Tic Tac Toe is a quick and fun way to review a number of grammar forms. I often use it to practise irregular forms of the past simple.
You need two teams of 1-4 to play this game, one team plays as Xs, the other as Os.
Draw a Tic Tac Toe grid on the board and write in each square one of the items to be reviewed.
Teams take it in turns to choose a square. After consulting with the team a player makes a sentence using the chosen word in the correct form. If the sentence is correct, place an X or O in the square depending on the team. If the sentence is wrong the square stays in play.
The winner is the team which manages to connect three Xs or Os in a row – either horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
Tip
Put one of the more challenging grammar items in the high-value middle square.
Here are some of the grammar forms you can practice with this game:
- Simple past irregular verbs
Write the infinitive form and students must make sentences using the past form.
- Adverbs
Write the adjective form and students make sentences using an adverb.
Suggested words: hard, easy, fast, good, bad, quick, angry, happy, normal
- Verbs followed by infinitive or gerund
Write the verb, students make sentences using a second verb in the infinitive or gerund form.
Suggested words: enjoy, suggest, avoid, remember, start, ask, prepare, promise, forget (this website has a nice list)
You could also play this game using comparatives, phonetics, compound nouns, etc.
When I saw this game an idea came to mind and it worked wonderfully for my adults’ spoken class. I do the grid and write a topic in each square then I divide my students into two groups and they choose a topic and have to talk about it for 2min (for weaker students – 1min) and when they finish I give them their X’s and O’s. The teams have to compete to see which team can win.