Are you looking for a fun review game to play with your ELLs this week? Try our Fun Grammar Lesson on Regular & Irregular Plural Nouns. Then do a bit more practice with this silly sock game!
You will need
- a long piece of string and a place to hang it in the class
- four clothes pegs
- one long pair of matching socks (plain white or black)
- two long crazy socks (mismatched)
- flashcards with singular nouns, such as banana, flower, toy, table, candy, butterfly, kiss, box, watch, dish, potato, tomato, cactus, child, person, car, flower, loaf, leaf, foot, dog, deer, goose, apple, book, tree, tooth, pillow, t-shirt, sheep, cat
- blank strips of paper (the same amount as you have flashcards with images)
- a pen or marker
Setting things up
- Make a flashcard set of nouns (include ones that have irregular plural endings, such as the ones from ESL Library’s Regular & Irregular Plural Nouns lesson).
- Place the flashcards inside a container or envelope.
- Hang up the string (where students can reach).
- Hang the regular socks beside each other on the string.
- Hang up the irregular socks beside each other in another area on the string.
- Place the blank strips of paper and pen on a table or ledge near the socks.
Playing the game
Invite students to take turns going up to the front of the class. Here is what each student will do:
- Choose a flashcard from the envelope/container and write the singular word on the board.
- If the plural of this noun has a regular ending (where you only need to add -s), stuff the flashcard into one of the regular socks and write the plural word on the paper strip. Put this strip into the other regular sock.
- If the plural of the noun has an irregular ending, stuff the flashcard into one of the mismatched socks and write the irregular plural form on a paper strip and put it in the other mismatched sock.
If anyone in the class thinks the flashcard and plural form went into the wrong socks, they should shout out Change Your Socks! If the teacher agrees, have the student try again. (Watch as the student writes the plural form in case it’s wrong. Help make spelling corrections or go over all spelling corrections at the end, by pulling out the strips one at a time.)
If nobody notices an incorrect placement, you the teacher should yell Change your socks! Continue until all of the flashcards are gone and the socks are full! Make a new flashcard set as you learn new nouns and plurals and play another round another day.
