hi I have been asked by the Japanese teacher to come up with an activity or two dealing with "passive voice" Now, after I looked up what that was, hehe, the only activity I could come up with is just saying or writing sentences and having the students fill in the blanks. For example... "The window was broken by the baseball" or "She is loved by him"

Does anyone have any other ideas that would make it a bit more interesting?? Thanks for the help!

Erin - at the JHS I usually play the version of Bombs Away that's on this site. It will ge tthem to practice making sentences www.mes-english.com/games/bombsaway.php

I was emailed a suggestion on that and the guy told me he added a dice to the game and labeled it yesterday, last week, last saturday, 2 days ago ... Then the students had to role the dice and make a sentences like '2 days ago Doraemon was eaten by Hello Kitty.'

Famous inventions are a great topic for passive voice. Because you will be describing the invention, the sentences will naturally come out in passive tense. It's also a good way to practice the question words (who, where, when, why, how).

Some ideas: the lightbulb, car, paper clip, toilet. You might ask your JTE if he/she can suggest some Japanese inventions to include as well. There are all sorts of activities you can do with the information.

Thanks for the suggestions:) and I'm sure we all wish it was Hello Kitty eaten by something hehe
I'll work on that game today and have it ready for next week. Thanks again!

If you are using a worksheet, maybe you can try to write the answers on a card and have them get into groups and play "karuta." You or the JTE take turns reading the sentences and the first student to swipe the correct card gets a point.

another good one for passives is (but maybe limited verbs?)

take along a pile of things (or flash cards)

eg Beer, whiskey, ruler, eraser, etc

beer is made from .....

my ruler was made in .......

etc

I was thinking you could make a guessing game, maybe a who/what done it.

You could have some suspects, 20-30. Pull out the sentences from a hat, your head, or your ear if you're really good at magic.

Kenta was hit by something small. What wah he hit by? (elicit a guess from each student or group.)
S1: Kenta was hit by a mouse.
S2: kenta was hit by a ...

If you don't get an answer, pull out the next clue.

Kenta was hit by something small and hard.
S1: Kenta was hit by a rock!

Bing Bong! Bing Bong! Bing Bong! They get a point and everyone writes down the sentence.

Next problem and so on. For good classes you can have the groups come up with some examples and maybe some things that weren't on our list of suspects...

thats a good idea

They could have a lot of fun with that!

Mark,
Great game idea! I have to work on the "Magic" though.

In order to practise present perfect passive two pictures can be used.
One of a house in disrepair,e.g. with broken windows, damaged door etc
and that of the same house after it has been repaired. The students can spot the differences and talk about them. Or the picture of a garden before and after working in it. e.g. The trees have been pruned. The dry leaves have been burned etc., or a recipe and a picture of how much has already been done towards the completion of the recipe, eg. the carrots have been peeled, the onions have been chopped, the cucumbers have been sliced etc.

try this

http://www.onestopenglish.com/Resources ... uwsp40.pdf

teachers notes here
http://www.onestopenglish.com/Resources ... utnp39.pdf

note you might have to register but its free

One activity I do is this.....students think about 2 famous people and imagine they got or will get married (decide if you want to practice past or future).Write on the board the things that are necessary for a wedding: cake, clothes, rings, place, invitations, etc. Students prapare a presentation in pairs or trios about that. For example "The dress was bought in Paris. Sushi was eaten at the party. Champagne was drunk that day." Etc.

Students really get into it.

Can anyone help me out? I'm trying to find some before and after pictures of a house to try a similar activity in my class.

I prepared this game for passives: once I had explained the passive, my students had to work in pairs and prepare five questions using passive, and provide three answers (two wrong one right). I did this with several classes so I obtained a large number of questios.Once they had been corrected I took all the questions and prepared a powerpoint card with each one. Then we went to the computer room and made a a slide show with powerpoint in which they had to answer each question to see who was the winner (the one who got more correct answers).
What I like most about this game is that you can include anything (I also included questions made by younger students who were studying the past tense, so they had prepared questions using the past). The bad part is that typing each question on the compute to prepare the powerpoint slide show takes quite a long time, but once it's done you can use it with different levels and in different years.

I know it's pretty basic, but I've had luck using sentence scramble games for the passive voice. First I write up 15 sentences using passive voice. Each sentence is cut up and put into a separate numbered envelope. Students, in groups of four or five) work to unscramble the envelope I give them. After the have finished unscrambling and writing the sentence in their notebooks, they are given another numbered envelope. The first group to unscramble all 15 sentences wins. Some strategy/luck comes into play when the envelope one team needs is in use by another team.