Trash Ball

Grammar lessons in seventh grade were never fun. I have noticed that the students get very bored when we are talking about comma rules, capitalization, or sentence structures. I decided to play a game in the middle of one of my lessons a few weeks ago. One of my good friends told me she used it while she was a student intern. I have found that trash ball is an excellent way for students to learn grammar rules and have fun at the same time.

This game keeps their attention and also puts a competitive spin on learning. I usually will offer a couple of bonus points to the winning team when we play this game. This drives them to want to win even more.

The Rules:

1. Divide the kids into teams. I usually will number them off, and I generally only have two teams.

2. Let them make their own trash ball! They love this idea...they get to crunch up a bunch of papers or anything they have in their backpack to create either a small trash ball or a huge trash ball. I noticed some of the boys were even competing to make the best trash ball!

3. Once you have decided who goes first, kids must shoot their trash ball into a trash can to answer a question. If they miss, they forfeit their turn to the opposing team. If they make the shot, they get to come to the board and correct a sentence. If they completely answer the question and/or correct the sentence then they recieve a point.

4. With this game I mix up if I am going to let this be group oriented or if I want only individuals answering questions. The kids like to play it either way.

I have already used this game several times in class. The kids now beg to play everyday we have a grammar lesson! I usally will let them play the last ten or fifteen minutes of class if we make it through all of the lesson. When I first tried this game I didn't realize how much the kids would love it. I am very glad to have found something that makes them WANT to LEARN grammar!