3 Fun Activities to Help Students Master the -s Ending in English using input processing
Learning the -s ending for third-person singular verbs can be tricky. Here are three engaging activities that use Van Patten’s input processing method to help students grasp this important rule.
1. Video Activity: Guess the First Word
This activity is designed to focus students on verb forms to determine subject pronouns.
How it Works:
In a video, students hear sentences where the first word (either He or I) is replaced with the word “ermm”. Their task is to listen to the verb form and decide if the sentence starts with He or I. For example, “ermm likes ice cream” signals He, while “ermm like ice cream” signals I. This sharpens their ability to connect verb endings with subjects.
2. Board Game: Sentence Building
This game turns practicing sentence structure into a fun, interactive challenge.
Preparation:
Print the following board game. It is ideal to play the game in pairs, but students can play in larger groups too.
You will need a copy of the correct answers too. Again one copy per group is enough.
How it Works:
- Students throw a dice and move along a board filled with different words.
- When they land on a space, they must create a sentence starting with the word that is written there, describing what the subject does (e.g., “He eats lunch”).
- Their partner holds a key with the correct sentences. If the player makes a mistake, they return to their previous spot.
This encourages students to use correct verb forms while having fun with their peers.
3. Video Activity: Picture Guess – input processing
This video activity integrates visuals with language processing to reinforce correct verb endings.
How it Works:
Students hear sentences where the first word is replaced with a “hmmm” word again. However, this time, they also see two pictures. They must choose which picture matches the sentence by listening carefully to the verb form. For instance, “hmmm eats an apple” would correspond to the picture showing one boy eating an apple , while “hmmm eat an apple” would match with a group of people eating apples.
These activities not only make learning the -s ending engaging but also focus on natural language processing, helping students internalize the correct use of verbs in context. Try them out in your classroom!
If you are intrested in input processing, you can find another video for teaching the present simple tense here.
Thank God for leading me.
