24 Ways to Make Learning about Verbs Creative, EASY, and Fun September 28, 2021 By Bekki 2 Comments This content may contain affiliate links. INSIDE: Fun and Easy Action Verb Activities for teaching verb tenses I was browsing Pinterest this morning over a cup of coffee looking for a creative action verb activities. I know, not your typical read-over-coffee topic. But I’m tired of kids falling asleep or worse groaning when we begin talking about verbs and other parts of speech. “There has to be a verb game I can use to bring this area of learning to life!” I dreamed. If verbs are really where all the ACTION is expressed in writing, then why can’t we find ways to make them jump off the page with our kids. I took another big sip and started digging. It can often be challenging to teach the same concept to kids of different ages and abilities. My favorite teacher, Mrs. Smith taught me, “If you can incorporate scissors, glue and the potential to get ink on their skin, the kids become a captivated audience.” Lesson + Scissors = a win, win. Verb tenses can be overwhelming for kids. Make it FUN instead!! Inside: FREE Printable with 24 Ideas to help bring verbs to LIFE! I’m a firm believer in allowing language to wash over our kids in their read-aloud stories and I don’t make a big deal about things like past, present, and future tenses. Reading is the most effective way to teach kids proper grammar. Nothing impacts their grasp of the English language better than a well written and engaging story! Language, including the elusive present perfect verb tenses, become a natural part of a child’s vocabulary. But sometimes a good hands-on activity or craft is exactly the ticket needs to help kids understand that language in a deeper way- without burying them with worksheets. It takes a little effort, but even learning action verbs can be a fun activity. Free Resource: Begin your VERB Activity Fun with a set of 144 Action Verbs for your Student to explore. Action Verb Activities: 24 Ready to Go Verb Activities, Crafts, and Games. Just add scissors, glue, and some cute kids! Perfect for classrooms, craft time, or at home learning. 1. Pocket full of verbs Your students will create little mini foldables to doodle and explore their verb tenses- past, present and future. Then they will design their own pocket to add to their interactive folder as they learn and master the 3 basic verb tenses. 2. Action Verb Craft Using strips of construction paper, students will follow directions to write, cut, and paste together sentences as they explore the different tenses of verbs you hand pick 3. Create Your Own Verb Bank In this write, draw, cut, fold, and paste activity your students will not only explore the different tenses of verbs you select, but the will create a fun interactive reference page to store their favorite verbs. Related Teaching kids to “doodle and draw” their verbs is a powerful way to help them lock these concepts into their imaginations. Teach them to doodle and draw with 2-minute video lessons a day. 4. My Verb Mail Activity Write, color, cut and decorate verb post cards using action verbs of your choice! Make this an ongoing activity by using this as a handwriting warm-up activity each day. Ramp up the fun by adding a fun mail box to the room! Action verb activities? Verb Books to Read BEFORE handing Kids a pencil. 5. It’s Hard to Be a Verb Louis is a verb! Being a verb is hard! Especially for Louis, who can’t seem to control himself when he gets the urge to move at the wrong time and situation. 6. Kites Sail High by Ruth Heller 7. First Book of Verbs by Cara Danielson This adorable book teaches children to label verbs. Once a child has verbs in their vocabulary, they can start to combine verbs and nouns to form sentences. All of the sentences in this book follow the same basic structure: noun + is + verb-ing. This is a great starting point for a child’s first complete sentence. 8. Slide, Slurp, Scratch and Burp by Brian Cleary One book is never enough to explore the wide range of verbs! The crazy cats deliver loads of additional examples to illustrate the power of both action verbs and linking verbs. Brian P. Cleary’s playful verse and Brian Gable’s comical cats turn traditional grammar lessons on end. Each verb is printed in color for easy identification. Read this book aloud and share the delight of the sense and nonsense of words. 9. The Great Verb Game Players pick a card illustrating a verb in the infinitive and throw one or more of the three dice: a pronoun dice, a tense dice and a dice with the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms. Players then conjugate the verb according to what is shown on the dice. 10. Whoosh! Action Verb Game WHOOSH! your way to perfect verb skills with this all-inclusive action verb game! This unique verb game with 2,880 sentences targets singular and plural forms of 40 regular and 80 irregular verbs in six essential verb tenses: {Printable} 11. Verb Tenses NO PREP Packet 12. KindergartenWriting Unit Looking for writing centers and ideas for your writer’s workshop? This Kindergarten Writing Unit 1 is all about learning to tell stories by drawing. Children will work on telling stories through drawings, adding details and labeling their pictures with words. The activities can be differentiated for children at different levels. Lowest level writers can start with writing their name and drawing pictures. Mid-level writers can start writing words and labeling their pictures. Advanced writers can start writing sentences. This set includes NARRATIVE, INFORMATIVE and OPINION Writing. 13. Verb Charades! This print and go activity is sure to be a winner Related: Charades Word Lists for Kids 14. Verb Tic Tac Toe Create a Tic Tac Toe Board and fill in the squares with pronouns. Give the students a stack of Verb cards. To fill in their square, the student says the correct form of the verb! 15. Verb Ball Toss First player does an action then tosses the ball. The player who catches the ball declares, “She was ________-ing!” 16. 20 Questions Player choses a verb. Other players ask yes/no questions to try to guess the verb. 17. A Verb Workbook page taken up a notch. Tape the verb activity to the outside of a window facing inside. Have the student complete the worksheet using fine tipped dry erase markers right there on the window! 18. Mixed up verbs Place a bunch of verbs in a hat or bag. Students tell a story by pulling a verb and then continuing the tale. 19. Build it! This is a creative open-ended activity using verbs and pipe cleaners. Students select a verb and then build it with pipe cleaners! (works with play doe as well! Related: Pipe Cleaners Gone Crazy: A Complete Guide to Bending Funny Sticks A mega-dose of creativity for the common household pipe cleaner. Step-by-step instructions for making pipe cleaner animals, jewelry, food, people…you name it. Comes with enough pipe cleaners (in a variety of sizes and colors) to make every project in the book. 20. Verb Bingo! Give students newspaper and highlighters. Call out a verb and give the students 60 seconds to highlight it on the page. Call out another verb. First student to 5 (or any number you choose) wins! 21. Verb Web! Write a simple verb on the whiteboard, or paper. Students brainstorm other verbs that expand that verb! 22. Listen carefully! Pre-select verbs from a story and write a list, or create a bingo card. Then give students the list and read the story aloud. Their task is to highlight the words as they hear them in the story 23. Hop that Verb! Create a hopscotch and write pronouns inside each square. Select one verb. Students say the proper form of the verb as they hop through the square! YES! Bring it indoors. Educational and playful: this colorful rug will not contribute to a fun time but will also help kids learn letters and Numbers with Creative pictures 24. Kids in Action! Together, brainstorm a master list of things kids do when playing outdoors: running, yelling, etc.. Kids take list outdoors and play I-Spy kids in action. Cross off the verbs as they are observed! Simply weaving FUN hands-on activities, crafts, STORIES and laughter is a POWERFUL way to set your students up to almost magically absorb language. These 24 Verb activities are sure to delight them as they learn! So go ahead, take another sip of your coffee and choose a few to engage your kids as they learn about these active little words! PRINT THIS FREE Action Verb Activities List. This post comes with a free printable verb activity list to help keep your kids hopping as they learn those verb tenses! This printable simplifies our journey to being that fun teacher!! Here is a sneak preview… DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE PRINTABLE Download the checklist. You’ll get the printable, plus join 9,000+ moms who receive my weekly parenting tips and ideas! Print. Any paper will do the trick, but card stock would be ideal. Place it in an easy to find spot as a helpful reminder.
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