7 No-Prep Grammar Activities
Hello there, 2025! I hope you’re way better than 2024 and only slightly worse than 2026 – obviously. The new year has brought out some new levels of wickedness in me, so I’ve decided to make this January the Month of Grammar!
Now, I know that grammar can often be painful, and English grammar in particular may bring nothing but pain and misery – after all, that’s the very origin of That Is Evil. But I truly believe we can alleviate our students’ suffering with activities that make grammar engaging, fun, and, dare I say, enjoyable.
Oh, I can literally see your excitement!
But you know me by now, so rest assured: my grammar activities are short, funny, educational, and – best of all – require no extra preparation. Exactly what we all appreciate.
Just take a look (or even better, copy these activities and stick them in your teaching notebook to use whenever you need a quick and wicked idea):
1. The Tale of the Tense Travellers
Create a story where characters travel through time (past, present, and future). Each tense represents a stop on their journey. Once upon a time, there was a traveller who could visit yesterday, today, and tomorrow…
Grammar focus: tenses
2. Preposition Quest: The Lost Treasure
Turn prepositions into a treasure map adventure (e.g., under the tree, inside the cave, across the river). To find the treasure, you must go under the bridge, through the woods, and beyond the mountains… Turn it into a competition: who can create the most detailed map using the largest number of prepositions?
Grammar focus: prepositions
3. “Once Upon a Tense” Chain Story
Start with a sentence like: Once upon a time, there was a teacher who loved grammar… The first student adds a sentence in the past simple, the next continues using past continuous, and so on. Rotate tenses with each student: present perfect, past perfect, future simple, etc. For lower levels, stick to just two tenses (e.g., present simple and past simple).
Grammar focus: tenses
4. Grammar Detective
Tell (or write) a short, silly story full of grammar mistakes. For example: Yesterday, I has go to the zoo and see a giraffe who eating pizza. Students act as Grammar Detectives to spot and correct the errors. They rewrite the story correctly, then retell it to the class.
Grammar focus: adaptable
5. Grammar Auction
Prepare a “list” of sentences – some correct, some incorrect. Ideally, use the most common mistakes your students make (if you’ve been keeping track), but you can also write sentences spontaneously on the board. Students receive imaginary money (e.g., 100 “grammar bucks”) and bid on sentences they think are correct. Is this sentence correct? How much would you bid? At the end, check answers and award points for correctly “bought” sentences.
Grammar focus: adaptable; great for grammar revision!
6. Dice of Destiny
Roll a six-sided dice to determine grammar structures. For example:
1 = Past simple
2 = Present perfect
3 = Future simple
4 = Modal verbs (can, must, should)
5 = Comparatives/superlatives
6 = Passive voice
Students take turns creating sentences or answering questions using the rolled grammar. For more advanced students, add wild-card rules like Make a question or Use a crazy adjective.
Grammar focus: adaptable; excellent for practising tenses, modals, or sentence types.
7. Speed Grammar Relay
Divide students into teams. Write a sentence with errors on the board. Teams race to rewrite the sentence correctly. The first correct answer wins a point. For an extra twist, include bonus “creative” sentences that require humour, like fixing “Aliens is eating pizzas now.”
Grammar focus: adaptable
I hope you and your students enjoy these activities and use them as often as you wish! Let me know in the comments which one is your favourite, and don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter – you’ll get some lovely lesson plans plus a cool scenario for a classroom debate on… grammar, of course! After all, who doesn’t want to start their year with grammar?
Enjoy!
