Possessive and plural swat attack
Materials
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4 apostrophe cards (2 ‘apostrophe s’ cards (‘s), 2 ‘apostrophe’ cards (‘))
4 plural cards (2 ‘s’ cards, 2 ‘es’ cards)
4 fly swats
Deck of noun cards
Answer chart
How to play
1) Arrange the apostrophe and plural cards in a way that all players are in striking
distance of each of the four suffixes (‘), (‘s), (s), (es).
2) Distribute the flyswatters amongst the players, one student will not receive a
flyswatter as this person is the dealer and score keeper.
3) The dealer will draw a card from the noun deck. They will read aloud the noun, and
whether a plural or possessive needs to be made. If the card doesn’t specify, the dealer
can decide whether they would like it to be made into a plural or possessive.
4) The players must strike the appropriate card with their flyswatter. The first person to
answer correctly wins that word, and receives the nun card as an indication of their
point.
5) The student with the most points wins.
NOTE:
Creating teams can foster an additional layer of collaboration or competition amongst the
students.
Additional rules such as ‘first to five wins’, ‘winner becomes dealer’, etc. will allow the game
to progress at a faster rate and further encourage a competitive spirit.
Requiring the players to use the newly formed possessive or plural noun in a sentence will
also provide that student with an opportunity to express their understanding of that word in
context, as well as at as a model for their peers.
Links to Australian Curriculum
Language:
Text structure and organisation.
-Understand how the grammatical category of possessives is signalled through apostrophes
and how to use apostrophes with common and proper nouns (ACELA1506)
Elaborations:
-Learning that in Standard Australian English, regular plural nouns ending in ‘s’ form the
possessive by adding just the apostrophe, for example, My parents’ car.
-Learning that in Standard Australian English, for proper nouns the regular possessive form is
always possible, but a variant form without the second ‘s’ is sometimes found, for example,
James’s house, or, James’ house.
Key learning objectives
This activity will allow students to demonstrate and refine their abilities to:
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Identify when an ‘apostrophe s’ is required, and when a single apostrophe is used.
Correctly use (s) or (es) to show plurality of preselected nouns.
Express an understanding of the different rules and uses of possessive and plural
nouns.
Cooperate with peers to reinforce their own understanding of possession and plurality.
Educational value
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By working in a collaborative, yet competitive environment, students are
encouraged to ensure their peers understand the content to further their teams’
progress (Webb & Palincsar, 1996).
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The answers chart provides the correct answers, which will allow the dealer to
monitor their peers’ responses, reinforcing the correct use of plurality and
possession (Woolfolk Hoy & Tschannen-Moran, 1999).
This activity encompasses the five elements of the Johnson’s (1999) effective
group learning guidelines:
Face-to-face interaction: The students are interacting in a competitive, hands
on game, requiring verbal and physical communication with those involved.
Positive interdependence: The students are mutually dependent on each other
to monitor and assess each other’s understanding of possession and plurality,
as well as correct each other when needed. This is particularly reinforced
when a team based approach is used.
Individual accountability: Additionally, each student is accountable for their
own learning. In the individual games students can only score points through
their own attempts to answer the questions.
Interpersonal and small-group collaborative skills: The participants are
required to communicate their ideas and understanding through their
interactions with the group. This is especially important when the sentence
rule is used.
Group processing: The collaborative processing of the sentence rule is an
example of the group processing required to complete the activity. The group
also processes the actions of the participants to ensure the game is fair and
safe.
References
Johnson, D. W. & Johnson, R. (1999). Learning together and alone: Cooperation,
competition, and individualization (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Webb, N. & Palincsar, A. (1996). Group processes in the classroom. In D. C. Berliner & R.
C. Calfee (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (pp. 841-876). New York:
Macmillan.
Woolfolk Hoy, A. & Tschannen-Moran, M. (1999). Implications of cognitive approaches to
peer learning for teacher education. In A. O’Donnell & A. King (Eds.), Cognitive
perspectives on peer learning (pp. 257-284). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.