When I was teaching my classes online, we couldn’t practice speaking. We had to use Google Meet and the interaction was pretty limited. Once we returned to our classes I flooded my students with speaking activities. In this post, I would like to share the ones that I used to practise the past simple tense.
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The present perfect tense is one of the most difficult tenses for my students. Therefore, I have spent a lot of time creating various materials to teach this tense. To save your time, I share the materials here.
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Some students find it difficult to learn all the forms of the past simple tense. The following worksheets will help them learn this grammar easily.
I have already shared many materials to teach the past simple tense here. You can find activities to teach irregular verbs, a great post on teaching questions in the past simple tense and a post on teaching negative in the past simple tense. However, this post is different. Here, I would like to share a set of activities where students can practise the past simple tense in an entertaining and creative way using the poem Michael Rosen Rap.
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Elementary students often struggle with verbs. They know very few of them and this deficit becomes obvious at the moment they start learning the past simple tense. To help them I created the following post where I try to teach 22 frequent verbs and their past tense.
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In this post, you can find an infographic with all the verbs and four games to learn the verbs.
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Verbs in the past simple tense – infographic
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Ask your students to study the following infographic. Drill the pronunciation with them and give them about five minutes to memorise the words.
You might ask your students to divide the verbs to regular and irregular verbs, too.
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Verbs in the past simple tense – games
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Then play the following games. If each student has got their own computer, they play on their own. If you use an IWB, ask one student to come to the front of the class and the others try to help him/her.
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[tab]Darts game[/tab]
[tab]Dice game[/tab]
[tab]Time game[/tab]
[tab]Length game[/tab]
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In this games, students should write the verbs. They must divide the verbs with a comma and a space. If they answer correctly they have to stop the dart to get as many points as possible. The highest score they can achieve is 60, if they stop the dart in the triple of the number 20. The aim of this game is to get as many points as possible.
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[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/Irregular_verbs_past_simple/darts game/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Darts game – full screen[/su_button]
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In this games, students should write the verbs. They must divide the verbs with a comma and a space. If they answer correctly they have to stop the dice to get as many points as possible. They get one point for each point on the dice and they get 10 points bonus if the dice show the same number.
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[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/past tense verbs/dice/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Dice game – full screen[/su_button]
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In this game, student write the verbs. They must divide the verbs with a comma and a space. If they answer correctly, they have to guess how long is the line on the screen. The better their guess is the more points they get.
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[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/past tense verbs/length/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Length game[/su_button]
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In this game, student write the verbs. They must divide the verbs with a comma and a space. If they answer correctly, they have to stop the countdown when it reaches zero. The closer to zero they get the more points they get.
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[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/past tense verbs/time/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Guess the time game[/su_button]
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Which game do you like best
Yesterday a friend sent me a song he’d written that uses only the past simple and past continuous tenses. He asked me how I liked it, and I had to admit it was great. A few hours later I encountered a short explanation of the same grammar by Australiaplus.com, and I realised that I wanted to share both with my friends on the Internet. This post is the result.
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In this post there is the song by Chris Barickman, a video explanation, an explanation by Australiaplus.com, an infographic and an interactive quiz.
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Past simple and continuous – song
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Let’s start with the song. Please listen and complete the lyrics:
The lyrics worksheet:
Past continuous tense lyrics
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Past simple and continuous – explanation
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Now listen to the following explanation.
And here is another short explanation of the same grammar by Australiaplus.com:
https://soundcloud.com/australiaplus/past-continuous
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Past simple and continuous – infographic
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Here is a set of infographics created by www.engames.eu.
See how the questions are formed in the past continuous tense
See when you should use the past continuous tense
If you want to download the full infographic in superb quality, you can do that here:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/grammar/past_continuous/past-continuous-full.jpg” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Past continuous tense – full infographic[/su_button]
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Past simple and continuous – quiz
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The following quiz is in HTML 5 so it will play on all mobile devices and desktop computers. Your task is to choose the correct tense – either the past simple or the past continuous. Enjoy the games if you pass the tests.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/grammar/past_continuous/Past simple or continuous test (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Past simple or past continuous? – quiz[/su_button]
We usually present just one tense to students. However, ever since I was a student I have always wanted to see a more complex picture and get more tenses at the same time. And as we have just finished the whole textbook with one of my elementary students an opportunity presented itself to sum up all the five tenses covered in the textbook. As a result, I created a special timeline which in combination with my explanation helped my student clarify the usage of all the tenses. I hope it will work for you too.
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Five tenses – timeline
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Have a look at the timeline below and read the explanation carefully.
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Five tenses – explanation
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At the top of the mind map there is the blue Present simple tense. It is high above the timeline as the tense is used for things that are time neutral. We use this tense for facts and actions that get repeated regularly.
The pink shape belongs to past simple tense. There are three arrows pointing to different points in the past as the tense is used when we speak about finished events in the past.
The light blue is reserved for BE going to which is used for plans in the future (for elementary students I do not mind saying that it is the future tense 🙂 ).
The orange colour is for present continuous and the arrow points at NOW as the tense is used for speaking about the events happening at the moment of speaking (again, it is very simplified but for elementary students fine).
The yellow colour shows the usage of present perfect. It is used for past actions which are somehow connected with the present moment. Most frequently we use it to speak about experience (you say what you have experienced up to now).
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Five tenses – Form
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If you need to practise the form of the tenses there are great posts at our site which show all the details:
You can find a nice explanation of present simple and continuous on BBC pages.
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Five tenses – Quizzes
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The following quiz is in HTML5. It contains 30 items and you can attempt it anywhere on your mobile phone or desktop. Your task is to put the verbs in the brackets into the correct tense (choose one of the tenses presented here). If you get over 70% of the answers correct, you can play the game Math pop. Enjoy!
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If you want to try the quiz on the full screen click the button below:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/grammar/five_tenses/Five tenses (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#771f9b” size=”6″]Five tenses quiz [/su_button]
You can find more exercises to practise these five tenses at https://engames.eu/five-tenses-exercises/
Past simple is one of the most important English tenses. Scott Thornbury once wrote that he would sacrifice all the perfect tenses and other grammar if he could teach past simple properly. I agree with him, because if the students could you this tense, then I would probably forgive them everything.
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Basic English grammar rules – infographic
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To teach all the basic English grammar rules about the past tense I use the following mind map.
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Basic English grammar rules – online quiz
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I believe that it is critical that students know the irregular verbs. Here you can find two games to learn and practise the verbs. You cannot master the basic grammar rules without some memory work and a lot of practice. To play the games, click the download link and open the downloaded file in Adobe Reader. Then click on the game and enjoy.
During the week more activities on Past simple tense are coming. Watch out for them.
To be the first to learn about our latest games and activities follow us on TWITTER:
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Many students find the difference between present perfect tense and past simple very confusing. To help them I have created the following infographic.
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