5 Fun Ways to Teach Subject-Verb Agreement

Let's face it. When it comes to exciting grammar topics, subject-verb agreement probably isn't at the top of anyone's list.

In fact, if you asked me to describe subject-verb agreement in one word, I'd probably say boring. (There, I said it!)

But here's the thing: Subject-verb agreement is an important grammar skill that students need to master. And considering how often subject-verb agreement errors show up in writing—even among adults—it's definitely a skill worth spending time on. 

So, how can we make teaching subject-verb agreement a little more interesting?

One of my favorite approaches is to turn students into members of the Grammar Patrol! 🚨 Instead of simply memorizing grammar rules and completing worksheets, students become grammar detectives who are on a mission to find and fix sentences that have broken the laws of subject-verb agreement. It's a simple twist, but it can make a big difference in how students approach grammar practice!

1. Start with a Grammar Crime Scene

One fun way to introduce subject-verb agreement is to display a few sentences that contain obvious grammar mistakes.

For example:

• The dogs barks at the mail carrier.
• My friends is coming over after school.
• The teacher give us homework every Friday.

Tell students that these sentences have committed grammar crimes and that it's their job to investigate! Have students identify the subject and verb in each sentence, explain why they don't agree, and rewrite the sentence correctly. You can even encourage students to explain which grammar law was broken.

This activity is a great way to introduce or review the basic rule that singular subjects take singular verbs, while plural subjects take plural verbs.

And because students are looking for errors rather than just listening to explanations, they're actively thinking about how the rules work.

2. Teach Students to Look for Tricky Subjects

Once students understand the basics of subject-verb agreement, it's time to introduce some of the trickier situations. For example, consider this sentence:

• The box of pencils is on the desk.

Some students might mistakenly choose are because the word pencils is plural. However, the actual subject of the sentence is box, which is singular.

This is where the Grammar Patrol approach comes in handy! Challenge students to find the real subject of each sentence before deciding whether the verb is correct. You might even have them circle the subject, underline the verb, and highlight any words that could distract them from identifying the correct subject. This helps students develop a habit of looking carefully at sentence structure instead of simply choosing a verb that sounds right.

3. Challenge Students with More Advanced Grammar Crimes

After students have mastered the basics, you can introduce some more challenging subject-verb agreement rules. For example:

Indefinite pronouns

• Everybody wants to participate.
• Several are missing from the collection.

Collective nouns

• The team is ready for the game.
• The family is planning a vacation.

Sentences beginning with here or there

• There are three books on the table.
• Here is the assignment you requested.

Portion expressions

• Some of the cookies are missing.
• Some of the milk is gone.

These types of sentences are especially useful because they require students to think beyond the most basic subject-verb agreement rules. You can turn these examples into a Grammar Patrol challenge by mixing correct and incorrect sentences together. Students must determine which sentences have broken a grammar law and which ones are innocent!

4. Get Students Moving with a Grammar Patrol Activity

Who says grammar practice has to happen entirely at students' desks? Try posting sentences around your classroom and having students move from one "crime scene" to another. Some sentences should contain subject-verb agreement errors, while others should be grammatically correct.

As students visit each station, they can record:

• Whether a grammar crime has been committed
• Which subject and verb are involved
• How to correct the sentence, if necessary

The picture below shows blank "tickets" that I give to my students. (It is the same one that is in my craftivity packet.) When they see a subject-verb violation, they fill out the ticket.

This is what a completed ticket might look like:

You could also have students work with partners (police officers often work with partners, after all!) They can discuss their findings before recording their answers. This activity gets students moving, encourages collaboration, and provides plenty of opportunities to practice identifying and correcting subject-verb agreement errors.

5. Reinforce the Rules with a Subject-Verb Agreement Craftivity

After students have practiced identifying grammar crimes, why not give them a creative way to reinforce what they've learned? A craftivity can be a fun follow-up activity that gives students another opportunity to apply their grammar knowledge.

Ready to Put Your Students on Grammar Patrol?

If you love the idea of turning your students into grammar detectives but don't have time to create all the materials yourself, I've got you covered! I've created two Subject-Verb Agreement PowerPoint/Google Slides lessons that help students learn and practice these important grammar skills.

My first lesson focuses on the basics, including identifying subjects, understanding how subjects and verbs agree in number, and working with verb contractions.

My second lesson tackles the trickier rules, including indefinite pronouns, collective nouns, noncount nouns, portion expressions, and other situations that can make subject-verb agreement confusing.

I also have a Subject-Verb Agreement Craftivity that provides another way for students to practice and reinforce their learning.

These ready-to-use resources can help you spend less time preparing grammar lessons and more time helping students become confident grammar detectives! Click on these links to take a closer look at them!

Subject-Verb Agreement Basics Lesson

Advanced Subject-Verb Agreement Lesson

Subject-Verb Agreement Craftivity

I just created worksheet packets, as well. (After all, you can never have too much practice when it comes to subject-verb agreement!)

Subject-Verb Agreement Worksheets: 6 Worksheets for Practicing Basic SVA Rules

Subject-Verb Agreement Worksheets: 9 Worksheets for Practicing Advanced SVA Rules

Final Thoughts

Subject-verb agreement might never win an award for being the most exciting grammar topic, but that doesn't mean teaching it has to be dull!

By turning grammar practice into a detective-style challenge, giving students opportunities to find and correct errors, and mixing in some creative activities, you can make this important skill a little more enjoyable.

And who knows? Your students might even start noticing subject-verb agreement mistakes outside the classroom.

After all, once you're a member of the Grammar Patrol, grammar crimes are hard to ignore! 🚨

~ Deb

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How to Teach the 4 Types of Writing: Narrative, Informative, Persuasive, and Descriptive

You tell your students they’re going to write an informative paragraph—and several immediately ask, "What does informative mean again?" Teaching the four types of writing can be especially helpful at the beginning of the school year. Introducing these terms early prevents confusion and gives students a foundation you can refer back to during future reading and writing lessons. 

Four Types of Writing

Narrative Writing

Narrative writing tells a story. It typically includes characters, a setting, events, and a sequence. Encourage students to ask themselves: “Will I be writing about something that happened to me... or about something that could happen to a character?”

Informative Writing

Informative writing teaches the reader about a topic or explains something. It often includes facts. Students can ask: “Will I be trying to teach the reading something?”

Persuasive Writing

Persuasive writing attempts to convince the reader. It typically includes opinion words. Encourage students to ask themselves: “Will I be trying to convince the reader to do something... or to think the way I think?”

Descriptive Writing

Descriptive writing uses details to help the reader clearly imagine a person, place, object, or experience. It often contains many adjectives. Students can ask: “Will I be trying to describe something in a way that helps the reader picture it clearly?”

Connecting Writing to Reading

One of the best ways to help students understand different types of writing is to let them see plenty of examples.

• What clues tell us that a passage is narrative?
• How is an informative paragraph different from a persuasive one?
• What makes a piece of writing descriptive?

Giving students opportunities to read, compare, discuss, and classify examples helps make these abstract writing terms much more concrete.

It also encourages students to think about an author’s purpose and notice the choices writers make—which can ultimately help them make more intentional choices in their own writing.

Aspects that Often Confuse Students

Point of Confusion: Students sometimes see facts and then automatically assume that it is an informative piece of writing. 

Solution: Show students sample paragraphs that contain facts, but are persuasive, description, or narrative. For example, persuasive pieces often use facts as evidence to support their argument. A persuasive piece might be written to try to convince kids to limit how much soda they drink. In this piece, a good writer would point out facts to support their argument- like how drinking too much soda is known to lead to a higher number of cavities and dehydration.

Point of Confusion: Students might be confused between descriptive pieces and narrative pieces that use a lot of description.

Solution: Remind students that descriptive pieces are usually focused on a singular topic, like the beach. In contrast, a narrative piece contains characters, events, and ongoing action. Furthermore, strong narrative pieces will contain plot elements (the exposition/introduction, the rising action, the climax, the falling action, and the resolution).

A Ready-to-Go Resource

Want to teach all four without creating the examples and practice passages yourself? I have already created a constructed-response presentation with examples and practice for my own students. It is part of a small Type of Writing bundle that includes posters, a worksheet, an interactive notebook option, and a 2-day lesson plan. Click on the link below to take a closer look at it in my TPT store.

As you can see by the example slides shown below, I used soccer players and goals to try to hook my sports-loving students. It includes TEN sample paragraphs to analyze.

Narrative. Informative. Persuasive. Descriptive. 

Give your students the tools they need to tell the difference—and a writing vocabulary they can use all year long. ✏️

~Deb

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Restating the Question Using Jokes... plus some go-to resources!

Every teacher has a handful of “building block” lessons—those foundational lessons we teach during the first few weeks of school because they establish routines and expectations for the year ahead.

One of my go-to building block lessons is teaching students how to restate the question in their answer. From day one, I want my students to understand that one-word answers usually aren't enough, especially when responding to questions about a story or informational passage. Instead, I teach them to answer in complete sentences by incorporating part of the question into their response.

A Helpful (and FUN!) Way to Practice This Skill

Once your students understand how to restate a question, try practicing with jokes! Kids love the anticipation of hearing the punchline, and they're highly motivated to write their answers correctly.

Here's how it works:

Tell students the beginning of a joke that starts with a question, but don't reveal the punchline. Instead, have students write the beginning of their answer by restating the question. Once everyone has written their response starter, share the punchline so they can complete the sentence.

 

For example:

Teacher: What do bees chew?

Students write: Bees chew ____________________.

Teacher reveals: ...bumblegum!

 

Another favorite is:

Teacher: Why is Cinderella bad at soccer?

Students write: Cinderella is bad at soccer because ____________________.

Teacher reveals: ...she runs away from the ball!

 

You might also want to do one where the answer is best placed in the middle of the sentence rather than at the end:

Teacher: Where do cows go for entertainment?

Students write: Cows go to ____________________ for entertainment.

Teacher reveals: ...to the moooooo-vies!

 I especially like including examples like this because they show students that restating doesn't always mean putting the answer at the very end. They have to think about how to turn the question into a sentence that actually sounds natural.

It's a quick and engaging activity, gets everyone involved, and gives students meaningful practice with restating questions—all while sharing a few laughs.

A Ready-to-Go Resource

Several years ago, I created a PowerPoint lesson to explicitly teach this constructed-response skill, and a set of worksheets for student practice. It has become one of my most popular back-to-school resources. One teacher shared this review:

"I use this resource at the beginning of every school year to explicitly teach restating questions in complete sentences."

If you're looking for a simple, effective way to establish this expectation from the very beginning, I invite you to take a look. Just click on the image below to learn more! (I recently updated it so that it now includes a link to a Google Slides version of the presentation, along with six practice worksheets.) 

Restating the question may seem like a small skill, but it’s one of those building blocks students will use all year long. Taking the time to teach it explicitly—and giving students plenty of opportunities to practice—helps set the expectation for thoughtful, complete responses from the very beginning.

And if a few silly jokes can help make that practice more memorable, even better! 😊

~ Deb

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Leave a Comment 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, reading