Clause paths

This is a short game that can be used at the beginning or end of a lesson, to consolidate understanding of single clause sentences, multi clause sentences and subordinate clauses.

The idea is to get all students involved in a 'clause path' through the whole class. The first person says a main clause and the next person adds a subordinate clause onto it. The next person uses the previous subordinate clause as the beginning of a new sentence and completes it using a main clause. The pattern can then be looped round the entire class. You could even turn it into a competition by eliminating students who don't quite get it right!

For example, the clause path might look something like this:

Student 1: We were late for school (main clause)

Student 2: Because it was snowing (sub clause) 

Student 3: She wore a bright pink woolly hat (main clause)

Student 4: Even though it was the middle of a heatwave (sub clause)

Student 5: They still wanted hot soup to eat (main clause)

And so on!

It might be worth displaying a list of subordinating conjunctions on the board as the students do the game to help them out - remember that subordinating conjunctions appear at the beginning of subordinate clauses, for example: after, as, although, because, before, if, in order that, until, though, unless, whereas, while, etc.