Free Parts of Speech Lesson Plan for Middle Schoolers - Aligned to Common Core

In this blog post, you'll find an end-to-end lesson plan, supplemental resources, and a check for student understanding (short quiz). This entire lesson plan was created with the Brisk Teaching Chrome Extension.

Common Core Lesson Plan - Parts of Speech 

Objectives:

- Students will be able to identify and define the eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.

- Students will be able to correctly use the different parts of speech in sentences.

- Whiteboard or blackboard

- Markers or chalk

- Handouts with sentences for practice

- Pencils or pens

Bell-Ringer Activity:

- Display a sentence on the board and ask students to identify the parts of speech in the sentence. For example: "The cat jumped over the fence." Students can work individually or in pairs to identify the parts of speech.

Direct Instruction: 

Introduction: 

1. Begin by asking students if they know what a part of speech is. Allow for a brief discussion.

2. Explain that a part of speech is a category of words that have similar grammatical properties and functions in a sentence.

3. Inform students that there are eight main parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.

4. Emphasize that understanding the different parts of speech is important for constructing sentences correctly and effectively.

Part 1: Noun

1. Write the word "noun" on the board.

2. Explain that a noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.

3. Provide examples of nouns such as "dog," "city," "book," and "love."

4. Ask students to come up with their own examples of nouns and write them on the board.

Part 2: Pronoun

1. Write the word "pronoun" on the board.

2. Explain that a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.

3. Provide examples of pronouns such as "he," "she," "it," and "they."

4. Ask students to come up with their own examples of pronouns and write them on the board.

Part 3: Verb

1. Write the word "verb" on the board.

2. Explain that a verb is a word that expresses an action or a state of being.

3. Provide examples of verbs such as "run," "eat," "is," and "play."

4. Ask students to come up with their own examples of verbs and write them on the board.

Part 4: Adjective

1. Write the word "adjective" on the board.

2. Explain that an adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun.

3. Provide examples of adjectives such as "happy," "big," "beautiful," and "tasty."

4. Ask students to come up with their own examples of adjectives and write them on the board.

Part 5: Adverb

1. Write the word "adverb" on the board.

2. Explain that an adverb is a word that describes or modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb.

3. Provide examples of adverbs such as "quickly," "very," "loudly," and "carefully."

4. Ask students to come up with their own examples of adverbs and write them on the board.

Part 6: Preposition

1. Write the word "preposition" on the board.

2. Explain that a preposition is a word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word in the sentence.

3. Provide examples of prepositions such as "in," "on," "under," and "between."

4. Ask students to come up with their own examples of prepositions and write them on the board.

Part 7: Conjunction

1. Write the word "conjunction" on the board.

2. Explain that a conjunction is a word that connects words, phrases, or clauses.

3. Provide examples of conjunctions such as "and," "but," "or," and "because."

4. Ask students to come up with their own examples of conjunctions and write them on the board.

Part 8: Interjection

1. Write the word "interjection" on the board.

2. Explain that an interjection is a word or phrase that expresses strong emotion or surprise.

3. Provide examples of interjections such as "wow," "ouch," "oh," and "yay."

4. Ask students to come up with their own examples of interjections and write them on the board.

Guided Practice:

- Distribute handouts with sentences for practice (included below). Instruct students to identify the parts of speech in each sentence and write them down. Walk around the classroom to provide assistance and answer any questions.

Independent Practice:

- Ask students to write one sentence containing all the different parts of speech, and have them label each one. Encourage them to be creative and use a variety of words. Collect the sentences for assessment purposes.

Exit Ticket:

- Give students a short quiz (included below) on the parts of speech. This will allow you to assess their understanding of the lesson.

- Review the different parts of speech with the class, emphasizing their definitions and examples. Ask students if they have any questions or if there is anything they would like to review.

- Remind students that understanding the parts of speech is important for improving their writing and communication skills.

- End the lesson by summarizing the main points and thanking the students for their participation.

Resources - Parts of Speech 

Guided Practice Examples:

1. The tall girl ran quickly to catch the bus.

2. My brother and I went to the park to play soccer.

3. The delicious pizza smelled amazing.

4. The cat lazily stretched out on the warm windowsill.

5. After school, we will meet at the library to study.

6. Wow! What a beautiful sunset!

7. The teacher patiently explained the math problem.

8. The dog barked loudly at the mailman.

9. I love to read books about adventure and mystery.

10. Please pass me the red pen. 

Exit Ticket Quiz

Question 1:

Which of the following is a noun?

b) Beautiful

Question 2:

Identify the pronoun in the following sentence: "She went to the store to buy groceries."

Question 3:

Choose the correct verb form to complete the sentence: "The dog _______ in the park."

Question 4:

Which of the following is an adjective?

Question 5:

Identify the adverb in the following sentence: "He spoke softly to avoid waking the baby."

Question 6:

Select the correct preposition to complete the sentence: "The book is _______ the shelf."

Question 7:

Which of the following is a conjunction?

Question 8:

Identify the interjection in the following sentence: "Wow, that was an amazing performance!"

Question 9:

Choose the correct part of speech for the word "quickly" in the sentence: "She ran quickly to catch the bus."

Question 10:

Which of the following is not a part of speech?

d) Sentence

Note: If you need to add new questions to this quiz, please provide the new questions and specify where they should be inserted.

Answer Key:

Question 1: c) Table

Question 2: d) She

Question 3: c) runs

Question 4: b) Quickly

Question 5: c) softly

Question 6: a) on

Question 7: b) And

Question 8: d) Wow

Question 9: d) Adverb

Question 10: d) Sentence

Add your FREE Chrome Extension!

Parts of Speech

In the following language arts lesson, students shall demonstrate the ability to write for a variety of academic and technical purposes and audiences by: writing a story based on direct experience or observation including: a) a description of setting using vivid details b) an image of at least one character, and edit the finished product for correct mechanics and spelling. Students will identify parts of speech in a piece of writing and use and identify the parts of speech in their own writing. The parts of speech included in the following lesson are: nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, pronouns, interjections, and conjunctions.

Parts of Speech Lesson Plan PDF

Grade Level: Fifth Grade Concept: Parts of Speech

Objectives: Students will identify the parts of speech in a piece of writing. Students will use and identify the parts of speech in their own writing.

Materials: Parts of Speech worksheet Overhead projector Transparencies Transparency markers (blue, red, green, yellow, purple, orange, brown, black)

Procedure: A. Introduction 1. Tell the students that it seems like we’ve been having some trouble remembering all of the different parts of speech. Because there are so many it is easy to get confused. Today we are going to do something that will help us to remember the parts of speech B. Learning Activities 1. Ask the students if they can name some of the parts of speech. After they’ve come up with a few answers, tell them that you have a song that is going to help them to remember what the parts of speech and the definitions are. 2. On the chalkboard or overhead, have a sentence written that incorporates the parts of speech. Ask a student to find a noun. Have them tell you what a noun is. 3. Continue to have the students work through the sentence finding the parts of speech, and giving the definitions. C. Conclusion 1. Pass out the worksheet with sentences written on them. The students will use color coding to mark the parts of speech.

Nouns = blue Prepositions = orange Verbs = red Pronouns = purple Adverbs = green Interjections = brown Adjectives = yellow Conjunctions = black

2. Pass out a copy of the song so students can use it to remind them about the parts of speech. 1. As students are finishing, have a couple of students put their sentences on the overhead. If there are any wrong answers, have the class sing the verse that will give them the right answer.

D. Evaluation 1. Collect worksheets and check for understanding.

Share this:

Lesson Plan: Label Sentences with Parts of Speech

Christopher Futcher / Getty Images

  • Resources for Teachers
  • Pronunciation & Conversation
  • Writing Skills
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Business English
  • TESOL Diploma, Trinity College London
  • M.A., Music Performance, Cologne University of Music
  • B.A., Vocal Performance, Eastman School of Music

Knowing parts of speech well can help learners improve their understanding of almost every aspect of English learning. For example, understanding which part of speech is expected in sentence structures can help learners better understand new words through contextual clues when reading. In pronunciation, understanding the parts of speech will help students with stress and intonation . At lower levels, understanding parts of speech can help a lot with understanding basic sentence structure. This base will serve students well as they improve their English skills, adding new vocabulary and, eventually, more complex structures. This lesson plan focuses on helping beginning level classes develop a strong grasp of four parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Once students become familiar with common structural patterns using these four key parts of speech, they feel more confident as they begin to explore the different tenses.

Lesson Characteristics

  • Aim: Recognizing nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
  • Activity: Group work creating lists, followed by sentence labeling
  • Level: Beginner
  • Ask students to name a number of objects in the classroom. Write these objects on the board in a column. Ask students what type of word (which part of speech) the words are. Generally, one student will know that they are nouns.
  • Label the words as "Nouns" on the board. 
  • Ask students what you are doing as you mimic a few actions such as writing, speaking, walking, etc. Write the base form of these verbs on the board. 
  • Ask students what type of words these are. Write "Verbs" above the column.
  • Show the students some pictures from magazines. Ask students to describe the pictures. Write these words on the board in another column. Ask students what type of words these are, write "Adjectives" above the column.
  • Write "Adverbs" on the board and write down a few adverbs of frequency (sometimes, usually), as well as some basic adverbs such as slowly, quickly, etc.
  • Go through each column and quickly explain what the words do: nouns are things, people, etc, verbs show actions, adjectives describe things and adverbs state how, when or where something is done.
  • Ask students to divide into groups of three and categorize the below. Alternately, ask students to create a new list of 5 nouns, 5 verbs, 5 adjectives, and 5 adverbs.
  • Go around the room helping groups with the categorization activity.
  • Write a few simple sentences on the board. Examples: John is a student. John is good. John is a good student. Mary works in an office. Mary usually drives to work. The students are funny. The boys play football well. We often watch TV.
  • As a class, call for students to label nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in the simple sentences. I like to use colored markers for this exercise to highlight each part of speech to help students with recognition. 
  • Point out that a simple sentence with a noun ( John is a good student) can combine with a simple sentence using an adjective (John is good) to combine into one sentence: John is a good student.
  • Spend time helping students understand where certain parts of speech are usually found. Example: Verbs are in the second position, nouns are in the first position or at the end of sentences, adverbs of frequency are placed before the verb, adjectives end simple sentences with 'to be'.
  • Ask students to write five of their own simple sentences. 
  • Have students highlight their own sentences with "noun", "verb", "adjective", and "adverb."

Desk Exercise

Categorize the following words as nouns verbs, adjectives, or adverbs.

  • How to Teach Pronouns to ESL Students
  • Absolute Beginner English: The 20 Point Program
  • 7 Free ESL Conversation Lesson Plans
  • Standard Lesson Plan Format for ESL Teachers
  • Top Lesson Plans for ESL and EFL
  • Teaching Writing to Beginning ESL Students
  • Learning Pronouns
  • Spotting Parts of Speech With a Reading Lesson
  • How to Teach Reported Speech
  • Lesson Plan - Differences Between Past and Present
  • First and Second Conditional Review ESL Lesson Plan
  • Asking Questions Lesson Plan for Lower Level Students
  • ESL Lesson Plan: Travel Plans
  • ESL Lesson Plan on Stereotypes
  • How to Teach Pronunciation
  • ESL Grammar Lesson Plan: How to Use "Like"

Literacy Ideas

Parts of Speech: The Ultimate Guide for Students and Teachers

' data-src=

This article is part of the ultimate guide to language for teachers and students. Click the buttons below to view these.

What are Parts of Speech ?

Just as a skilled bricklayer must get to grips with the trowel, brick hammer, tape measure, and spirit level, the student-writer must develop a thorough understanding of the tools of their trade too.

In English, words can be categorized according to their common syntactic function in a sentence, i.e. the job they perform.

We call these different categories Parts of Speech . Understanding the various parts of speech and how they work has several compelling benefits for our students.

Without first acquiring a firm grasp of the various parts of speech, students will struggle to fully comprehend how language works. This is essential not only for the development of their reading comprehension but their writing skills too.

Visual Writing

Parts of speech are the core building blocks of grammar . To understand how a language works at a sentence and a whole-text level, we must first master parts of speech.

In English, we can identify eight of these individual parts of speech, and these will provide the focus for our Complete Guide to Parts of Speech .

THE EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH (Click to jump to each section)

A complete unit on teaching figurative language.

Parts of Speech | figurative language Unit 1 | Parts of Speech: The Ultimate Guide for Students and Teachers | literacyideas.com

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE  is like  “SPECIAL EFFECTS FOR AUTHORS.”  It is a powerful tool to create  VIVID IMAGERY  through words. This  HUGE UNIT  guides you through completely understanding  FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE .

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (26 Reviews)

parts of speech, what is a noun?

Often the first word a child speaks will be a noun, for example, Mum , Dad , cow , dog , etc.

Nouns are naming words, and, as most school kids can recite, they are the names of people, places, and things . But, what isn’t as widely understood by many of our students is that nouns can be further classified into more specific categories. 

These categories are:

Common Nouns

Proper nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns, collective nouns, countable nouns, uncountable nouns.

All nouns can be classified as either common or proper .

Common nouns are the general names of people, places, and things. They are groups or classes on their own, rather than specific types of people, places, or things such as we find in proper nouns.

Common nouns can be further classified as abstract or concrete – more on this shortly!

Some examples of common nouns include:

People: teacher, author, engineer, artist, singer.

Places: country, city, town, house, garden.

Things: language, trophy, magazine, movie, book.

Proper nouns are the specific names for people, places, and things. Unlike common nouns, which are always lowercase, proper nouns are capitalized. This makes them easy to identify in a text.

Where possible, using proper nouns in place of common nouns helps bring precision to a student’s writing.

Some examples of proper nouns include:

People: Mrs Casey, J.K. Rowling, Nikola Tesla, Pablo Picasso, Billie Eilish.

Places: Australia, San Francisco, Llandovery, The White House, Gardens of Versailles.

Things: Bulgarian, The World Cup, Rolling Stone, The Lion King, The Hunger Games.

Nouns Teaching Activity: Common vs Proper Nouns

  • Provide students with books suitable for their current reading level.
  • Instruct students to go through a page or two and identify all the nouns.
  • Ask students to sort these nouns into two lists according to whether they are common nouns or proper nouns.

As mentioned, all common and proper nouns can be further classified as either concrete or abstract .

A concrete noun is any noun that can be experienced through one of the five senses. In other words, if you can see, smell, hear, taste, or touch it, then it’s a concrete noun.

Some examples of concrete nouns include:

Abstract nouns refer to those things that can’t be experienced or identified through the five senses.

They are not physical things we can perceive but intangible concepts and ideas, qualities and states.

Some examples of abstract nouns include:

Nouns Teaching Activity: Concrete Vs. Abstract Nouns

  • Provide students with a book suitable for their current reading level.
  • Instruct students to go through a page or two and identify all the nouns (the lists from Practice Activity #1 may be suitable).
  • This time, ask students to sort these nouns into two lists according to whether they are concrete or abstract nouns.

A collective noun is the name of a group of people or things. That is, a collective noun always refers to more than one of something.

Some examples of collective nouns include:

People: a board of directors, a team of football players, a cast of actors, a band of musicians, a class of students.

Places: a range of mountains, a suite of rooms, a union of states, a chain of islands.

Things: a bale of hay, a constellation of stars, a bag of sweets, a school of fish, a flock of seagulls.

Countable nouns are nouns that refer to things that can be counted. They come in two flavors: singular and plural .

In their singular form, countable nouns are often preceded by the article, e.g. a , an , or the .

In their plural form, countable nouns are often preceded by a number. They can also be used in conjunction with quantifiers such as a few and many .

Some examples of countable nouns include:

COUNTABLE NOUNS EXAMPLES

a drivertwo drivers
the housethe houses
an applea few apples
dogdogs

Also known as mass nouns, uncountable nouns are, as their name suggests, impossible to count. Abstract ideas such as bravery and compassion are uncountable, as are things like liquid and bread .

These types of nouns are always treated in the singular and usually do not have a plural form. 

They can stand alone or be used in conjunction with words and phrases such as any , some , a little , a lot of , and much .

Some examples of uncountable nouns include:

UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS EXAMPLES

Advice
Money
Baggage
Danger
Warmth
Milk

Nouns Teaching Activity: How many can you list ?

  • Organize students into small groups to work collaboratively.
  • Challenge students to list as many countable and uncountable nouns as they can in ten minutes.
  • To make things more challenging, stipulate that there must be an uncountable noun and a countable noun to gain a point.
  • The winning group is the one that scores the most points.

Parts of Speech | parts of speech square 1 | Parts of Speech: The Ultimate Guide for Students and Teachers | literacyideas.com

Without a verb, there is no sentence! Verbs are the words we use to represent both internal and external actions or states of being. Without a verb, nothing happens.

Parts of Speech - What is a verb?

There are many different types of verbs. Here, we will look at five important verb forms organised according to the jobs they perform:

Dynamic Verbs

Stative verbs, transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, auxiliary verbs.

Each verb can be classified as being either an action or a stative verb.

Dynamic or action verbs describe the physical activity performed by the subject of a sentence. This type of verb is usually the first we learn as children. 

For example, run , hit , throw , hide , eat , sleep , watch , write , etc. are all dynamic verbs, as is any action performed by the body.

Let’s see a few examples in sentences:

  • I jogged around the track three times.
  • She will dance as if her life depends on it.
  • She took a candy from the bag, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.

If a verb doesn’t describe a physical activity, then it is a stative verb.

Stative verbs refer to states of being, conditions, or mental processes. Generally, we can classify stative verbs into four types:

  • Emotions/Thoughts

Some examples of stative verbs include: 

Senses: hurt, see, smell, taste, hear, etc.

Emotions: love, doubt, desire, remember, believe, etc.

Being: be, have, require, involve, contain, etc.

Possession: want, include, own, have, belong, etc.

Here are some stative verbs at work in sentences:

  • That is one thing we can agree on.
  • I remember my first day at school like it was yesterday.
  • The university requires students to score at least 80%.
  • She has only three remaining.

Sometimes verbs can fit into more than one category, e.g., be , have , look , see , e.g.,

  • She looks beautiful. (Stative)
  • I look through the telescope. (Dynamic)

Each action or stative verb can also be further classified as transitive or intransitive .

A transitive verb takes a direct object after it. The object is the noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that has something done to it by the subject of the sentence.

We see this in the most straightforward English sentences, i.e., the Subject-Verb-Object or SVO sentence. 

Here are two examples to illustrate. Note: the subject of each sentence is underlined, and the transitive verbs are in bold.

  • The teacher answered the student’s questions.
  • She studies languages at university.
  • My friend loves cabbage.

Most sentences in English employ transitive verbs.

An intransitive verb does not take a direct object after it. It is important to note that only nouns, noun phrases, and pronouns can be classed as direct objects. 

Here are some examples of intransitive verbs – notice how none of these sentences has direct objects after their verbs.

  • Jane’s health improved .
  • The car ran smoothly.
  • The school opens at 9 o’clock.

Auxiliary verbs, also known as ‘helping’ verbs, work with other verbs to affect the meaning of a sentence. They do this by combining with a main verb to alter the sentence’s tense, mood, or voice.

Auxiliary verbs will frequently use not in the negative.

There are relatively few auxiliary verbs in English. Here is a list of the main ones:

  • be (am, are, is, was, were, being)
  • do (did, does, doing)
  • have (had, has, having)

Here are some examples of auxiliary verbs (in bold) in action alongside a main verb (underlined).

She is working as hard as she can.

  • You must not eat dinner until after five o’clock.
  • The parents may come to the graduation ceremony.

The Subject-Auxiliary Inversion Test

To test whether or not a verb is an auxiliary verb, you can use the Subject-Auxiliary Inversion Test .

  • Take the sentence, e.g:
  • Now, invert the subject and the suspected auxiliary verb to see if it creates a question.

Is she working as hard as she can?

  • Can it take ‘not’ in the negative form?

She is not working as hard as she can.

  • If the answer to both of these questions is yes, you have an auxiliary verb. If not, you have a full verb.

Verbs Teaching Activity: Identify the Verbs

  • Instruct students to go through an appropriate text length (e.g., paragraph, page, etc.) and compile a list of verbs.
  • In groups, students should then discuss and categorize each verb according to whether they think they are dynamic or stative, transitive or intransitive, and/or auxiliary verbs.

The job of an adjective is to modify a noun or a pronoun. It does this by describing, quantifying, or identifying the noun or pronoun. Adjectives help to make writing more interesting and specific. Usually, the adjective is placed before the word it modifies.

write a lesson plan on part of speech

As with other parts of speech, not all adjectives are the same. There are many different types of adjectives and, in this article, we will look at:

Descriptive Adjectives

  • Degrees of Adjectives

Quantitative Adjectives

Demonstrative adjectives, possessive adjectives, interrogative adjectives, proper adjectives.

Descriptive adjectives are what most students think of first when asked what an adjective is. Descriptive adjectives tell us something about the quality of the noun or pronoun in question. For this reason, they are sometimes referred to as qualitative adjectives .

Some examples of this type of adjective include:

  • hard-working

In sentences, they look like this:

  • The pumpkin was enormous .
  • It was an impressive feat of athleticism I ever saw.
  • Undoubtedly, this was an exquisite vase.
  • She faced some tough competition.

Degrees of Adjectives 

Descriptive adjectives have three degrees to express varying degrees of intensity and to compare one thing to another. These degrees are referred to as positive , comparative , and superlative .

The positive degree is the regular form of the descriptive adjective when no comparison is being made, e.g., strong .

The comparative degree is used to compare two people, places, or things, e.g., stronger .

There are several ways to form the comparative, methods include:

  • Adding more or less before the adjective
  • Adding -er to the end of one syllable adjectives
  • For two-syllable adjectives ending in y , change the y to an i and add -er to the end.

The superlative degree is typically used when comparing three or more things to denote the upper or lowermost limit of a quality, e.g., strongest .

There are several ways to form the superlative, including:

  • Adding most or least before the adjective
  • Adding -est to the end of one syllable adjectives
  • For two-syllable adjectives ending in y , change the y to an i and add -est to the end.

There are also some irregular adjectives of degree that follow no discernible pattern that must be learned off by students, e.g., good – better – best .

Let’s take a look at these degrees of adjectives in their different forms.

beautifulmore beautifulmost beautiful
deliciousless deliciousleast delicious
nearnearernearest
happyhappierhappiest
badworseworst

Let’s take a quick look at some sample sentences:

  • It was a beautiful example of kindness. 

Comparative

  • The red is nice, but the green is prettier .

Superlative

  • This mango is the most delicious fruit I have ever tastiest. 

Quantitive adjectives provide information about how many or how much of the noun or pronoun.

Some quantitive adjectives include:

  • She only ate half of her sandwich.
  • This is my first time here.
  • I would like three slices, please.
  • There isn’t a single good reason to go.
  • There aren’t many places like it.
  • It’s too much of a good thing.
  • I gave her a whole box of them.

A demonstrative adjective identifies or emphasizes a noun’s place in time or space. The most common demonstrative adjectives are this , that , these , and those .

Here are some examples of demonstrative adjectives in use:

  • This boat is mine.
  • That car belongs to her.
  • These shoes clash with my dress.
  • Those people are from Canada.

Possessive adjectives show ownership, and they are sometimes confused with possessive pronouns.

The most common possessive adjectives are my , your , his , her , our , and their .

Students need to be careful not to confuse these with possessive pronouns such as mine , yours , his (same in both contexts), hers , ours , and theirs .

Here are some examples of possessive adjectives in sentences:

  • My favorite food is sushi.
  • I would like to read your book when you have finished it.
  • I believe her car is the red one.
  • This is their way of doing things.
  • Our work here is done.

Interrogative adjectives ask questions, and, in common with many types of adjectives, they are always followed by a noun. Basically, these are the question words we use to start questions. Be careful however, interrogative adjectives modify nouns. If the word after the question word is a verb, then you have an interrogative adverb on hand.

Some examples of interrogative adjectives include what , which , and whose .

Let’s take a look at these in action:

  • What drink would you like?
  • Which car should we take?
  • Whose shoes are these?

Please note: Whose can also fit into the possessive adjective category too.

We can think of proper adjectives as the adjective form of proper nouns – remember those? They were the specific names of people, places, and things and need to be capitalized.

Let’s take the proper noun for the place America . If we wanted to make an adjective out of this proper noun to describe something, say, a car we would get ‘ American car’.

Let’s take a look at another few examples:

  • Joe enjoyed his cup of Ethiopian coffee.
  • My favorite plays are Shakespearean tragedies.
  • No doubt about it, Fender guitars are some of the best in the world.
  • The Mona Lisa is a fine example of Renaissance art.

Though it may come as a surprise to some, articles are also adjectives as, like all adjectives, they modify nouns. Articles help us determine a noun’s specification. 

For example, ‘a’ and ‘an’ are used in front of an unspecific noun, while ‘the’ is used when referring to a specific noun.

Let’s see some articles as adjectives in action!

  • You will find an apple inside the cupboard.
  • This is a car.
  • The recipe is a family secret.

Adjectives Teaching Activity: Types of Adjective Tally

  • Choose a suitable book and assign an appropriate number of pages or length of a chapter for students to work with.
  • Students work their way through each page, tallying up the number of each type of adjective they can identify using a table like the one below:
Descriptive
Comparative
Superlative
Quantitative
Demonstrative
Possessive
Interrogative
Proper
Articles
  • Note how degrees of adjective has been split into comparative and superlative. The positive forms will take care of in the descriptive category.
  • You may wish to adapt this table to exclude the easier categories to identify, such as articles and demonstrative, for example.

Parts of Speech - What is an adverb?

Traditionally, adverbs are defined as those words that modify verbs, but they do so much more than that. They can be used not only to describe how verbs are performed but also to modify adjectives, other adverbs, clauses, prepositions, or entire sentences.

With such a broad range of tasks at the feet of the humble adverb, it would be impossible to cover every possibility in this article alone. However, there are five main types of adverbs our students should familiarize themselves with. These are:

Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of time, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of place, adverbs of degree.

Adverbs of manner describe how or the way in which something happens or is done. This type of adverb is often the first type taught to students. Many of these end with -ly . Some common examples include happily , quickly , sadly , slowly , and fast .

Here are a few taster sentences employing adverbs of manner:

  • She cooks Chinese food well .
  • The children played happily together.
  • The students worked diligently on their projects.
  • Her mother taught her to cross the road carefully .
  • The date went badly .

Adverbs of time indicate when something happens. Common adverbs of time include before , now , then , after , already , immediately , and soon .

Here are some sentences employing adverbs of time:

  • I go to school early on Wednesdays.
  • She would like to finish her studies eventually .
  • Recently , Sarah moved to Bulgaria.
  • I have already finished my homework.
  • They have been missing training lately .

While adverbs of time deal with when something happens, adverbs of frequency are concerned with how often something happens. Common adverbs of frequency include always , frequently , sometimes , seldom , and never .

Here’s what they look like in sentences:

  • Harry usually goes to bed around ten.
  • Rachel rarely eats breakfast in the morning.
  • Often , I’ll go home straight after school.
  • I occasionally have ketchup on my pizza.
  • She seldom goes out with her friends.

Adverbs of place, as the name suggests, describe where something happens or where it is. They can refer to position, distance, or direction. Some common adverbs of place include above , below , beside , inside , and anywhere .

Check out some examples in the sentences below:

  • Underneath the bridge, there lived a troll.
  • There were pizzerias everywhere in the city.
  • We walked around the park in the pouring rain.
  • If the door is open, then go inside .
  • When I am older, I would like to live nearby .

Adverbs of degree express the degree to which or how much of something is done. They can also be used to describe levels of intensity. Some common adverbs of degree include barely , little , lots , completely , and entirely .

Here are some adverbs of degree at work in sentences:

  • I hardly noticed her when she walked into the room.
  • The little girl had almost finished her homework.
  • The job was completely finished.
  • I was so delighted to hear the good news.
  • Jack was totally delighted to see Diane after all these years.

Adverb Teaching Activity: The Adverb Generator

  • Give students a worksheet containing a table divided into five columns. Each column bears a heading of one of the different types of adverbs ( manner , time , frequency , place , degree ).
  • Challenge each group to generate as many different examples of each adverb type and record these in the table.
  • The winning group is the one with the most adverbs. As a bonus, or tiebreaker, task the students to make sentences with some of the adverbs.

Parts of speech - what is a pronoun?

Pronouns are used in place of a specific noun used earlier in a sentence. They are helpful when the writer wants to avoid repetitive use of a particular noun such as a name. For example, in the following sentences, the pronoun she is used to stand for the girl’s name Mary after it is used in the first sentence. 

Mary loved traveling. She had been to France, Thailand, and Taiwan already, but her favorite place in the world was Australia. She had never seen an animal quite as curious-looking as the duck-billed platypus.

We also see her used in place of Mary’s in the above passage. There are many different pronouns and, in this article, we’ll take a look at:

Subject Pronouns

Object pronouns, possessive pronouns, reflexive pronouns, intensive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, interrogative pronouns.

Subject pronouns are the type of pronoun most of us think of when we hear the term pronoun . They operate as the subject of a verb in a sentence. They are also known as personal pronouns.

The subject pronouns are:

Here are a few examples of subject pronouns doing what they do best:

  • Sarah and I went to the movies last Thursday night.
  • That is my pet dog. It is an Irish Wolfhound.
  • My friends are coming over tonight, they will be here at seven.
  • We won’t all fit into the same car.
  • You have done a fantastic job with your grammar homework!

Object pronouns operate as the object of a verb, or a preposition, in a sentence. They act in the same way as object nouns but are used when it is clear what the object is.

The object pronouns are:

Here are a few examples of object pronouns in sentences:

  • I told you , this is a great opportunity for you .
  • Give her some more time, please.
  • I told her I did not want to do it .
  • That is for us .
  • Catherine is the girl whom I mentioned in my letter.

Possessive pronouns indicate ownership of a noun. For example, in the sentence:

These books are mine .

The word mine stands for my books . It’s important to note that while possessive pronouns look similar to possessive adjectives, their function in a sentence is different.

The possessive pronouns are:

Let’s take a look at how these are used in sentences:

  • Yours is the yellow jacket.
  • I hope this ticket is mine .
  • The train that leaves at midnight is theirs .
  • Ours is the first house on the right.
  • She is the person whose opinion I value most.
  • I believe that is his .

Reflexive pronouns are used in instances where the object and the subject are the same. For example, in the sentence, she did it herself , the words she and herself refer to the same person.

The reflexive pronoun forms are:

Here are a few more examples of reflexive pronouns at work:

  • I told myself that numerous times.
  • He got himself a new computer with his wages.
  • We will go there ourselves .
  • You must do it yourself .
  • The only thing to fear is fear itself .

This type of pronoun can be used to indicate emphasis. For example, when we write, I spoke to the manager herself , the point is made that we talked to the person in charge and not someone lower down the hierarchy. 

Similar to the reflexive pronouns above, we can easily differentiate between reflexive and intensive pronouns by asking if the pronoun is essential to the sentence’s meaning. If it isn’t, then it is used solely for emphasis, and therefore, it’s an intensive rather than a reflexive pronoun.

Often confused with demonstrative adjectives, demonstrative pronouns can stand alone in a sentence.

When this , that , these , and those are used as demonstrative adjectives they come before the noun they modify. When these same words are used as demonstrative pronouns, they replace a noun rather than modify it.

Here are some examples of demonstrative pronouns in sentences:

  • This is delicious.
  • That is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
  • These are not mine.
  • Those belong to the driver.

Interrogative pronouns are used to form questions. They are the typical question words that come at the start of questions, with a question mark coming at the end. The interrogative pronouns are:

Putting them into sentences looks like this:

  • What is the name of your best friend?
  • Which of these is your favourite?
  • Who goes to the market with you?
  • Whom do you think will win?
  • Whose is that?

Pronoun Teaching Activity: Pronoun Review Table

  • Provide students with a review table like the one below to revise the various pronoun forms.
  • They can use this table to help them produce independent sentences.
  • Once students have had a chance to familiarize themselves thoroughly with each of the different types of pronouns, provide the students with the headings and ask them to complete a table from memory.  

Imemymyselfmyselfthiswhat
youyouyouryourselfyourselfthatwhich
hehimhishimselfhimselfthesewho
sheherherherselfherselfthosewhom
itititsitselfitselfwhose
weusourourselvesourselves
youyouyouryourselvesyourselves
theythemtheirthemselvesthemselves

Prepositions

Parts of speech - What is a preposition?

Prepositions provide extra information showing the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another part of a sentence. These are usually short words that come directly before nouns or pronouns, e.g., in , at , on , etc.

There are, of course, many different types of prepositions, each relating to particular types of information. In this article, we will look at:

Prepositions of Time

Prepositions of place, prepositions of movement, prepositions of manner, prepositions of measure.

  • Preposition of Agency
  • Preposition of Possession
  • Preposition of Source

Phrasal Prepositions

It’s worth noting that several prepositional words make an appearance in several different categories of prepositions.

Prepositions of time indicate when something happens. Common prepositions of time include after , at , before , during , in , on .

Let’s see some of these at work:

  • I have been here since Thursday.
  • My daughter was born on the first of September.
  • He went overseas during the war.
  • Before you go, can you pay the bill, please?
  • We will go out after work.

Sometimes students have difficulty knowing when to use in , on , or at . These little words are often confused. The table below provides helpful guidance to help students use the right preposition in the right context.





Centuries YearsSeasonsMonthsTime of day









DaysDatesSpecific holidays






Some time of day exceptionsFestivals



The prepositions of place, in , at , on , will be instantly recognisable as they also double as prepositions of time. Again, students can sometimes struggle a little to select the correct one for the situation they are describing. Some guidelines can be helpful.

  • If something is contained or confined inside, we use in .
  • If something is placed upon a surface, we use on .
  • If something is located at a specific point, we use at .

A few example sentences will assist in illustrating these:

  • He is in the house.
  • I saw it in a magazine.
  • In France, we saw many great works of art.
  • Put it on the table.
  • We sailed on the river.
  • Hang that picture on the wall, please.
  • We arrived at the airport just after 1 pm.
  • I saw her at university.
  • The boy stood at the window.

Usually used with verbs of motion, prepositions of movement indicate movement from one place to another. The most commonly used preposition of movement is to .

Some other prepositions of movement include:

Here’s how they look in some sample sentences:

  • The ball rolled across the table towards me.
  • We looked up into the sky.
  • The children ran past the shop on their way home.
  • Jackie ran down the road to greet her friend.
  • She walked confidently through the curtains and out onto the stage.

Preposition of manner shows us how something is done or how it happens. The most common of these are by , in , like , on , with .

Let’s take a look at how they work in sentences:

  • We went to school by bus.
  • During the holidays, they traveled across the Rockies on foot.
  • Janet went to the airport in a taxi.
  • She played soccer like a professional.
  • I greeted her with a smile.

Prepositions of measure are used to indicate quantities and specific units of measurement. The two most common of these are by and of .

Check out these sample sentences:

  • I’m afraid we only sell that fabric by the meter.
  • I will pay you by the hour.
  • She only ate half of the ice cream. I ate the other half.
  • A kilogram of apples is the same weight as a kilogram of feathers.

Prepositions of Agency

These prepositions indicate the causal relationship between a noun or pronoun and an action. They show the cause of something happening. The most commonly used prepositions of agency are by and with .

Here are some examples of their use in sentences:

  • The Harry Potter series was written by J.K. Rowling.
  • This bowl was made by a skilled craftsman.
  • His heart was filled with love.
  • The glass was filled with water.

Prepositions of Possession

Prepositions of possessions indicate who or what something belongs to. The most common of these are of , to , and with .

Let’s take a look:

  • He is the husband of my cousin.
  • He is a friend of the mayor.
  • This once belonged to my grandmother.
  • All these lands belong to the Ministry.
  • The man with the hat is waiting outside.
  • The boy with the big feet tripped and fell.

Prepositions of Source

Prepositions of source indicate where something comes from or its origins. The two most common prepositions of source are from and by . There is some crossover here with prepositions of agency.

Here are some examples:

  • He comes from New Zealand.
  • These oranges are from our own orchard.
  • I was warmed by the heat of the fire.
  • She was hugged by her husband.
  • The yoghurt is of Bulgarian origin.

Phrasal prepositions are also known as compound prepositions. These are phrases of two or more words that function in the same way as prepositions. That is, they join nouns or pronouns to the rest of the sentence.

Some common phrasal prepositions are:

  • According to
  • For a change
  • In addition to
  • In spite of
  • Rather than
  • With the exception of

Students should be careful of overusing phrasal prepositions as some of them can seem clichéd. Frequently, it’s best to say things in as few words as is necessary.

Preposition Teaching Activity: Pr eposition Sort

  • Print out a selection of the different types of prepositions on pieces of paper.
  • Organize students into smaller working groups and provide each group with a set of prepositions.
  • Using the headings above as categories, challenge students to sort the prepositions into the correct groups. Note that some prepositions will comfortably fit into more than one group.
  • The winning group is the one to sort all prepositions correctly first.
  • As an extension exercise, students can select a preposition from each category and write a sample sentence for it.

ConjunctionS

Parts of Speech - What is a conjunction?

Conjunctions are used to connect words, phrases, and clauses. There are three main types of conjunction that are used to join different parts of sentences. These are:

  • Coordinating
  • Subordinating
  • Correlative

Coordinating Conjunctions

These conjunctions are used to join sentence components that are equal such as two words, two phrases, or two clauses. In English, there are seven of these that can be memorized using the mnemonic FANBOYS:

Here are a few example sentences employing coordinating conjunctions:

  • As a writer, he needed only a pen and paper.
  • I would describe him as strong but lazy.
  • Either we go now or not at all.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions are used to introduce dependent clauses in sentences. Basically, dependent clauses are parts of sentences that cannot stand as complete sentences on their own. 

Some of the most common subordinate conjunctions are: 

Let’s take a look at some example sentences:

  • I will complete it by Tuesday if I have time.
  • Although she likes it, she won’t buy it.
  • Jack will give it to you after he finds it.

Correlative Conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions are like shoes; they come in pairs. They work together to make sentences work. Some come correlative conjunctions are:

  • either / or
  • neither / nor
  • Not only / but also

Let’s see how some of these work together:

  • If I were you, I would get either the green one or the yellow one.
  • John wants neither pity nor help.
  • I don’t know whether you prefer horror or romantic movies.

Conjunction Teaching Activity: Conjunction Challenge

  • Organize students into Talking Pairs .
  • Partner A gives Partner B an example of a conjunction.
  • Partner B must state which type of conjunction it is, e.g. coordinating, subordinating, or correlative.
  • Partner B must then compose a sentence that uses the conjunction correctly and tell it to Partner A.
  • Partners then swap roles.

InterjectionS

parts of speech - What is an interjection?

Interjections focus on feelings and are generally grammatically unrelated to the rest of the sentence or sentences around them. They convey thoughts and feelings and are common in our speech. They are often followed by exclamation marks in writing. Interjections include expressions such as:

  • Eww! That is so gross!
  • Oh , I don’t know. I’ve never used one before.
  • That’s very… err …generous of you, I suppose.
  • Wow! That is fantastic news!
  • Uh-Oh! I don’t have any more left.

Interjection Teaching Activity: Create a scenario

  • Once students clearly understand what interjections are, brainstorm as a class as many as possible.
  • Write a master list of interjections on the whiteboard.
  • Partner A suggests an interjection word or phrase to Partner B.
  • Partner B must create a fictional scenario where this interjection would be used appropriately.

With a good grasp of the fundamentals of parts of speech, your students will now be equipped to do a deeper dive into the wild waters of English grammar. 

To learn more about the twists and turns of English grammar, check out our comprehensive article on English grammar here.

DOWNLOAD THESE 9 FREE CLASSROOM PARTS OF SPEECH POSTERS

Parts of Speech | FREE DOWNLOAD | Parts of Speech: The Ultimate Guide for Students and Teachers | literacyideas.com

PARTS OF SPEECH TUTORIAL VIDEOS

Parts of Speech | 5 | Parts of Speech: The Ultimate Guide for Students and Teachers | literacyideas.com

MORE ARTICLES RELATED TO PARTS OF SPEECH

Parts of Speech Lesson Plan

In the BrainPOP ELL movie, Endangered Species (L3U1L1) , Ben and Moby visit the aquarium where they see endangered species and discuss how people can help save them. In this lesson plan, adaptable for grades K-8, students use the endangered animals vocabulary and content, and what they know about the different parts of speech, to play games, build sentences, and create their own game or presentation.

Lesson Plan Common Core State Standards Alignments

Students will:.

  • Find examples of parts of speech in BrainPOP movies, features, and games.
  • Classify words according to their parts of speech.
  • Create a word sort or matching game.
  • Creatively define and illustrate parts of speech in a poster or video.
  • Give content-based presentations using technical vocabulary.
  • BrainPOP ELL
  • Different colored sticky notes or index cards

Vocabulary:

Lesson procedure:.

  • Build Sentences. Working in small groups, students write five examples of each of the eight parts of speech on color-coded sticky notes or index cards, one example word per note or card. Groups then exchange them with another group. Now group members build sentences from the words they have received. Remind them to add words they may need, such as articles, and to conjugate the verbs as needed. Call on volunteers from each group to write their sentences on the board underlining and naming the different parts of speech. For correct word order, refer students to Brainpop ELL's lesson, We Planned the Trip (L2U5L4) .
  • First, Do Research.  For information about Parts of Speech, encourage students to do one or more of the following: Watch the last part of the  Grammar  section in  Endangered Animals (L3U1L1) . Watch the BrainPOP movie  Parts of Speech .
  • Movie Word Sort. Guide the class through making a Closed Word Sort with the new words from the movie Endangered Animals (L3U1L1) , as well as other words from the movie that you want to reinforce. The categories are the eight parts of speech. Students work with a partner to write down examples from the movie, sorting the words into the proper categories. Alternatively, or as an extension of this activity, have students create flash cards with any words they choose, and sort them into the eight parts of speech.
  • Make a poster or video. Have students make a poster or video defining and illustrating the eight parts of speech. Tell them to include the definitions and/or examples.

BrainPOP Movies Parts of Speech

GameUP Sortify

write a lesson plan on part of speech

  • BrainPOP Jr. (K-3)
  • BrainPOP Science
  • BrainPOP Español
  • BrainPOP Français
  • Set Up Accounts
  • Single Sign-on
  • Manage Subscription
  • Quick Tours
  • About BrainPOP

Twitter

  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Trademarks & Copyrights

write a lesson plan on part of speech

Explore More

Stay in our orbit.

Stay connected with industry news, resources for English teachers and job seekers, ELT events, and more.

write a lesson plan on part of speech

Explore Topics

  • Global Elt News
  • Job Resources
  • Industry Insights
  • Teaching English Online
  • Classroom Games / Activities
  • Teaching English Abroad
  • Professional Development

write a lesson plan on part of speech

Popular Articles

  • 5 Popular ESL Teaching Methods Every Teacher Should Know
  • 10 Fun Ways to Use Realia in Your ESL Classroom
  • How to Teach ESL Vocabulary: Top Methods for Introducing New Words
  • Advice From an Expert: TEFL Interview Questions & How to Answer Them
  • What Is TESOL? What Is TEFL? Which Certificate Is Better – TEFL or TESOL?

write a lesson plan on part of speech

How to Teach Parts of Speech: Lesson Tips & Activities for ESL Teachers

Coleen monroe.

  • March 22, 2021

write a lesson plan on part of speech

Bridge grad Coleen Monroe previously taught English in South Korea and Chile. She has since gone on to earn her Master’s in Linguistics from University College London and is currently teaching English in China. As a seasoned teacher, we asked Coleen to again share her expertise — this time on how to teach parts of speech. A version of this post  also appeared on her personal blog, Reverse Retrograde , about travel, TEFL, and more.  

If you’re new to teaching, you’ll want to get initial training and qualification with a TEFL certificate . You can explore our online TEFL courses to get started!

Okay, so you’ve realized that grammar is a thing and that your new job as a TEFL/TESOL teacher requires you to know something about how to teach it. Good start! But you won’t get far unless you’re able to guide students to label the parts of the sentences that you use in daily speech, and especially in writing. The parts of speech are a foundation for all the other skills you need as a teacher in the ESL classroom, so let’s get started with how to teach parts of speech.

Want more ideas for teaching grammar? Earn a Specialized TEFL/TESOL Certificate in Teaching English Grammar!

Why teach parts of speech?

In order to teach parts of speech to ESL learners, you first need to know why this grammar topic is essential. The tips below will help you to be able to show your students why it’s important to learn parts of speech in the ESL classroom.

  • Parts of speech are a part of universal human grammar. In other words, they exist in every human language as categories.
  • Parts of speech are essential to being able to use other grammar in a new language.
  • Students will need to be able to identify and manipulate parts of speech in order to conjugate verbs. This is particularly important for verb agreement, which is a common problem for ESL learners.
  • In some parts of the world, grammar is considered to be the most important part of ESL. Using the activities in this article will demonstrate to parents and other teachers that you’re putting in the effort to teach grammar in your classroom.
  • Whatever your learners’ goals, they’ll need to be able to understand the basics of English. Even kindergartners can learn parts of speech in a simple way and use them to help further their English understanding.

Stefano, English teacher from Jamaica, in China

Teacher Stefano, from Jamaica , uses games to teach ESL to his students.

What are the types of parts of speech?

Before learning how to teach parts of speech to ESL students, let’s have a refresher on what the parts of speech are.

I made it a goal to teach my students the parts of speech in every lesson. For the past few months, at some point in the lesson, I write “Parts of Speech” on the board. Underneath, I write the following:

  • Noun: a person, place, or thing
  • Verb: an action
  • Adjective: describes a noun
  • Adverb: describes a verb (-ly)

That’s basically all you need to know about the parts of speech as well. You don’t need to know about how they “work” in theory to effectively teach this topic. You can use these simplified definitions to teach parts of speech to most levels of students.

If necessary, you can add more complicated parts of speech:

  • Prepositions:  on, after, in, etc. (shows where something/someone is)
  • Pronouns: she, he, they, etc. (not a name)
  • Articles : a, an, the
  • Conjunctions: or, but, and, because, so, etc. (connect ideas)

These descriptions are designed for low- to intermediate-level learners and will help you to teach parts of speech in a fun and clear way. This is not an exhaustive guide, but it should help you to be able to write your objectives for a parts of speech lesson.

Get more tips on using objectives in ESL lesson plans.

How do you teach parts of speech?

Teaching parts of speech lessons to your ESL students doesn’t have to be boring. You can make it as interesting or as intricate as you need. The following activities for teaching parts of speech involve little to no prep. You can use them in your lessons frequently, as repetition builds familiarity!

1. Classroom treasure hunt

Elicit the parts of speech by giving examples for each.

Teacher: What’s a noun? (Pointing to a trash can): Oh, look! A noun! (Pointing to a chair): Oh, look! A noun! (Pointing to self): Oh, look! A noun!

Students will then be able to give more examples.

Use this as a basis for a new game. Students should be in small groups or pairs. Set a timer and have them write down as many of a certain part of speech as they can see in the classroom. Then, switch to a different part of speech and have them attempt to write more words. If you like, you can make it so that it’s harder each round or you can eliminate those who don’t write a certain number of words in a round.

  • If you’re teaching online, you can still have students hunt for parts of speech in their own homes.

Learn the most popular ESL teaching methods to use in your classroom.

online English teacher plays a game with student

Teacher Juicy Mae, from the Philippines , plays a game with her ESL student online.

2. Grammar by numbers

Use a coloring sheet with a “Paint by Numbers” scheme based on words and their part of speech. This is a good lesson plan for parts of speech for young learners. This works really well for getting students to work together and makes a nice project to show parents, too! Just be aware that some English words can play many roles in a sentence.

For example:

Dream A dream: noun form To dream: verb form Dream job: adjective form

This is a good opportunity to remind your students that English grammar is not a precise science and that the “rules” they learn in school may or may not actually hold up in real life. The ambiguity may cause their heads to temporarily explode, but I promise it’s better for them in the long run. (“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE ISN’T A RIGHT ANSWER???” Ahhhhhhhhhhh!”)

  • Older learners can do a version of this without coloring. Simply create a worksheet that involves matching the parts of speech with words. Online teachers can email their worksheets to students and have them complete the activity for homework.

Read these top tips for creating materials for the EFL classroom.

3. Sorting race

Before class, create a table in Word, PowerPoint, or something similar. It should be a grid that has different categories for parts of speech and words that exemplify these categories. Print out the table, cut it up, and put the papers into a box or bag.

Pass out the box(es) and set a timer or play some music. The objective of this activity is for students to sort the pieces of paper correctly into the different categories.

  • To make it more competitive, put the students into teams, for example, Team Noun or Team Verb. Give each team their own box and have them race to find all of the words that fit into their part of speech category.

Check out more team-based activities for the ESL classroom or online.

4. Swat words like flies

This activity requires a text in English. You can use a class textbook or article or you can prepare a text of your own to bring to class. Each person or team in the classroom needs to have a copy of the text.

There are two ways to play this game, but both involve hitting the text very hard with one’s hand. The idea is that the word they find on the page should be treated like a fly or a mosquito that they’re trying to kill. This makes it a “beat the buzzer” style game.

  • In the first version, the teacher should say a word that appears in the text. The students can search the text for the word and when they find it, slap the book or paper. Whoever finds it first should tell the teacher what part of speech that word is.
  • In the second version, the teacher says a part of speech. For example, the teacher might say “verb.” The students have to hit the book when they find a verb in the text and then say which word they found. This is a fast-paced activity that will help you to teach parts of speech in a fun way.
  • Online teachers can send the text to the students before class via email or messaging. Rather than swatting the paper, students could raise their hand or hold something up to their webcam when they’ve found the right word.

Get ideas for last-minute EFL lesson plans.

Kindergarten Students of English Teacher in Wanli, China, Erin Coyle

Kindergarten ESL students play a game in China.

5. Guided discovery with vocabulary

Whenever you encounter a new set of vocabulary words in your lesson, use it as an opportunity to reinforce and teach parts of speech. Keep blank pages around the room with the labels for each part of speech you want the students to know, and ask them which parts of speech they think the new words are.

Allow time for the students to be able to explore their new vocabulary together, in pairs or individually. You can set a timer if you want to keep them on task. Students should look at the new vocabulary and attempt to sort them into the parts of speech categories. Then, add the words to the correct lists.

  • You can use digital parts of speech lists in the virtual classroom. Keep them up to date via a classroom blog or other platform where you can upload documents or publish lists.

Learn more about teaching English with guided discovery for ESL.

Additional, last-minute activities for teaching parts of speech

Here are some other examples of how you can incorporate parts of speech into any lesson, even when they aren’t the focus or main topic:

  • When you play Bingo, have the students shout out the part of speech every time you say a new word.
  • Instead of saying, “Rock, paper, scissor!” say “Noun, verb, adjective!” in order to get more practice speaking the words out loud.
  • Whenever you play a new song, ask students what parts of speech appear in the title.
  • Instead of saying words that you’ve written on the board, use parts of speech. For example, say, “Noun!” Ask a student to come up to the board and touch the noun.

There you have it — how to teach parts of speech in a fun way! Keeping things lively with these activities will help your ESL students to enjoy the lesson while learning this necessary grammar topic.

Get more ideas for teaching grammar topics to ESL students in the Bridge TEFL/TESOL Grammar Advisor Certification course.

write a lesson plan on part of speech

Coleen Monroe is a Colorado native who has left a trail of new homes for herself around the world. She's set foot in 30 countries and lived on four continents in the last eleven years. Her nomad homes have been in Chilean Patagonia, France, Italy, Switzerland, South Korea, England, and Iceland. Her latest travel adventures took her to Yunnan, Beijing, Jiangxi, and Southern China, where she's currently teaching.

View Resource

  • Number of visits 689
  • Number of saves 3
  • Parts of Speech
  • Report this resource

Description

Creative Commons Attribution

Oregon English Language Arts and Literacy

Learning Domain: Language

Standard: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Degree of Alignment: Not Rated (0 users)

Oregon English Language Proficiency Standards

Learning Domain: Linguistic Structures: Standards 9 and 10

Standard: Make accurate use of standard English to communicate in grade-appropriate speech and writing.

Learning Domain: All domains: Interactive modalities

Standard: Participate in grade-appropriate oral and written exchanges of information, ideas, and analyses, responding to peer, audience, or reader comments and questions.

Evaluations

No evaluations yet.

  • ELP Level 1
  • ELP Level 2

Version History

Review Criteria

Sentence Quest: Using Parts of Speech to Write Descriptive Sentences

Sentence Quest: Using Parts of Speech to Write Descriptive Sentences

  • Resources & Preparation
  • Instructional Plan
  • Related Resources

This multi-session activity uses students' speaking vocabularies to help them learn about complete sentences. Students first participate in a whole-group activity to create lists of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. They then write selected words on color-coded index cards. They work with the word cards to learn the essential criteria for complete sentences. Using this criteria, they collaborate in groups to create, write, and share complete, descriptive sentences. Finally, they use additional descriptive words and phrases to create complex complete sentences, which are written on adding machine tape, illustrated, and shared with the class.

From Theory to Practice

This lesson takes advantage of young children's descriptive speaking vocabularies to create lists of nouns, verbs, and adjectives that they already know. They are then encouraged to transfer these words to their own writing, while learning about what comprises a complete sentence. Using young children's knowledge of the world for a vocabulary resource gives meaning and makes connections when learning language conventions. Constance Weaver points out the difference between spoken and written language as developmental, and "that children must to some degree 'relearn' surface form as they attempt to express their underlying propositions in written language" (15).

Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

  • 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
  • 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
  • 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
  • 6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.

Materials and Technology

  • General classroom supplies (markers, index cards, pencils, blank paper, adding machine tape, chart paper)
  • Kites Sail High: A Book About Verbs by Ruth Heller (Paper Star (Penguin/Putnam), 1999)
  • Merry-Go-Round: A Book About Nouns by Ruth Heller (Bt Books, 1998)

Preparation

  • Gather all needed materials.
  • Cut adding machine tape into lengths of approximately five feet each. Cut at least two lengths for each group of four students. Keep the roll on hand.
  • For Session Three , students will need to be divided into three heterogeneous groups, with reading ability balanced among the groups.
  • For Session Four , students will need to be divided into heterogeneous groups of four. Try to balance abilities across groups so that reading strengths and needs are distributed among the groups. If it is a mixed-age class, groups should be mixed-age.

Student Objectives

Students will

  • use prior knowledge to categorize words as parts of speech.
  • use reading skills to create sentences with word cards.
  • discover the required elements of a complete sentence through selecting and manipulating word order of everyday words.
  • share and learn new vocabulary through role playing and collaboration with peers.
  • use descriptive words and phrases to create complex sentences.
  • demonstrate reading comprehension through illustrations.

Session One

  • Have all students sit together near the front of the room. Before starting the lesson, read aloud to students from Kites Sail High. When finished, have students respond to the book. Ask if anyone can tell what the book was about, or what kinds of words the book was talking about.
  • Talk to students about how there are different kinds of words, and that you would like them to think up some words like those in the book. Ask the students to try to think of some things that they can do; give them the examples "walk" and "run" and other simple examples. With a red marker, write a list of verbs on the chart paper as they are given. If students volunteer words that are not verbs, ask them to try to "act out" the word. Then show them that all the words on this list are things that we can actually do.
  • When there is a variety of words on the chart, or the chart is filled, read the list to and with the students. Have students choose several words to "act out" to reinforce that these words are action words, and have them use the words in sentences to tell about things they can do.
  • Tell students you are going to save the chart for a later activity.

Session Two

  • Tape one blank piece of chart paper on the board. Make sure there is enough space that you can post another piece of paper on each side.
  • Have all students sit together near the front of the room. Tell students you are going to read them another book about words, and that you'd like them to see if they can tell you what kind of words they are when you are finished. Read aloud to students from Merry-Go-Round. When finished, have students compare the book to Kites Sail High. Talk to the students about nouns being a special kind of word that names something.
  • Ask students to name people and different kinds of animals. Using a black marker, list nouns that students give you on the chart paper. Through questioning, help students generate a noun list that includes a variety of people and animals. Keep in mind that place and event words are not as useful for this activity. If students volunteer a word that is not a noun, ask them to try to picture that thing in their mind's eye. When finished with the chart, read it to and with the students, and have students use a few words in sentences, if desired. Students should understand that every word on the list represents a person, an animal, or an object.
  • Leave the chart on the board, and tape a new piece on the left side of it.
  • Ask students some questions about their clothes, e.g., "What color shirt are you wearing?" or "What shape is your pocket?" or "Can you tell me what is special about your shoes?" The purpose of these questions is to get them thinking about ways to describe things. Start listing students' adjectives on the blank chart paper, using a blue marker. Have students use the nouns on the nouns chart to help them brainstorm descriptive words. Try to elicit a variety of different kinds of words, so that there is not an imbalance of color or shape or size words. Students may need some extra support for this part.
  • When the chart is filled, or you have a large variety of adjectives, read the list to and with the students.
  • Tape the verbs chart on the board to the right of the nouns chart.
  • Tell students you are going to use the words for a sentence game the next day, and leave them on the board if possible or repost them the next day.

An alternative strategy for gathering words for the charts is to have students cut them from the newspaper or magazines, or to do a "classroom walk" to find some already posted in the classroom.

Session Three

Note: Students will be selecting a limited number of words from the charts to use for sentence-building in Session Three. Each group of four students will need two words from each chart, so the number of words that students choose from each chart will depend on the total number of students in the class. For example, if there are twenty students in the class, there will be five groups, so students would choose ten words from each chart.

  • Gather students in a whole group where everyone can see the charts. Quickly review the charts from Sessions One and Two by having students read some of the words from each chart and telling how they are alike. This will depend on the overall reading ability of the class, and how much support they need.
  • After reviewing the charts, explain to students that they will work in groups to choose a certain number of favorite words from the charts. Tell them that they will circle those words, and then they will write them on cards.
  • Make sure that all students know how many words to circle. Tell them you would like them to use a pencil to circle the most interesting words on the list.
  • Arrange the students in three groups, and give each group one chart and one pencil. As students are working, move from group to group to check on their work. As each group finalizes their list with the correct number of circled words, give them index cards and a marker that matches the word colors for that chart. It is very important that the color-code remains consistent.
  • Have students carefully write one circled word on each index card. If they make a spelling mistake, give them another card. Make sure they are writing the words clearly and as largely as possible on the card. As students finish making the word cards, they should be encouraged to read the words over in their group. When all are finished, they are ready for the sentence-building activity.
  • Hang the charts back up on the wall, out of the way. Collect all the word cards from the students.
  • Rearrange the students into new groups of four. Each group will need some clear table space. Give each group of students two noun cards, two verb cards, and two adjective cards. Then have each group choose one card of each color and ask them to put the others aside.
  • Ask the students to use these cards to help them make sentences. Let them know that they will need to add some other words, like ‘the' or ‘a', and that they might need to change the form of the red words (verbs); for example, ‘run' might need to be changed to ‘ran' or ‘runs' depending on the sentence.
  • Give students a minute to work with the cards, and then have each group share their sentence. This should be done fairly quickly.
  • Have students trade at least one of their words for the one they put aside (the same color) and repeat the activity.
  • Collect all the words written in black (the nouns) from all the groups, then have them try to make another sentence.
  • Give students a few minutes to work with the cards they have. Circulate among them, observing their attempts and listening to their conversations.
  • Ask the groups to share their sentences. Hopefully, no groups will have sentences to share, but they might try. If they volunteer a ‘sentence' that includes a noun that's not there, remind them again that they can only add words like ‘the' or ‘a' or ‘an' and change the form of words they already have.
  • Ask each group of students what problems they are having, and let them share whatever they have to say. There should be some recognition that they don't have all the words they need to make a sentence.
  • Tell students you're going to try it again. Go around to each group and give them two noun cards back, while collecting the red word cards (the verbs). Have students try again to create a sentence with the words they have. Observe their attempts. Ask again whether they have had any problems, and let them share their thoughts.
  • Finally, give each group back their verb cards, and let them make one more sentence. Ask what was easier this time. Ask each group to respond.
  • Bring all the students to the front of the room again. Ask them to tell you what they've learned about sentences. Write their responses on chart paper headed with "Sentences have......" This chart will become a simple rubric for assessing sentence quality. Leave the chart up for Session Four .

Session Four

  • Have students reflect on their work from the day before; have them tell what they remember or what they learned. Review the criteria for sentences from the "Sentences have...." chart by having students read it with you.
  • Tell students they are going to work together in groups to try to have a sentence contest, and that they are going to write the longest sentence they can that makes sense. Then model a sentence for them.
when? who? what? how? where? why?
  • Have a student give you a noun and write it on the board, separate from and below the string of question words. Have another student give you a verb and write that next to the noun. Add "The" or "A" at the beginning to make a simple sentence, e.g., "The cat ate." or "A man jumped." Ask a student to give you a word that will describe what the person or animal in the sentence looks like. Add that word to the sentence, e.g., "The black cat ate." or "A tall man jumped." By asking students questions and eliciting one word or phrase at a time, have students help you build a long, descriptive sentence. For example, ask students where, when, why, how, to add to the sentence.
  • When you have a long, complete, descriptive sentence (not a run-on), have students read it with you. Show how each part of the sentence relates to one of the words above the sentence. Leave the sentence on the board as a model.
  • Have students get back into the same groups they used for Session Three . Give each group a sheet of paper and a pencil and eraser. Have them start with a noun and verb, and let them begin work on their long sentences. As students work, circulate among the groups, asking questions to help them expand their sentences. Examples of questions to ask are, "What time of day was it?" or "Where was this happening?"
  • Have students read completed sentences aloud to you as a group (chorally). An appropriate finished sentence would be one that is as descriptive as possible without being a run-on. A good suggestion to give to students is that, in this lesson, a sentence can only have one "and" in it.
  • When sentences are complete, students will transfer them to adding machine tape. Each group should use a different color marker, and all students should take turns writing. If a length of tape becomes full, just tape on another strip. If students make a spelling mistake, have them cut the word off and replace it with a new piece of adding machine tape.
  • Collect the sentence strips to use in Session Five .

Session Five

  • Have each group share their sentence with the rest of the class by holding it up and reading it aloud with the audience.
  • After all groups have shared their sentences, have each student illustrate the sentence written by their group. Remind them that their illustration should show everything that's in the sentence. Have students give some examples of how they might illustrate the ideas.
  • When all sentences and illustrations are finished, have groups share their long, long sentences again with the whole class, and tell about their illustrations. Hang the sentences and illustrations up on the wall to celebrate!
  • Have students cut words from newspapers or magazines, or find them in the classroom on charts and posters.
  • Put the student-written word cards in small plastic or paper bags. Add cards that say "The" and "and" and some blank cards to each bag. Let students use the cards to make, write, and illustrate new sentences as part of a center activity. Encourage them to make new word cards to add to the bags.
  • A fun way to reinforce syntax and parts of speech is by using the random sentence generator Web page or "mad-libs" Website.
  • Explore Lionel's Tall Tales Sentence Generator, from PBSKids Between the Lions site with students. As the site explains, "Even the goofiest sentences have a who, what, where, when, and why. Discover this as you make a zillion different silly sentences."

Student Assessment / Reflections

  • Teacher observation and anecdotal notes about individual student participation in whole group and small group work.
  • Quality of written sentences, in relation to conventional grammar and usage.
  • Relationship of individual illustrations to the sentence being illustrated.
  • Individual student responses for the "Sentences have.... " chart.
  • Use of learned information in individual student writing, as evidenced in subsequent writing tasks.

Add new comment

  • Print this resource

Explore Resources by Grade

  • Kindergarten K

SplashLearn Logo

  • Math for Kids
  • Parenting Resources
  • ELA for Kids
  • Teaching Resources

SplashLearn Blog

How to Teach Number Recognition to Kids in 8 Easy Steps

How to Teach One to One Correspondence To Kids: 4 Easy Steps

How to Teach Odd and Even Numbers in 4 Easy Steps

How to Teach Long Division to Kids in 6 Easy Steps

15 Famous Mathematicians in History That Kids Should Know

8 Types of Preschool Programs for Kids in 2024

6-year-old Developmental Milestones Checklist

How to Prepare a Schedule for Kindergarten With Examples

How to Prepare a Schedule for Preschoolers With Sample

12 Best Funny Short Stories for Kids to Read in 2024

300+ Halloween Words From A-Z for Kids [Free Downloadable]

17 Best Guided Reading Activities for Teachers

190+ Fall Words From A-Z for Kids [Free Downloadable List]

60 Famous Quotes About Reading, Books & Writing for All Ages

What is Reading Assessment? Types & Tools  [Full Guide]

11 Best Coloring Apps for Kids [Android & iOS]

12 Best Reading Bulletin Board Ideas for Your Classroom

15 Fun Summer Bulletin Board Ideas for 2024

13 Best Assessment Tools for Teachers in 2024

12 Best STEM Programs for Kids in 2024

SplashLearn Blog

How to Teach Parts of Speech: 15 Fun Ways for Kids

Parts of speech teaching resources

1. Parts of Speech Sorting Worksheets

2. identify and color parts of speech, 3. preposition matching, 4. parts of speech mad libs, 5. flashcard quiz, 6. interjection worksheet, 7. word search, 8. fill in the blanks, 9. sentence construction, 10. pronoun substitution.

Parts of speech refer to the different roles words play in sentences, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and others. In this guide on “ how to teach parts of speech ,” you’ll learn simple, engaging methods to help kids understand each type, making language learning fun and easy. Knowing these basics will help them write and speak more clearly.

Math & ELA | PreK To Grade 5

Kids see fun ., you see real learning outcomes ..

Watch your kids fall in love with math & reading through our scientifically designed curriculum.

Banner Image

What are the 8 Types of Parts of Speech?

NounA word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.
VerbA word that shows an action or state of being.
AdjectiveA word that describes a noun or pronoun.
AdverbA word that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb.
PronounA word that replaces a noun.
PrepositionA word that shows a relationship between other words.
ConjunctionA word that connects words, phrases, or clauses.
InterjectionA word or phrase that expresses emotion.

What is the Best Order to Teach the Parts of Speech?

When teaching the parts of speech, it’s helpful to follow a clear order that builds understanding step by step. Start with the basics, like nouns and verbs, then progress to more complex types. Here’s a simple guide on which ones to teach first.

  • Prepositions
  • Conjunctions
  • Interjections

How to Teach Parts of Speech: 15 Fun Ways

Parts of speech sorting worksheet

Using worksheets is one of the fun ways to teach parts of speech, such as sorting words into categories. Provide kids with parts of speech sorting worksheet. They’ll categorize each word into the correct part of speech. This activity helps reinforce their understanding of how different words function within sentences.

Thanksgiving theme worksheet

This themed worksheet activity offers a creative way to make teaching parts of speech enjoyable. The worksheet features fun designs, like a turkey and Santa, divided into sections representing different examples of parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Below the illustration, kids use a color scheme to identify and color each part of speech accurately. It’s a visually engaging and fun way to teach parts of speech that keep kids entertained while reinforcing their understanding of grammar concepts.

Here are fun themed identify and color parts of speech worksheet:

Preposition matching worksheet

In the preposition matching worksheet, kids will identify the correct prepositions by pairing them with pictures or sentences. They will practice using “in,” “on,” “under,” and other prepositions, reinforcing how these words show the relationship between objects. This fun activity will help them understand prepositions through real-life examples while building their grammar skills.

Parts of Speech Mad Libs

Mad Libs is a playful and imaginative way to reinforce understanding of the parts of speech. Provide kids with fill-in-the-blank stories and ask them to supply words like nouns, verbs, or adjectives in specific places. The result is a fun, silly story that often makes everyone laugh! This activity helps children practice vocabulary in a creative context, letting them see how different parts of speech fit together in sentences.

A flashcard quiz is a handy activity for teaching parts of speech to ESL students and native English speakers alike. Use flashcards with sentences or single words and ask students to identify the parts of speech for kids to understand. You can have them raise a card, give a thumbs up, or call out the right answer. This quick game helps kids reinforce their knowledge while keeping the activity light and engaging.

Interjection worksheet

This worksheet introduces kids to interjections in three engaging tasks. First, they’ll identify and color the interjections provided in the worksheet. Next, they’ll write down three interjections that express specific emotions like surprise or excitement. Lastly, they’ll practice using these interjections in complete sentences to understand how they bring emotion and emphasis to writing. This activity helps children recognize and apply interjections in a creative and structured way.

The word search activity will challenge kids to find various parts of speech, like nouns, verbs, and adjectives, hidden within a word grid. They’ll scan the puzzle to identify and circle the words, reinforcing their understanding of different parts of speech. It’s a playful way for them to practice grammar while sharpening their vocabulary and word recognition skills.

Fill in the blanks worksheet

This activity involves giving kids sentences or stories with missing words and asking them to fill in the blanks using appropriate parts of speech. You can focus on different types, such as nouns, verbs, or adjectives. For instance, “The ____ ran quickly,” could be filled with “dog” or “cat.” It helps kids practice choosing the right words and reinforces their understanding of grammar.

Here are some fill-in-the-blank worksheets:

Card Image

With sentence construction , give students word cards featuring different parts of speech like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and more. Challenge them to arrange these cards into meaningful sentences that include multiple parts of speech. This activity helps children learn sentence structure, practice vocabulary, and see how each part of speech functions within a complete sentence.

Pronoun substitution worksheet

In the pronoun substitution activity, kids replace nouns in a story with suitable pronouns like “he,” “she,” “they,” or “it.” Provide a short story where specific nouns are underlined and let the children rewrite it using appropriate pronouns. This practice helps them see how pronouns can simplify sentences and make writing more fluid.

Here are some fun sentence worksheets to get started:

Card Image

11. Conjunction Connect

Conjunction Connect is a simple activity where kids practice combining short sentences using conjunctions like “and,” “but,” or “because.” Provide pairs of short sentences that need to be joined, and ask kids to pick the right conjunction to form a single sentence. It’s a great way to teach children how conjunctions help link ideas and improve their writing skills .

12. Grammar Posters

Grammar poster

Creating grammar posters is a fantastic way to reinforce the concept of parts of speech for kids. Let them make colorful posters with definitions and examples of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and more. Each poster can focus on one part of speech and include drawings, diagrams, or sentences. It’s a wonderful visual aid for kids, giving them something to reference during their writing or reading practice.

13. Verb Charades

Verb Charades is an interactive and fun way to teach parts of speech, focusing on verbs. Kids act out different verbs while their classmates guess the action. This activity not only makes learning parts of speech active and fun but also helps children understand verbs as action words. It’s a great way to physically engage students in learning and reinforce their understanding through movement and interaction.

14. Parts of Speech Bingo

Parts of speech bingo

Turn identifying parts of speech into a game with Parts of Speech Bingo. Create bingo cards with different words representing each part of speech. As you call out a word, students will mark their cards under the correct category, like “noun” or “verb.” This game adds a playful twist to grammar lessons while reinforcing the kids’ ability to categorize different words accurately.

15. Interjection Role-Play

Interjection Role-Play helps children grasp how interjections add emotion to sentences. Create scenarios where kids take turns acting out situations, using interjections like “Wow!” for excitement or “Oh no!” for surprise. You can offer prompts like receiving a gift or finding a missing toy to encourage genuine expressions. This fun activity allows kids to practice using interjections naturally in conversations, boosting their confidence and creativity with language.

Understanding how to teach parts of speech is essential for helping kids communicate clearly and confidently. By following a structured approach, kids will develop strong language skills that support them in reading, writing, and everyday conversations.

Related Reading: Easy Steps to Improve Writing Skills for Kids

write a lesson plan on part of speech

  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Kindergarten

Most Popular

Report Card Comments Samples

76 Best Report Card Comments Samples for Teachers

Riddles for Kids

117 Best Riddles for Kids (With Answers)

Best good vibes quotes

40 Best Good Vibes Quotes to Brighten Your Day

Recent posts.

Letter H Activity

17 Fun Letter H Activities & Crafts for Kids

Child practicing lines

12 Best Pre-Writing Activities for Preschoolers in 2024

Letter G Activity

16 Fun Letter G Activities & Crafts for Kids

Math & ela | prek to grade 5, kids see fun., you see real learning outcomes..

Watch your kids fall in love with math & reading through our scientifically designed curriculum.

Parents, try for free Teachers, use for free

  • Games for Kids
  • Worksheets for Kids
  • Math Worksheets
  • ELA Worksheets
  • Math Vocabulary
  • Number Games
  • Addition Games
  • Subtraction Games
  • Multiplication Games
  • Division Games
  • Addition Worksheets
  • Subtraction Worksheets
  • Multiplication Worksheets
  • Division Worksheets
  • Times Tables Worksheets
  • Reading Games
  • Writing Games
  • Phonics Games
  • Sight Words Games
  • Letter Tracing Games
  • Reading Worksheets
  • Writing Worksheets
  • Phonics Worksheets
  • Sight Words Worksheets
  • Letter Tracing Worksheets
  • Prime Number
  • Order of Operations
  • Long multiplication
  • Place value
  • Parallelogram
  • SplashLearn Success Stories
  • SplashLearn Apps

© Copyright - SplashLearn

Banner Image

Back-to-School Learning Boost!

Turn play into progress., jumpstart learning now.

Explore 4,000+ games and 450+ lesson plans designed to make this school year the best one yet!

Parents, Try for Free Teachers, Use for Free

Language Arts Classroom

Innovative Strategies to Teach the Eight Parts of Speech

Are you looking to teach the eight parts of speech in hands on and fun ways? Add these eight parts of speech activities to your eight parts of speech lessons.

Are you looking for creative ways to teach the eight parts of speech? Below, I’ve outlined my parts of speech lessons for older students. . . often my first set of grammar activities. 

So, you’re going to teach the eight parts of speech. . . often during those first weeks of school. Hmmmmmm. I have a method, a method that I created after years of experience. I’ve detailed it below.

First, consider methods with how to teach parts of speech. You can use a worksheet every day for every lesson, but students rarely retain information if they only see the information presented one way. Instead, consider how you teach other concepts in your classes. You probably utilize an assortment of activities like station work, task cards, coloring sheets , and graphic organizers.

Second, I included tons of parts of speech activities —I would never use all of these with one class. Over the years, I have taught many ages with a variety levels of grammatical understanding.

Only use what works for you and your students in your lesson plan!

What are the eight parts of speech?

The eight parts of speech are noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. These are the basic building blocks of the English language and understanding them is essential for effective communication and writing.

Are you looking to teach the eight parts of speech in hands on and fun ways? Add these eight parts of speech activities to your eight parts of speech lessons.

A few notes about these notes for teaching the eight parts of speech:

  • First! I don’t pretend that my older students have never heard these terms before. We review for the manipulation and analysis for which older students should strive.
  • As a general guide to my parts of speech grammar lessons below, I’ve provided headers in bold. Read the specifics underneath because I work to overlap the material while differentiating for all the levels in my classes.
  • Also? I don’t think there is one “right” way for grammar lessons. This format works for me. Take what works for your students. . . I tried to be accurate and thorough.
  • You can purchase the grammar lessons for teaching the parts of speech I mention below. You don’t have to purchase those exact parts of speech lessons, though!

Now, we are ready! Here are my parts of speech lessons.

Creative ways to teach parts of speech include multiple activities

Week One: Pretest/ Nouns

Considering middle school grammar, I know that my students’ experiences and knowledge greatly varies. Therefore, I start with a pretest . Then I take information from the language pretest and divide it into areas for improvement. When possible, divide practice among students (task cards help with individual practice).

Finally, I provide that information to students and tell them that we’ll work to improve those areas. Grammar lessons can be interesting, and I establish early with students that language is diverse and requires multiple practice opportunities.

After the pretest, I begin with direct instruction with nouns. (Note: as I continue these parts of speech lessons, I’m writing about what normally happens. If students understand nouns, for example, we don’t complete lessons over them.)

Students may take notes however they wish—many choose note cards, but some choose flipping books or infographics . Since my older students feel that different parts of speech are “babyish,” I try to give them freedom in certain areas, like with note taking. Then I might organize how I teach the eight parts of speech like this:

  • I have presentations that outline all of the material concerning each part of speech lesson. All of our assignments branch from that information, and students know to consult that information. We will work through identifying nouns that first week in an assortment of ways: worksheets, task cards, coloring sheets, centers, and grammar manipulations.
  • When students arrive on a Monday, I give the direct instruction over the concept. Students practice, often together or with me.
  • The following days of the week, we reinforce that skill. It might be direct grammar materials, but it might also be through vocabulary or mentor sentences. When students complete an assignment (for instance in week one, nouns), they move onto the area I’ve told them to study from their pretest.
  • Finally, I focus on differentiation. For example students work on personal pronouns, conjunctions, verbs, or modifiers as extension work. Sometimes they have a specific exercise, like reviewing an online website or a Powerpoint.
  • Another option for differentiation (that I base on that pretest) is for me to sit with different groups. Students who need to practice prepositions, for example, benefit from a quick review with me. Since they struggled in that area on the pretest, I don’t worry about their being bored during the direct instruction in subsequent weeks.

At this point in their schooling, these students have experienced numerous parts of speech lessons. They still need review for advanced discussions.

NOTE! I repeat this format for direct instruction and practice in the following weeks. If students begin to excel with their extra practice (from the pretest), I will switch how I teach the eight parts of speech for subsequent lessons.

Parts of speech activities should include multiple approaches.

Week Two: Pronouns , not relative pronouns

Pronouns: so many of them! Part of any English grammar less must include a discussion over pronouns and their changing role in language. When I teach the eight parts of speech, I include a discussion that language evolves.

My students make anchor charts of pronouns. To begin, we practice all pronouns except relative pronouns: indefinite, personal, compound personal, interrogative, and demonstrative. (Whew.) We discover examples of pronouns and consult our charts.

I acknowledge this is tons of material, and that is why we cover it so early. I remind students that for subject-verb agreement (especially with indefinite pronouns), they will need to know them.

When learning large chunks like pronouns, I’ve found it helpful to both continuously find those pronouns in other areas of class, and to also explain to students why they will use that information later.

Creative ways to teach the eight parts of speech can include task cards, station work, and worksheets.

Week Three: Verbs

Students must be able to locate a verb in different circumstances of writing. I once taught verbs after adjectives, but to reinforce both nouns and pronouns, I switched. (As you continue building your methods to teach the eight parts of speech, you’ll discover what works best for you.)

With verbs, I tell students they must memorize linking verbs. I help them: you can read how I “act out” verbs . This really sticks, and students run through that process when deciding if a verb is a linking or action one. Plus, connect grammar to writing here. Powerful verbs can improve writing.

Plus, every sentence you read will have a verb! Finding examples of verbs is easy.

How to teach parts of speech with word walls and fun activities

Week Four: Adjectives and Adverbs

For modifiers, we have two direct instruction days. We cover adjectives and practice with nouns and pronouns. Normally on Wednesday, we have direct instruction over adverbs. This creates a loop of practice of everything we have studies so far. As I continue to teach the eight parts of speech, I gather when students need a pause and when they need review.

I continue to consult with students about their pretest practice. I start switching students, assigning new Powerpoints and practice sheets based on what they feel they need. As we continue, students are often all reviewing different concepts at different times. Grammar has many moving pieces, and parts of speech lessons probably won’t be linear.

Creative ways to teach parts of speech include hands on pieces.

Week Five: Prepositions , with more adjectives and adverbs review

Most students find prepositions easy once they familiarize themselves with the list. They even find prepositions fun; they are amazed at how many we use in our writing and speaking. (My free grammar lessons contain a specific activity for prepositions.) Finally, teaching prepositions allows me to build on prior knowledge and connect grammar to writing. Overall, students do well with prepositions.

The biggest part of studying prepositions is to find the objects, which then loops back to nouns and pronouns. Older students must identify prepositional phrases for proper punctuation. Whenever I think ahead (connections to writing or punctuation) during parts of speech lessons, I’m sure to explain that to students.

Parts os speech activities

Week Six: Conjunctions , not subordinating conjunctions

Much like pronouns, I don’t teach all conjunctions the first week; I cover all except for subordinating conjunctions. Most students understand FANBOYS and will recognize the pieces of correlative conjunctions. (I give them the visual that they are puzzle pieces, and they must find the missing piece of the puzzle.)

After student see the sentence format for conjunctive adverbs, they are comfortable with them. When students have trouble with conjunctions, I have them keep the lists on their desks as we practice.

Of course, conjunctions join the previously studied parts of speech, and I will add on quick practice. Ask students to identify what is joined or to label all the nouns (for example) in their sentences.

Week Seven: Subordinating conjunctions, subjects

This week, I already start review, but I add in subordinating conjunctions. Students write those and keep that list on their desks. In our final assessments, I do not quiz over those just yet. Students struggle with those, so I give them extra time for mastery. If I am teaching sixth grade, I might not review subordinating conjunctions. Seventh graders, however, need to understand subordinating conjunctions for sentence structure.

I will often walk students through finding the subordinating conjunctions, and then we will find the conjunction’s subject (a noun or a pronoun) and verb. We will discuss if the noun, pronoun, and verb have any modifiers.

If at any time, students become overwhelmed, we make parts of speech posters together.

Fun ways to teach parts of speech can include word walls and coloring sheets.

Week Eight: “Big Picture”

I mention interjections, which normally takes five minutes. An interjection is an individual word that interjects, that exclaims.

If you want to have a bit of fun as you teach the eight parts of speech, ask students to punctuate and write some interjections. Students feel successful, and that’s a nice ending to the direct instruction for different words.

We start to put all of the parts of speech lessons together, more so than we have in previous weeks. I run through sentences with students and demonstrate how they can now label each word in a sentence.

I will also have students write sentences for me, and I will deconstruct them. That is actually a practice I continue all year; students try to “stump” me with difficult sentences to label. (You can use my free grammar lessons to start discussions.) Often, this week includes honest discussions about the purpose of eight parts of speech activities: We are building a foundation, we are gaining perspective, and we are connecting language to other parts of our lives.

Week Nine: Reviews and Assessments

We have final assessments, some of which might float into the tenth week dependent upon holidays. My favorite is to bring in food and analyze the ways language is used in real life . (Plus the kids get to eat.) Analyzing food goes beyond an eight parts of speech lesson, but if students are ready for application and analysis, diving into marketing is an authentic assessment.

Next, we move onto parts of a sentence, but as I like to tell students, they already have the foundation for that. Middle or high school students are looking at the language in a new way with different purposes. They have the foundation: the eight parts of speech.

And, that is a very quick overview of how I teach the eight parts of speech! Don’t forget to download my free grammar lessons to use the entire school year.

Word walls can help teach parts of speech creatively.

Tips to teach the eight parts of speech:

  • Build the grammar lessons. Week one, we study nouns, but we never stop studying them. We identify nouns in relation to adjectives, in the stories we read, and in the vocabulary we study. Continually use domain-specific language.
  • A message I always send students is that grammar is like building blocks. We’re laying the foundation. I trust that they know nouns, and we continue to study them. You can watch this free video that details how I talk to students about the “big picture” of grammar.
  • I don’t ignore subjects and verbs. Older students know those terms. When we identify verbs, I ask students to find the subject – which is probably reviewing nouns and pronouns.
  • I do expect all students to have a grasp of the eight parts of speech, and I encourage students to teach each other. Older students can show each other tricks and develop anchor charts for the class. Since they are older, I give them as much ownership as possible.
  • Again, I never stop talking about the parts of speech. I make it a point to mention if an author uses an abundance of prepositional phrases, or repeats a noun, or is vague with pronoun use. Students should realize that grammar filters into all parts of an ELA class!

This grammar bundle contains every activity I use to teach the eight parts of speech.

Subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates about new blog posts, freebies, and teaching resources!

Marketing Permissions We will send you emails, but we will never sell your address.

You can change your mind at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of any email you receive from us, or by contacting us at [email protected] . We will treat your information with respect. For more information about our privacy practices please visit our website. By clicking below, you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp’s privacy practices here.

How to teach parts of speech: an eight parts of speech mini unit could help

Do you still have questions about grammar for high school, general grammar lessons, and parts of speech lessons? Join us at Grammar Gurus . It’s a private Facebook page full of helpful teachers who are devoted to teaching grammar in meaningful ways.

middle school grammar parts of speech

ESL Activities

ESL Games, Activities, Lesson Plans, Jobs & More

in Listening · Reading · Speaking · Writing

ESL Parts of Speech Activities, Worksheets & Lesson Plans

In English, there are 8 parts of speech: adjectives, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. In this article, you’ll find parts of speech activities and games, along with worksheets and lesson plans.

Why is it important for ESL students to understand part of speech? It’s so that students can work towards more complex language and sentence structure. As teachers, it’s very important to provide opportunities to practice these things through memorable activities, games, and worksheets. The goal is that students will understand the meaning of words, word function and also how to use these grammatically within a sentence.

ESL parts of speech

ESL Parts of Speech 

We’ve broken down some of the parts of speech into small subsections. For example, nouns or verbs are a big category and things like modal verbs or phrasal verbs are quite different things. You’ll find these interesting and engaging ESL activity ideas useful for beginner to advanced students. You may also find this one useful: List of Categories .

Adjectives describe nouns and are key for rich, varied English usage. They are also one of the most common parts of speech that even beginners will need to know. Check out some of the top game, activity, worksheet and lesson plan ideas:

ESL Adjective Activities

Also be sure to check out this simple comparative adjective quiz for students:

Please enable JavaScript

Adjectives of Feeling and Emotion

Adjectives are an important part of speech for ESL and can be used to describe a lot of things, but these ones focus on feelings. Check out these parts of speech games and activities:

Feeling and Emotion Adjective Activities

In English, adverbs serve an important function int hat they describe or modify a verb, as well as certain other parts of speech. Check out some of the best activities for this:

Adverb Activities and Games .

Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs are an important part of speech in English and one of the most common uses of them is with frequency. Basically, expressions with, “How often” fall into this category.

Adverbs of Frequency ESL Activities

  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Bolen, Jackie (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 87 Pages - 10/24/2019 (Publication Date)

Although not specifically a part of speech, articles are key because they combine with nouns and are a key part of correct sentence structure.

Articles ESL Activities and Games

Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

Comparatives and superlatives adjectives—an example is big, bigger, biggest. They are a very common English part of speech and our English learners need to master them early on. Here are some ideas for your lesson plans:

ESL Comparative and Superlative Adjective Games

Compound Nouns

Nouns are the most common English part of speech and within that category, you’ll see a ton of compound nouns. They’re basically two words that are joined together to have a possibly separate meaning from those two original words. For example snowstorm or water skiing.

ESL Compound Noun Activities

Conjunctions and Transitions

We use conjunctions and transitions all the time in English to make writing especially easier to read. They show the relationship between sentences and parts within a sentence.

Conjunction Transition Activities

You may also want to check out this sequence words list.

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Check out these countable and uncountable noun activities that will help students figure out the difference between these two noun categories. They’ll also learn how to use them correctly in a sentence with a quantifier.

Countable and Uncountable Noun ESL Activities

Future Verb Forms

Talking about the future is a key part of mastering the English language. However, there are a few different ways to do that and it can be a little bit tricky for students to know when to use which one. Check out some of the best ideas here:

Future Verbs Forms ESL Activities

  • 67 Pages - 10/26/2015 (Publication Date)

Imperatives

We use imperatives when we want to give a command, order or direction. Listen to a conversation between a teacher and student or child and parents and you’ll notice that the utterances are filled with them! Find out more:

ESL Imperative Activities and Games .

Indefinite Pronouns

We use an indefinite pronoun as a way to refer to something, but not to any specific person, amount or thing. Some common examples are nobody, somebody, everything, etc. We use them all the time in the English language which is why it’s vital to work on them with our students. Here are some ideas:

Indefinite Pronouns Activities .

Irregular Verbs

Unfortunately, English is filled with irregular verbs that don’t have the typical “ed” ending in the past tense (more ideas here: past continuous games and past tense ESL ). Students have to memorize them—there’s just no way around it. However, you can help your students become more proficient at this ESL part of speech by trying out some of the following:

ESL Irregular Verb Games.

Linking Verbs

A linking verb in English is also known as an auxiliary or helping verb. There are several functions, but they mainly serve to extend the meaning of the main verb. Check out some of the best ideas here:

Linking Verb Games .

Modal Verbs

Modals are words like can, might, should, etc. and they are important ESL part of speech. They can be used to express things like permission, ability, obligation, possibility, and more. Here are some of the top recommendations:

Modal Verb Activities and Games.

Passive Voice Activities

The passive voice is used in some very specific situations in English. For example, when the person doing the action isn’t important (She counted out the change for me) or when it’s obvious who the agent is (I was instructed to be friendlier to customers).

Passive Voice ESL Games and Activities

Past Tense Verb Activities

Verbs are a vital ESL part of speech. However, in the past tense, irregular verbs make this a little bit tricky for our students sometimes. Check out these ideas here:

Past Tense ESL Activities and Worksheets

Phrasal Verbs

One common verb type in English is a phrasal verb. This is where a verb is combined with an adverb or preposition and the resulting combination has a different meaning. For example: back off, call back, etc. They are a very common part of speech in English and something that our students need to master.

Phrasal Verb ESL Activities

  • 108 Pages - 08/26/2021 (Publication Date)

Possessive Adjectives and Pronouns

Both pronoun and adjective parts of speech can be used to express ownership of something. Here are some of the best ideas for helping students with possessives:

ESL Possessives Activities and Games

A prefix is some letters at the beginning of a word that changes its meaning in some way. It could negate it, make it opposite or express a manner or time. Here are some recommendations:

Prefix Games

Prepositions

If you’re looking for activities, games, worksheets and lesson plans specifically for prepositions of place (in, on, at, etc.), then you’ll want to check out the following resource:

ESL Prepositions of Place

Present Perfect Verbs

The present perfect is a key verb tense for students to master. Verbs are a major part of speech in English and this is a commonly used tense.

Present Perfect ESL Games

Present Continuous

We use the present continuous to talk about things that are currently happening and will probably continue into the future. Have a look here:

Activities for present continuous .

Quantifiers

Any, some, much, many are all examples of quantifiers in English that deal with how much of something. Students need to master quantifier expressions in order to become proficient in English. Here are some recommendations for student-centred, fun activities to work on them:

ESL Quantifier Activities

Reflexive Pronouns

There are nine reflexive pronouns in English which are words that end in “self” or “selves.” For example, myself or themselves. They’re used when the subject and object of a sentence are the same.

Check out these recommendations:

Reflexive Pronouns Games .

  • 146 Pages - 06/18/2020 (Publication Date)

Singular and Plural Nouns

English nouns are found in both singular and plural forms. It’s often one of the first concepts that beginners learn when they’re just getting started out with English.

Here are some of the best activities for teaching this important concept:

ESL Singular and Plural Nouns

Subject and Object Pronoun Activities

Subject and Object pronouns are an important part of speech that students need to master in order to become proficient in English. These student-centred ESL activities and worksheets will help students do that!

Subject-Object Pronoun ESL Games

Subject-Verb Agreement

Unfortunately for English learners, the verb form changes with the subject. It’s often a mistake that even more advanced learners can make when they’re not actively thinking about it. That’s why it’s key to provide opportunities for our students for lots of practice.

English Subject Verb Agreement Activities and Worksheets

Suffixes are letters that are added onto the end of base words to change the meaning or part of speech. For example, ed added onto the end of a verb makes it into the past tense. Or, ing plus a verb makes it into a continuous form. The good news is that there are specific rules for how suffixes function.

Suffix Games and Activities

Verb Activities

There are plenty of subcategories of verbs to consider when thinking about ESL parts of speech. However, if you want some general games and activities that focus on them, here is your best resource.

ESL Verb Activities

  • 134 Pages - 02/23/2020 (Publication Date)

Verbs: Present Perfect For and Since

Verbs are a key part of ESL parts of speech and the present perfect is a vital thing for our students to master if they want to become proficient in English. It can be a little bit tricky because of the verb changes in this tense. Check out our recommendations here for mastering the present perfect with for and since:

ESL Present Perfect Activities

WH Question Games and Activities

Okay, so “WH” questions aren’t exactly a part of speech in English! However, they are certainly important in English and something that students need to master. You’ll certainly want to spend some time working on them with your students. All the details here:

ESL WH Questions Games and Activities

English part of speech activities

Yes/No Questions 

Yes/no questions are one of the first grammar concepts that beginners learn. For example:

  • Do you like ice cream?
  • Are you 10 years old?

Find out some of the best ideas for teaching them here:

Yes/No Question Games .

What are some Common Language Teaching Methods?

There are various approaches and methods for teaching language, ranging from grammar-translation to the communicative language approach to task-based learning. Have a look here for all the details:

Methods and Approaches in Language Teaching . 

Parts of Speech ESL Activities

If you’re looking for some ESL parts of speech activities and games, here are a few of the best options:

  • Odd one out 
  • Fill in the blank activities
  • Word categories 
  • Videos in the ESL classroom
  • Use a reading lesson plan
  • 3 things writing activity
  • Word association

More Ideas for Teaching English

  • 211 Pages - 12/22/2022 (Publication Date) - Independently published (Publisher)

If you want to brush up on English teaching methodology and practice, then you’ll definitely want to check out this book. I put my 20 years of classroom experience into a single book—the result is a very practical, helpful guide to teaching ESL/EFL.

Pick up a copy of the book today, and get ready for better English classes tomorrow:

ESL Parts of Speech FAQs

There are a number of common questions that people have about English parts of speech, along with activities and games to practice them. Here are some of the most popular ones.

What are the 10 parts of speech?

In English, there are 10 main parts of speech. They include the following:

  • prepositions
  • conjunctions
  • interjections
  • articles/determiners

What are the four main parts of speech?

In English, the four main parts of speech are nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives.

How do you teach parts of speech?

Teaching parts of speech can be quite a difficult task if done together. That’s why most ESL textbooks and English teachers teach small parts of them in sequence. For example, a lesson on the simple past, then one on pronouns, usage of articles, then adjectives, etc. Once students are more advanced, lessons focused on identifying the various parts of speech in a sentence can be a useful exercise.

How do you identify a noun?

In English, a noun is considered to be a person, place, thing or idea. It can be found in various parts of the sentence and can be the subject, object, indirect object, complement, object complement, appositive, or adjective.

What is basic English grammar?

Basic English grammar involves the following word order in a sentence: subject, verb, object. There are other parts of speech used at various points including adjectives, adverbs, articles, etc to form more complex sentences.

How to teach parts of speech in a fun way?

It’s possible to teach parts of speech in a fun way by using various ESL games and activities. Some of the best ones include Bingo, running dictation, charades, mixed up sentences, dictation activities, videos, songs, chants, and more.

ESL Parts of Speech Worksheets

If you’re looking for some parts of speech ESL worksheets, check out some of the top options:

ISL Collective

English for Everyone

English Worksheets

Parts of speech ESL worksheets

Have your say about these ESL Parts of Speech

Do you have any recommendations for resources to help our students with parts of speech ESL? Leave a comment below and let us know. We’d love to hear from you.

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy teachers, like yourself find this useful teaching resource.

Last update on 2022-07-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 20 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 100 books for English teachers and English learners, including Business English Vocabulary Builder , 67 ESL Conversation Topics ,and 39 No-Prep/Low-Prep ESL Speaking Activities for Teenagers and Adults . She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

You can find her on social media at: YouTube Facebook Instagram

Top Selling ESL Activity Book

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

More ESL Activities and Games

Concept checking questions (ccqs): check form, meaning, function, debate topics: funny, silly, controversial, interesting and more, no prep games and activities esl | for last-minute classes, telling time activities, games & worksheets for esl students, about, contact, privacy policy.

Best-selling author and English teacher Jackie Bolen has been talking ESL activities and games since 2015. The goal is to bring you the best ideas, lesson plans, and activity recommendations for your TEFL classes.

Get in touch: About + Contact

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

Email: [email protected]

Address: 2436 Kelly Ave, Port Coquitlam, Canada

Storyboard That

  • My Storyboards

8 Parts of Speech

Parts of speech are an important aspect of the language taught in English Language Arts and English as a New Language classrooms. Not only do the parts of speech help in formulating correct sentences, they also help the reader to understand what is taking place. As a staple of clear communication and analysis, mastery of the parts of speech is essential for students. The eight parts of speech chart on the right is a great visual for displaying the 8 categories of words that are included.

Teachers use a variety of different approaches to engage students in their parts of speech lesson plans. One popular idea for a "bodily kinesthetic" activity for parts of speech is to conduct a scavenger hunt to have students identify the 8 different parts of speech existing around the classroom. There is also the classic lesson on parts of speech that instructs students to diagram and label sentences provided by the teacher.

A parts of speech writing activity could begin with students first writing about a simple topic like what they are going to do after school. After they have their sentences down, they could work individually or with a partner to label each of the 8 parts of speech. Another fun part of speech activity is to have students play "Grammar Bingo". They can fill in a bingo card that includes all 8 parts of speech!

These are all effective activities for part of speech where students can see the language in action or on paper and identify these important grammatical elements. However, the reality is that this particular part of language learning and development can be boring and dry for students. Teachers can liven up their parts of speech lesson plans for elementary, middle and high school students with Storyboard That!

Storyboard That can help teachers use more creative ways to teach parts of speech!

The 8 Parts of Speech Lessons Help You

  • Understand clearly what is being said in a sentence.
  • Know how and when to use words correctly.
  • Reflect more accurately on the English language.

8 Parts of Speech

What are the Parts of Speech?

Part of SpeechDefinitionExample Words
a person, place, thing, or ideapen, dog, work, music, town, London, teacher, John
action or state of being(to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must
a quality of a nounsome, good, big, red, interesting
describes or modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverbquickly, silently, well, badly, very, really
stands in for a nounI, you, he, she, we, they, your
links a noun to another wordto, at, after, on, before, around, over, of, in, for, with, throughout, from, beneath
joins words, clauses, and sentencesand, but, when, or, however, although, nevertheless, therefore, yet, so
short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentenceoh, ouch, hi, well

Do You Know Each Part of Speech?

ANSWER
(Part of Speech)
That hurts! How are you? I don't know.
I like dogs I like cats. I like cats dogs. I like dogs, I don't like cats.
Tara is smart. is going to college three years early.George wants paper back.Rashad wants a book, so goes to the library.
Facebook.com a website.I Facebook.com. I my Facebook every day.
This is my . He lives in my .We live in .
We went school Monday.Please look the bedThe book is a boy who gets lost the woods.
My dog is . I like dogs. My German Shepherd is than your Chihuahua.
My dog eats . When he is hungry, he eats . I get out of bed .

8 Parts of Speech Activity

The parts of speech activity below shows how you can use the Storyboard That Creator to make storyboards depicting the different parts of speech, in this case three different verbs. Teachers can quickly create a parts of speech lesson plan using the "create an assignment" wizard where they can input directions and even a template to help students get started. The template could include the titles of the parts of speech for students to depict such as:

Verb Examples

8 Parts of Speech Lesson Plans

In reading and writing, it is important to make clear for your audience who or what is most important in a sentence, what is happening, and other important details that enhance the information being conveyed. Using the Storyboard Creator in your parts of speech lesson allows students to make visual depictions of the parts of speech and help them remember these important pieces of writing!

Some General Elementary School Parts of Speech Activity Ideas

  • Use Storyboard That’s parts of speech template to create your own storyboard using the 8 parts of speech.
  • Provide students with a sentence that has certain underlined or highlighted words by replacing "EXAMPLE SENTENCE".

Note: If you're not a Storyboard That user yet, sign up for a free trial .

  • Have students make a visualization of the sentences on the storyboard.
  • While creating the storyboards, students will make sure to point out which part of speech they are illustrating by drawing attention to the word using an arrow or other indicator.
  • Lesson Extension: Have students come up with their own sentences and use storyboards to depict them!

Parts of Speech Storyboard Template

Example Project for the 8 Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech Examples

More Parts of Speech Project Ideas

  • Make a storyboard that describes and illustrates the most common prepositions.
  • Make a T-chart that illustrates examples of action verbs and nonaction verbs.
  • Choose at least one prepositional phrase and make a storyboard to illustrate it.
  • Make a storyboard that illustrates adjectives that express emotion. Teachers can either give students a list so that students all have the same words, or have students choose their own.
  • Research and define the many different speech definitions such as: independent clauses, complex sentences, main verbs, and so much more!
  • A fun adverbs project idea is to have students answer a prompt in the storyboard such as the one below. The teacher can include the prompt in the template and have the students write and illustrate their answer using as many other adverbs as they can! To modify this assignment, the template could include the description box on the bottom where students can write more full sentences showing their understanding of how to use adverbs. This project could also be modified to be an activity for any of the 8 parts of speech.

Adverb Project Idea

Related Activities

--- N/A --- - Ser vs Estar Special Cases

How to Teach Parts of Speech with Games and Activities

Choose games and activities.

Select games and activities that are engaging and appropriate for the age and skill level of your students. Examples of games and activities that teach parts of speech include Mad Libs, Charades, Parts of Speech Bingo, Parts of Speech Jeopardy, and Word Sorts.

Define Parts of Speech

Before starting the games and activities, make sure your students understand the basics of parts of speech. Define and provide examples of the main parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Model Parts of Speech Use

Model the use of different parts of speech to ensure that students understand how they function in language. Use sentences or examples from the games or activities you have chosen to illustrate the different parts of speech.

Play Games and Activities

Play the games and activities with your students, making sure to explain the rules and provide any necessary guidance. Encourage active participation and engagement from all students, and provide support or additional practice for students who may need it.

Reinforce Learning

After playing the games and activities, reinforce learning by reviewing the parts of speech used and how they function in language. Ask students to explain how they used different parts of speech in the games and activities and provide feedback or corrections as needed.

Create Your Own Games and Activities

Encourage students to create their own games and activities that incorporate parts of speech. This can help them solidify their understanding of the concepts and provide opportunities for peer teaching and learning.

Assess Understanding

Finally, assess students' understanding of parts of speech through quizzes, writing assignments, or other assessments. Make sure that your assessments reflect the skills and knowledge you want students to acquire, such as identifying parts of speech and using them correctly in context. Use the results of your assessments to guide further instruction and support for students who may need it.

Frequently Asked Questions about 8 Parts of Speech

What is included in a parts of speech chart.

The 8 parts of speech to include in a parts of speech chart are:

  • Noun : Nouns are a person, place, thing, or idea
  • Verb : Verbs are actions or states of being
  • Adjective : Adjectives describe nouns
  • Adverb : Adverbs describe a verb, adjective or another adverb
  • Pronoun : Pronouns stand in for a noun
  • Preposition : Prepositions link a noun to another word
  • Conjunction : Conjunctions join words, clauses, and sentences
  • Interjection : Interjections are short exclamations

What are some parts of speech activities to do with students?

There are many 8 parts of speech lesson plans that incorporate the storyboard Creator that will help students visualize and be able to demonstrate their understanding. Some parts of speech activities using the Storyboard That Creator are:

  • Create a visual part of speech diagram of a sentence using a storyboard! Many teachers instruct students to diagram parts of speech in their sentences by underlining or circling different parts of speech. However, by illustrating what is occurring in the sentence and how those parts of speech are related, students are more apt to retain the information.
  • Create a list of all of the different parts of speech with illustrations and definitions.
  • Make a quiz for a fellow classmate!

How can teachers create parts of speech lesson plans in Storyboard That?

Creating assignments in Storyboard That is as easy as 1-2-3! The easiest way to create a lesson is to copy one of our awesome premade lesson plans and customize it how you see fit. To create a lesson from scratch, simply follow the “create an assignment” steps.

What is the difference between proper nouns and common nouns?

The difference between a proper noun and a common noun is that a common noun refers to general things, such as a mountain, river, or lake. A proper noun, however, refers to a specific noun, such as Mt. Everest, Nile River, or Lake Michigan.

Pricing for Schools & Districts

Limited Time

  • 5 Teachers for One Year
  • 1 Hour of Virtual PD

30 Day Money Back Guarantee • New Customers Only • Full Price After Introductory Offer • Access is for 1 Calendar Year

  • 30 Day Money Back Guarantee
  • New Customers Only
  • Full Price After Introductory Offer

Limited Time. New Customers Only

Back to school special!

30 Day Money Back Guarantee. New Customers Only. Full Price After Introductory Offer. Access is for 1 Calendar Year

Generating a Quote

This is usually pretty quick :)

Quote Sent!

Email Sent to

Filter Results

  • clear all filters

Resource Type

  • Guided Lessons
  • Lesson Plans 
  • Hands-on Activities
  • Interactive Stories
  • Online Exercises
  • Printable Workbooks
  • Science Projects
  • Song Videos

middle-school

  • English Learner (EL) 
  • Fine arts 
  • Math 
  • Reading 
  • Writing 
  • Phonics 
  • Spelling 
  • Language and Vocabulary 
  • Verbs 
  • Conjunctions
  • Pronouns 
  • Sentence Structure 
  • Punctuation 
  • Capitalization 
  • Science 
  • Social emotional 
  • Social studies 
  • Typing 
  • Common Core 

5th Grade Parts of Speech Lesson Plans

Present Perfect Tense

  • International
  • Education Jobs
  • Schools directory
  • Resources Education Jobs Schools directory News Search

Reported Speech ESL TEFL Lesson Plan Worksheet B2 Upper Intermediate

Reported Speech ESL TEFL Lesson Plan Worksheet B2 Upper Intermediate

Subject: English language learning

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Lesson (complete)

TEAMTEFL

Last updated

4 September 2024

  • Share through email
  • Share through twitter
  • Share through linkedin
  • Share through facebook
  • Share through pinterest

write a lesson plan on part of speech

Reported Speech ESL lesson plan for B2 Upper Intermediate ELL and ELA learners. This ready to use TEFL resource includes everything from flash cards to activities as well as conversation topics and writing drills. Immerse yourself in dynamic activities designed to deepen your understanding and usage of this crucial grammatical skill. Explore the intricacies of conveying information and opinions from one person to another, adding finesse to your communication skills. This comprehensive lesson plan provides a structured and enjoyable approach to mastering the subtleties of reported speech. Elevate your language proficiency and confidently navigate conversations involving reported statements and questions.

This is a B2 Upper Intermediate ESL lesson plan from the B2 Course book curriculum https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12105445

It is also included in our course book curriculum of 8 ESL TEFL course books https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/resource-12121091

This lesson plan includes; Flash cards A warmer Main usage Construction Rules including any exceptions Examples Two closed exercises One open exercise Revision exercise Writing drill Extra study Activity - E.g Game, quiz, puzzle etc to finish the class Answer key

This lesson plan is for ESL students from 14 years to adults and should take around 60-90 minutes depending on teacher style.

Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?

Get this resource as part of a bundle and save up to 38%

A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

Adjectives & Adverbs / Reported Speech / Passives / Wish B2 Upper-Intermediate ESL Lesson Plan Bundle

Four B2 Upper-Intermediate ESL lesson plans from the TEAM TEFL B2 Coursebook about ‘Adjectives & Adverbs’, ‘Reported Speech’, 'Passives' and 'Wish’. In the Adjectives & Adverbs unit we will learn how to use adjectives to modify or describe nouns and pronouns. We will also learn how to use adverbs to modify or define verbs and other adverbs. In the Reported Speech unit we will learn how to use reported speech to quote what another person has said. In the Passives unit we will learn how to use the passive tense when the object replaces the subject in the sentence. In the Wish unit we will learn how to use 'wish' to express a strong desire, a future plan or a past regret. These lesson plans will typically include; A warmer Main usage Construction Rules including any exceptions Examples Two closed exercises One open exercise Revision exercise Chatterbox Activity - E.g Game, quiz, puzzle etc to finish the class. Answer key These lesson plans are for ESL students from 14 years to adults and should take around 60-90 minutes depending on teacher style.

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

This resource hasn't been reviewed yet

To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource:

IMAGES

  1. Lesson Plan parts of speech

    write a lesson plan on part of speech

  2. Sample Lesson Plan

    write a lesson plan on part of speech

  3. Lesson Plan 3

    write a lesson plan on part of speech

  4. Parts of Speech Lesson Plan: CCSS.ELA-Literacy

    write a lesson plan on part of speech

  5. [English Grammar] Parts Of Speech Lesson Plan For B.Ed/DELED And School

    write a lesson plan on part of speech

  6. Lesson Plan Parts of Speech

    write a lesson plan on part of speech

VIDEO

  1. I can write. Lesson 1-1. February, 22nd

  2. How to write scheme of lesson plan💯#Objective of scheme of lesson#Scheme of lesson from 1 to 8 😇

  3. Parts of Speech

  4. NTT Lesson Plan

  5. Lesson plan |Lesson plan format |How to prepare a lesson plan #youtubeshorts#lessonplanforteachers

  6. How to write lesson plan#simple#teachers#training#pre primary#Montessori Ttc

COMMENTS

  1. Free Parts of Speech Lesson Plan for Middle Schoolers

    Part 1: Noun. 1. Write the word "noun" on the board. 2. Explain that a noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. 3. Provide examples of nouns such as "dog," "city," "book," and "love." 4. Ask students to come up with their own examples of nouns and write them on the board.

  2. Parts of Speech: Breaking Down Sentences

    Parts of Speech: Breaking Down Sentences | Lesson Plan

  3. Parts of Speech

    The parts of speech included in the following lesson are: nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, pronouns, interjections, and conjunctions. Parts of Speech Lesson Plan PDF. Students will identify the parts of speech in a piece of writing. Students will use and identify the parts of speech in their own writing. 1.

  4. Lesson Plan: Label Sentences with Parts of Speech

    As a class, call for students to label nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in the simple sentences. I like to use colored markers for this exercise to highlight each part of speech to help students with recognition. Point out that a simple sentence with a noun (John is a good student) can combine with a simple sentence using an adjective (John ...

  5. PDF LESSON PLAN

    The Arts of Speech Part 1: Unifying Meaning with Parts of Speech By Matthew Baganz In Part 1 of The Arts of Speech, Matthew Baganz uses movement and imagery to help children learn the purpose of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Grade: 3-5 Common Core State Standard: ELA-Literacy.L.K-5.1

  6. Parts of Speech Lesson Plans

    Parts of Speech: Interjections. Lesson Plan. Interjections, one of the eight parts of speech, can be the most exciting. They help students interject some fun and drama into their writing and conversations. In this lesson, they'll brainstorm how to use interjections in their sentences. Scary Story Elements.

  7. A Complete Guide to Parts of Speech for Students and Teachers

    A Complete Guide to Parts of Speech for Students and ...

  8. Parts of Speech

    Teacher Does/Students Do: Teacher will direct students to create an exit ticket using a blank half sheet of paper. Students will write one word for each of the 4 parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective and adverb) with examples not used in class, they must be new words. Noun -. Verb -. Adjective -.

  9. Parts of Speech

    The categories are the eight parts of speech. Students work with a partner to write down examples from the movie, sorting the words into the proper categories. Alternatively, or as an extension of this activity, have students create flash cards with any words they choose, and sort them into the eight parts of speech. Make a poster or video.

  10. Parts of Speech Book

    Introduction. (15 minutes) Introduce students to parts of speech by defining them as words that have different functions within a sentence. Go through the parts of speech one at a time, writing the definition on the board along with a few examples. Create example sentences to help your class understand the placement.

  11. How to Teach Parts of Speech: ESL Lesson Tips and Activities

    In the first version, the teacher should say a word that appears in the text. The students can search the text for the word and when they find it, slap the book or paper. Whoever finds it first should tell the teacher what part of speech that word is. In the second version, the teacher says a part of speech.

  12. Parts of Speech

    This lesson plan contains a quick overview of parts of speech with activities and games that focus on nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. There is opportunity for group work and individual practice along with identifying and classifying parts of speech. Subject: Language Education (ESL) Level: Middle School. Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan.

  13. Sentence Quest: Using Parts of Speech to Write Descriptive Sentences

    Add cards that say "The" and "and" and some blank cards to each bag. Let students use the cards to make, write, and illustrate new sentences as part of a center activity. Encourage them to make new word cards to add to the bags. A fun way to reinforce syntax and parts of speech is by using the random sentence generator Web page or "mad-libs ...

  14. How to Teach Parts of Speech: 15 Fun Ways for Kids

    Using worksheets is one of the fun ways to teach parts of speech, such as sorting words into categories. Provide kids with parts of speech sorting worksheet. They'll categorize each word into the correct part of speech. This activity helps reinforce their understanding of how different words function within sentences. 2.

  15. Innovative Strategies to Teach the Eight Parts of Speech

    The eight parts of speech are noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. These are the basic building blocks of the English language and understanding them is essential for effective communication and writing. A few notes about these notes for teaching the eight parts of speech:

  16. Parts of Speech ESL Games, Activities & Lesson Plan Ideas

    ESL Parts of Speech Activities, Worksheets & Lesson Plans. In English, there are 8 parts of speech: adjectives, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. In this article, you'll find parts of speech activities and games, along with worksheets and lesson plans. Why is it important for ESL students to understand ...

  17. Parts of Speech Lesson Plan

    The document outlines an English lesson plan about the eight parts of speech. It includes objectives, subject matter, procedures, and an evaluation. The lesson plan aims to teach students to identify and explain the eight parts of speech, and create sentences applying them. The procedures involve introducing each part of speech through examples, discussion, and an activity where students write ...

  18. 8 Parts of Speech Examples

    8 Parts of Speech Examples

  19. Eight Parts of Speech Lesson Plan

    This lesson plan aims to teach students the eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. The teacher will begin with an introduction and example of the significance of parts of speech. Students will then participate by identifying parts of speech on flashcards and answering questions. The teacher will provide definitions and ...

  20. 5th Grade Parts of Speech Lesson Plans

    Using Adjectives and Verbs to Make Writing Come to Life. Lesson Plan. Imagery is one of the most important tools in a narrative writer's arsenal. In this lesson, students will will learn to craft vivid scenes by selecting powerful verbs and adjectives, as well as to critique descriptive writing using the same criteria.

  21. Parts of Speech

    JPG, 102.34 KB. This Unit Lesson Plan is perfect for teaching Parts of Speech - Word Classes - Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions and Interjections. These no prep activities would be great for ELA lessons or ELA centers. Your students will love these exercises that are carefully planned for student engagement.

  22. Parts of Speech Lesson Plan

    Parts of Speech Lesson Plan

  23. Reported Speech ESL TEFL Lesson Plan Worksheet B2 Upper Intermediate

    This comprehensive lesson plan provides a structured and enjoyable approach to mastering the subtleties of reported speech. Elevate your language proficiency and confidently navigate conversations involving reported statements and questions. This is a B2 Upper Intermediate ESL lesson plan from the B2 Course book curriculum