Conjunctions are words or phrases that link clauses, sentences, and other words together. Conjunctions are helpful in both written and spoken communication as they allow to group of similar concepts together and shorten, simplify, or clarify sentences.
Students learn about conjunctions in everyday communication. As they make different choices, they are likely to use the common conjunctions – and, or, but, etc. It is important for parents and teachers to offer a comprehensive learning environment to children. In such situations, engaging activities for conjunctions can be a suitable option.
Conjunction activities are ideal to teach the concept with practicality. Activities are engaging and inculcate important skills of team building, critical thinking, and memory building.
This post covers interactive activities to help students learn the correct usage and application of conjunctions with the essence of practical learning in different contextual forms.
Interesting activities to teach Conjunction
Activities are a good way to inculcate knowledge and keep it fun. With these activities, children not only learn this grammatical concept but also understand its usage and importance in everyday communication.
1. Are you fitting here?
This activity aims to teach children the importance of conjunction along with its application. The activity aims to make students understand how to place different conjunctions in different sentences.
- To conduct this activity, divide the students into 2 members per team.
- Now, teachers should speak different sentences that require conjunction.
- Ask students to prepare their answers in a flashcard.
- They can write the answer with sketch pens or crayons.
- Within 45 seconds, they should show the flashcard in front of the class for that specific question.
With this activity, students learn to collaborate with different team members and also understand the application of conjunctions. Since the activity is based on a timer, it creates a challenging environment for learning the subject.
2. Statements Meeting Conjunctions
This activity is directed to involve students in learning the placement of conjunctions. The good part about the activity is that it leads to the clearance of various misconceptions about conjunctions.
- To conduct this activity, place students in a circle.
- Now, write different statements as well as answers in a chit that require conjunction.
- The bowl should have incomplete sentences as well as answers (both on different chits).
- Keep the bowl in the center and let each student pick a chit one by one.
- After everyone is done, start with the first student.
- Now, students need to read out whatever is there on the chit.
- For example, one student can get a chit – Paul ______ Jace are best friends. Some other students might get a chit of the conjunction and.
- Let each student read it and ask students to focus on different incomplete statements as well as conjunctions.
- After everyone is done, start with the student who started.
- Ask him/her as to whose chit has the right answer or whose chit has the right statement where the conjunction fits.
This activity tends to improvise critical thinking skills and helps sharpen memories. Students also get to understand the placement of conjunctions and teachers can further clear misconceptions for every wrong answer.
3. Act it Out
Creativity is a good way to teach conjunctions as students are likely to engage more. In this activity, students need to act as different conjunctions and make it an entertaining time for classmates.
- To conduct this activity, ask students to play the role of any conjunction.
- These conjunctions could be – and, but, also, therefore, yet, still, etc
- Now, students should speak about the usage of conjunctions along with some examples.
- They can also be creative to crack different jokes on conjunctions.
Playing the role of conjunction allows students to thoroughly research about that in terms that he/she is able to clear doubts of other students if any.
4. Let’s find conjunctions
This activity will help children understand the importance and application of conjunctions. The aim is to reflect that conjunctions are used often in the real world.
- To conduct this activity, ask students to spot various texts, billboards, store names, or sign boards around them.
- Now, ask them to carefully read those texts and evaluate if there is a conjunction.
- Ask them to use note-taking skills to note the place, statement, and possible conjunction that can be replaced with the one already used.
- They are likely to find various such instances in their surroundings.
- Give them a day or two to complete the activity and discuss their findings with the class.
This activity tends to make students aware of their surroundings and make a habit of reading and checking out textual information being used in unique and different ways for different purposes.
5. Conjunction Spotting
Students learn well when they’re provided with different learning environments. This unique activity encourages learning through spotting conjunctions. Conjunction Spotting can improve children’s cognitive and reasoning abilities.
- To conduct this activity, group students into teams of 2 or 3 members each.
- Teachers should now start reading a paragraph that includes numerous conjunctions. It could be a story or any news article.
- Ask students to spot conjunctions and start noting them down in sheets.
- They need to find the number of conjunctions concealed in the sentences by explaining them.
- Ask each team to share their responses with the other teams so they may know if any conjunction is missed out.
Team activities help students in building teamwork skills that further help them in understanding and collaborate with others. These help children improve their social skills and increase their awareness about conjunctions being used in different contexts of sentences.
6. Throw a Challenge
Students will have fun creating various sentences about certain conjunction in this special game. This game requires teamwork and offers a demanding environment.
- Create a team of three to four players and assign them various classroom locations.
- Teams will have to compete against one another to win this round.
- For instance, in the first round of the activity, team 1 takes on team 5.
- Asking children to come up with original team names will help them be more creative.
- Team 1 members must choose a conjunction and read it out loud in this situation.
- Following this, members of team 5 must begin drafting as many sentences as they can in a minute.
- Team 5 now has the chance to challenge any other team in the class as the minute expires.
Make sure that each youngster has a chance to read the text aloud. Through this activity, they learn to work in teams thereby improving their capacity for creative thinking.
7. Unjumbling Fun
Students can participate in teams or alone in this creative activity. Such an activity aims to make students able to critically analyze various statements while unjumbling.
- Divide the class now into teams of 3 students each.
- On the whiteboard, write 5 jumbled statements with conjunctions in them.
- Give them a minute to sort through the mess and discover the correct order before allowing them to write it on the board.
- Either one person can write while the teams brainstorm, or they can come up with their own plans.
- Ask them to point out the conjunctions after they have written the statements in the correct order.
Such activity helps them understand the application of conjunctions when used in different sentences. It also helps them work with different teams and understand the perspectives of their classmates.
Common conjunction mistakes
Even after learning conjunctions, it is common for students as well as adults to make certain conjunction-related mistakes. Explore how these mistakes are made and the ways to rectify them.
1. Application of And and But
Usage of “and” and “but” can be confusing to students. “And” is used to connect two sentences of the same idea while “but” is used to state different ideas.
Incorrect: Ron likes to eat apples but oranges.
Correct: Ron likes to eat apples and oranges.
2. Using two conjunctions together
Many times, students get confused if one conjunction delivers the message and are likely to use two conjunctions, making it wrong.
Incorrect: She asked that whether I was learning to play guitar.
Correct: She asked whether I was learning to play guitar.
3. Wrong Placement of Subject
Students are likely to make mistakes when they are working with conjunctions – either/or and neither/nor. Here, they might not misunderstand the placement of the subject.
Incorrect: Not only the teacher is smart but empathetic.
Correct: The teacher is not only smart but also empathetic.
Conclusion
Conjunctions are used in everyday verbal communication as well as written communication. It is crucial for parents and teachers to involve students in a learning environment that helps them understand the concept as well as its application.
The above-mentioned activities help teachers inculcate a positive and entertaining learning experience.
Students are more likely to achieve memory building, concentration, and collaborative skills. Through activities, students become creative and put critical thinking into the process. Hence, it is time to include these activities in your classroom to teach the concept of conjunctions.
I am Shweta Sharma. I am a final year Masters student of Clinical Psychology and have been working closely in the field of psycho-education and child development. I have served in various organisations and NGOs with the purpose of helping children with disabilities learn and adapt better to both, academic and social challenges. I am keen on writing about learning difficulties, the science behind them and potential strategies to deal with them. My areas of expertise include putting forward the cognitive and behavioural aspects of disabilities for better awareness, as well as efficient intervention. Follow me on LinkedIn