This is my 8 year old’s Minecraft-themed sentence from when we played this game earlier today. As you can see, we have broken the rules by allowing extra adjectives. I’m also taking his word for it that ‘blaze’ qualifies as a noun, as I have no idea what it is…!

Try out this quick family game which challenges your verbal skills, as well as your grammar.

1. Each family member has to say a sentence which follows the pattern: Noun, verb, adverb, adjective. For example, I might start by saying, ‘Mark (proper noun) walked (verb) quickly (adverb) in the quiet (adjective) garden.
2. Keep going round, challenging each other to see who can invent the funniest sentences which follow the same pattern. If someone omits a word class, then they are out and the game continues until you have a winner. ‘Prizes’ can also be awarded for the funniest, most inventive sentences.

Make it simpler by reducing/changing the word classes e.g. Noun, verb, adverb.

Make it trickier by adding extra elements e.g. your sentence has to end with a prepositional phrase – ‘in the quiet garden’ would be an example of this. Or you could challenge yourselves further by only allowing adverbs/adverbial phrases that don’t have an -ly ending.

Make it crazier: by adding a theme to your sentences. For example, you could make all your sentences Minecraft-related, ‘The creeper crept stealthily towards the fat pig.’

Fit it into your routine by challenging each other around the breakfast table/the dinner table/on a car journey/when out for a walk.