Teaching English using interesting and fun methods helps students understand the idea behind it in a better way. Hence, teachers can explain modal or auxiliary verbs to students using different games and activities to make learning enjoyable.
Modal verbs are words used along with the main verb in a sentence. When added, these words change the main verb’s modality (a particular state or mode in which something happens). Modal words can be categorized as words with a high modality like “must” and those with a low modality like “could.”
With that basic introduction, let’s dive straight into the topic of discussion. Below you can find some exciting ways to engage kids in class or at home to understand and practice modal verbs.
Fun games for learning modal verbs
1. Guess the Job
In this game, you can ask students to find a partner. Next, you can tell one of them to think of a job and give hints about it to their partner so they can guess which job it is. To incorporate modal verbs in this activity, students will have to use statements using modal verbs mentioned below to give clues for guessing.
- Needn’t (The professionals needn’t drive a bus.)
- Mustn’t (They mustn’t wear a stethoscope.)
- Have to (They have to use a blackboard or a whiteboard.)
- Don’t have to (They don’t have to wear a uniform.)
Once the partner gives the correct answer, students can repeat this game with new partners so that they can practice these modal verbs a couple of times.
2. Find the Truth
This game requires a student to come forward and say three statements about themselves. Out of the 3, one statement must be true, and the other two must be false. The remaining class will then have to ask questions and try to guess which of the three statements is true about the person.
This game enforces the use of the modal verb “can” when forming sentences. For instance, the student conducting the game needs to use sentences like –
- I can swim for 3 hours.
- I can cook Italian food.
- I can play guitar.
Parents can also play this game at home with their kids to support classroom learning. This would be a one-on-one game where the parent and the child say statements to each other, and the other person must find which statement is true.
3. Find Your Partner
Here is an activity to practice modal verbs of ability like can, could, may, be able to, and might. You can give an empty card to each one of the students and have them fill it with a list of their abilities, playing a game, driving a car, and so on.
Now the students must move around in the class and try to find someone who can do at least three activities out of all the ones mentioned in their card. This game also makes an excellent ice breaker activity that teachers can use during a team building session or any other activity to warm up the conversation among students.
4. What’s That Sound?
Here’s another game to encourage students to use modal verbs like must, might, and could. Divide the students into groups and let them guess the sounds you make behind a curtain. It could be the sound of keys rattling, beads in a box, etc.
While trying to find what sound it is, have the students use modals in their sentences. They could use statements like “It could be keys” or “It must be keys” while talking to each other. The team that guesses the most number of sounds is declared the winner.
Interesting modal verbs activities
1. Sentence Framing Activity
Begin this activity by writing three words on the board – certain, possible, and impossible. Below it, write a sentence and ask the students to modify it into sentences that reflect whether something is certain, possible, or impossible using modal verbs. For example,
“We go out for dinner” can be modified into –
- We will go out for dinner. (Certain)
- We might go out for dinner. (Possible)
- We cannot go out for dinner. (Impossible)
A few sentences to help you get started with the activity are given below –
- I go to work.
- I have green tea.
- We go out for a walk.
- We dance in the rain.
- They eat pancakes for breakfast.
2. Modal Verbs Songs
Songs can be a valuable tool for teaching new English concepts to students. They not only make learning enjoyable but also help in improving their pronunciation and listening skills. It also builds their vocabulary and sentence structure.
You can use a song to conduct an activity in the class. Play the song a few times and ask the students to write the phrases they can recognize and the words they don’t know the meaning of, which you can explain later. Once the students are well-versed with the song, you can give them a worksheet for a “fill in the blanks” activity in which the students fill in the missing words of the song.
Here we share a few of them for your convenience.
- The modal verb song
- Sing with Grammarsaurus – modal verbs
- Modal verbs song – Rockin’ English
- Modal verbs song | English grammar for kids
3. Permission and Prohibition
This is an activity in which students have to use permission and prohibition modal verbs like can and can’t. Ask the students to write a few laws pertaining to their age in the country. To give you an idea, they can write something like –
- You can drive a car when you are 16 but only with your parents.
- You cannot drink unless you are 19 years old.
Once all the students have compiled their list of permitted and prohibited laws, you can start a discussion where they can share their views about the particular law and whether they would change any of them if they were in charge.
4. Sentence Correction Activity
In this simple activity, all you need to do is write a few sentences related to the usage of modal verbs on the blackboard/ whiteboard. It should be a mix of correct and incorrect sentences. You can now ask the students to point out which sentences are incorrect and how they can be corrected by using the right form of modal verbs.
5. Arrive at Conclusions
Begin by describing a short situation to your students. Now ask them to write down sentences pertaining to what might have resulted in the situation. The students must use a modal verb to arrive at their conclusions. Here is a sample situation –
“The house was a mess when I came back from work.”
Examples of conclusions –
- The kids might have gone crazy and turned the house into a mess.
- There may have been a robbery and thieves messed it up.
- Somebody in the house must have been upset. So he messed up everything in anger.
Let’s look at other situations that you can use to conduct this activity in your class.
- My car had a flat tire in the morning.
- There was a loud thud at the entrance of the hall.
- Many kids were late to school today.
In Conclusion
Incorporating diverse activities in the classroom makes learning interactive and fun. Just like you can use activities for teaching irregular verbs and regular verbs, modal verb activities are a great resource to engage students.
Games and activities help students understand the difference between various modal verbs used in the English language. You can also develop your own activities to teach commonly used modals like can, could, may, might, should, shall, will, would, must, and have. If not, you may allow kids to play virtual modal verbs games available online to conduct your session.
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