lesson about verbs, and you can also play again during transitions.

Activity #2: Have students look for verbs “in the wild.”

In order for grammar to be meaningful, students need to make connections between grammar concepts and actual text.

As a class, we practice identifying verbs in sentences (and acting out the sentences, too!):

Students can also search for verbs in the books they read:

Both of these activities come from my First Grade Grammar Alive program.

Activity #3: Build Verb Vocabulary with Games

Building students’ verb vocabulary is important – both for helping them learn verb shades of meaning (see Activity #4 for more on that) AND for helping them learn to use a variety of verbs in their writing.

One easy way to build their vocabulary is to play charades. You or a student acts out a verb, and the class guesses what verb they’re trying to show.

Here’s another verb vocabulary game, where students move around the board and have to name the depicted verbs that they land on:

Activity #4: Put Verbs in Order to Practice Shades of Meaning

To teach students how to choose just the right verb for their writing, work on verb shades of meaning!

First, model how to put the verbs “jog,” “run,” and “sprint” in order from slowest to fastest.

Then, divide students up into small groups. Give each group their own set of cards to put in order.

Once students have ordered the verbs, they can present their work to the class and get feedback.

Finally, you can glue the groups of verbs to chart paper. This creates an anchor chart that students can refer back to during writing time!

Activity #5: Play “Parts of Speech 4 Corners“

Once your students have learned about verbs and other parts of speech, get them up and moving with a few rounds of 4 Corners! 

To play, label the corners of your classroom as:

Nouns

Verbs

Adjectives

“WILD CARD!”

Give each child a word card. The words on the cards should be a mix of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Several of them should say “WILD CARD.”

Students should read the word on their card and then go to the corresponding corner of the classroom.

You or a student leader should stand in the middle of the classroom, eyes closed. The leader calls out a corner (nouns, verbs, adjectives, or wild card) and all the students who were standing in that corner are out of the game and must sit down.

The remaining players trade cards and go to the corresponding corner. Again, the leader calls out “nouns,” “verbs,” “adjectives,” or “wild card,” and the game continues.

Keep playing until only one student is left – that student becomes the leader next!

All the materials to play this game are included in my First Grade Grammar Alive curriculum.

Need more ideas and materials for teaching grammar? 

I hope you got a few new ideas for teaching verbs!

For complete grammar lesson plans and many more grammar activities (including the ones featured in this blog post), check out my Grammar Alive programs for Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade:

Or maybe you already have a grammar curriculum – but you stil need independent practice activities for your students!

If so, check out my BoomCardsTM Grammar Games. They’re digital grammar activities that your students can use on any computer, chromebook, or tablet with internet.

My students love using BoomCards!! And the audio directions are great for providing support even when students are working independently.

Happy teaching!

Verb Lesson Plan & Easy Activities for Teaching Verbs

Verb lesson plans are the figurative backbone of a grammar teacher's class. Without a verb lesson plan, students will be lost on possibly one of the most important grammatical lessons of all. Verb tenses pervade just about everything we say and do. Below is a sample lesson plan for verbs, which can serve as a creative guidepost for your teaching needs.

verb lesson plan

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Vivacious Verb Lesson Plan

This lesson plan is designed for students from 2nd to 4th grade. It works to break down verbs for students through lectures and activities.

Verbs Lesson Plan Objectives

After the completion of this lesson, students will:

  • recognize different types of verbs
  • identify verbs in various sentences
  • use present and past tense verbs

Teaching Verbs Lecture

Prepare your class for the lecture by writing the following statement on the whiteboard:

"You use sentences with many verbs daily. Let's see if you can identify the verbs in the following sentence."

1. Provide a definition of what a verb is on the board. For example:

Verb Defined: A verb is a word that defines action - an action word. It will tell what the subject of a sentence is doing or what will happen.
  • Example A: "Terry ran upstairs." (ran tells what Terry did - Terry is the subject.)
  • Example B: "Katie eats her lunch." (eats tells what Katie is doing - Katie is the subject.)

2. Give students an example, such as:

"James throws the ball and laughs with his friends after he falls trying to catch it."

3. Have them identify the verb.

4. Write several more sentences on the board until students can clearly identify the verb.

Verbs Lesson Activities

Once your students have a solid understanding of verbs in sentences, you can use fun verb activities to help push learning.

Snap, Crackle, Pop Worksheet Activity

Create a "Snap, Crackle, Pop" verbs worksheet by writing popular verbs on the left side of the page. The number of verbs you include can be determined by the grade level of your class. Additionally, provide students with several books to look through for the verbs.

  1. Hand out "Snap, Crackle, Pop" verbs worksheets to the class. Tell them on the left side of the page there are various popular verbs used in books and magazines.
  2. Read the verbs together.
  3. Provide several books for students to look through.
  4. Group the students into pairs.
  5. Have students find the verbs in sentences, and copy the sentences on to the right side of their paper next to the verb.

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Past and Present Tense Verb Sentence Activity

To continue to reinforce verb recognition and identification, try having students prepare sentences of their own and identify the verb(s) in each.

Explain to your students that:

  • There are two types of verb tenses, past and present.
  • A past tense verb describes something that has already happened.
  • A present tense verb describes something that is currently happening

Provide the following examples:

  • Past Tense: I ran with Jaime. Lacy ran with Jeff. Jeff ran to me. We all ran away.
  • Present Tense: I am walking. Lacy is walking with Jeff. Jeff is walking with me. We all walk together.

Have students form their own past and present tense sentences. Have students share their sentences with the class and identify which verbs are past tense and which verbs are present tense.

Two Paragraph Infusion Activity

Have students write a two-paragraph story using common verbs, as well as past and present tense verbs. These paragraphs should infuse noun usage from previous grammar lessons with verb usage from the current lesson. Have students take turns reading one of their paragraphs to the class and identify the verbs within each paragraph.

Fun With Verbs Activity

Verbs can be fun to get your students moving. To keep your lesson fun, play a game with verbs.

  1. Start by calling out a verb that students can act out like "yawn."
  2. Then say a sentence using "yawn."
  3. Then select a student to call out another verb to act out like "jump."
  4. Have the student then create a sentence properly using the verb.
  5. Keep selecting students to act out verbs and create sentences, trying not to repeat any verbs.
  6. Challenge students to think of unique verbs.

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Writing Your Own Verb Lesson Plans

This verb lesson plan is a prime example of how a lesson plan should be structured and organized. While it may seem tedious, it is important to set up a lesson plan like this when there is a topic that may be challenging to students. The notion of verb tenses can get tricky for some students. This is why the lesson plan encourages teacher-student interaction. Keep your learning moving by trying this lesson plan on storytelling and fables.

Staff Writer

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  • elementary school
  • lesson plan

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Phrasal verbs on the topic "Education"

Today you will find another batch of phrasal verbs.

We have selected for you verbs that relate to a topic that is very relevant for many: “Education”. All these verbs are often found not only in the context of learning, but also in other situations.

Fall behind with somebody - to lag behind someone in terms of level, pace, timing ( not to make progress or move forward as fast as other people ):

He missed two weeks from school and as a result he fell behind with the group. He missed two weeks of classes and therefore fell behind the group.

You shouldn't fall behind with the next payment. You shouldn't delay your next payment.

Keep up with someone/ something - to be, stay on the same level with someone ( to remain the same standard or position as someone else ):

There is no use trying to keep up with your group mates. - It is useless to try to be no worse than classmates.

It can be difficult to keep up with the group if you don't do the home task. - It can be difficult to keep up with the group if you don't do your homework.

To catch up with someone/ something - to catch up in terms of level, results ( to reach the same standard or position as someone else ):

You have to catch up with your class or you'll fail the test. You will have to catch up with the class, otherwise you will fail the test.

We fall behind with the plan and now we are trying to catch up with it. We are trying to catch up with a plan that we have fallen behind.

Put something off - postpone something for later, transfer to a later date ( to postpone, to decide to do something at a later date ):

They put the consultation off so you can ask your questions next week. The consultation has been rescheduled so you can ask your questions next week.

The match will be put off because of the bad weather. – The match will be postponed due to bad weather.

To scrape through something - hard to pass an exam, test ( to pass an exam but with a very low grade ):

He didn't attend the lessons at all so we were surprised when he scraped through the exams. - He did not attend classes at all, so we were very surprised when he passed the exams with difficulty, but.

Mary is terrible at Math but she scrapped through the test. Mary is not good at math at all, but she barely passed the test.

To get through something - pass an exam or test ( to pass an exam or test ):

All our group got through the exams. All of our group passed the exams.

If you work hard during the semester, you’ll have no difficulty with getting through the exams. – If you work hard during the semester, then you will have no problem passing the exams.

Get down to - start, do something ( start work on something ):

It's time to get down to revision. “Now is the time to start revisiting.

When are you going to get down to your presentation? When are you going to do your presentation?

To go through something - check, view ( to check that something is correct, to examine something ):

Don't forget to go through your work before handing it in. Don't forget to check your work before submitting.

The teacher went through the plan and approved it. The teacher reviewed the plan and approved it.

To take (write) something down - write down, outline, mark ( to record in writing what someone is saying ):

The listeners were taking down everything what the lecturer was saying. The listeners wrote down everything the lecturer said.

You should write down the new English words. You should write down all new English words.

I wish you success!

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