Bombs Away

🎯 Bombs Away: A Free ESL Battleship Game for Practicing Sentence Formation and Questions. Download a free editable PDF to help students master grammar through an engaging two-player activity

🎯 Bombs Away: A Free ESL Battleship Game for Practicing Sentence Formation and Questions

🎯 Bombs Away: A Free ESL Battleship Game for Practicing Sentence Formation and Questions

Looking for a fun and interactive way to get your ESL students speaking and practicing grammar? Look no further! Bombs Away is a free, downloadable two-player game that transforms traditional grammar drills into a strategic speaking competition. Ideal for practicing sentence formation, yes/no questions, and short answers, this editable PDF game board is adaptable to suit various grammar points—from simple verbs to more complex tenses.

Whether you’re teaching elementary students, teenagers, or adults, this game guarantees high engagement and student talk time. It’s especially effective for practicing 3rd person singular present tense, perfect tenses, dates, numbers, and more. Great for classrooms, tutoring, and online teaching!

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Bombs Away Game Instructions (Free PDF Download)

Bombs Away is a two player game that can be used to practice sentence formation or yes/no question and answer. This is not an original idea nor is it new to the ESL community, but it is laid out well and can be downloaded and adapted to whatever grammar you’d like to practice (as simple as letters and numbers or dates, or as complicated as perfect tenses.)  This activity should get every student talking all at the same time (either asking or answering in the target language.)

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The Instructions:

1. Students plot 2 of each boat (six boats total) in their ocean (elongate ovals) up and down or side to side. They can’t place them diagonal or crossing each other.
2. In turns, students use the coordinates (across, up and down) to make either a sentence or a question.
   For example:
   • Sentence: Ken plays soccer.
   • Question: Does Ken play soccer?
3. Their partner will track the coordinates in their ocean (Ken and play) and check if there is a boat in that square or not.
   If there is a boat, the students answer yes or hit.
   If there is no boat, the students answer no or miss.
   • Sentence: Hit. / Miss.
   • Question: Yes, he does. / No, he doesn’t.
   Both students then place a hit or miss mark in the appropriate square.
4. Students continue play until they sink all of their opponent’s ships or until time runs out (in which case you can count number of hits to decide the winner – if it’s a tie, go to sudden death.)

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🧩 The Board: Bombs Away

Just open the file and you can edit and save it. This particular file is set up for practicing 3rd person present singular.

Below are some examples of the same game with different values to practice different grammar points. If you are using this with lower elementary school students, you can first let them play with letters and numbers. Once they understand the game, it will be easier to get them to make full sentences. If your values don’t fit in the grid, just decrease the font size.

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✅ Why Teachers Love This Game

• Free and fully editable
• High student engagement
• Can be used for multiple grammar topics
• Great for pair work and speaking practice
• Works well for ESL/EFL, online or in-person

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Conclusion: Make Grammar Practice Fun and Strategic

If you’re looking for a free, low-prep way to get your students talking in full sentences and using key grammar forms, Bombs Away is your go-to resource. This printable grammar game is engaging, flexible, and sure to become a class favorite. Use it for grammar reviews, pair work, or even as a warm-up game. Just download, print, and let the sentence battles begin!

Want more free ESL PDF worksheets and interactive games? Explore more on Language Advisor, where we help you teach smarter, not harder.

📥 Download the Free Bombs Away PDF

DOWNLOAD THE PDF FOR FREE

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📩 Want more free ESL grammar lesson? Share this post with other teachers and let us know how it worked in your classroom!

💬 What other grammar topics would you like? Drop your ideas in the comments!

More ESL Classroom Games & Activities

Looking for more fun grammar activities for your English class? Check out these ideas:
✅ ESL Speaking Games to improve fluency
✅ Grammar Board Games for practicing sentence structures
✅ Interactive Writing Activities for ESL learners