In the previous lesson, I taught the affirmative of the verb TO BE and now it is time to revise the grammar and explain the short forms.
First, we need to revise. Students need to revise a lot, or they will forget. So let’s start with revising the pronouns. Play, the following video. First, students listen and repeat and then they say the correct pronouns before they hear the correct answer.
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Second, play the next video. Now, the students need to supply the correct form of the verb to be. Students need to read the whole sentences.
Third, hand out the cards from the previous lesson and students play the memory game.
Fourth, the teacher explains the short forms using the graphic organizer from the previous lesson.
Fifth, students stand up and they make sure that there is enough space around them. Play the following video. Students now listen and point to the form of the sentence they hear. If they hear a short form they point to the right and if they hear a long form they point to the left. To make it more competitive, sit down those who make a mistake or hesitate for too long.
Sixth, play the following video and students repeat the sentence they hear, but they must supply the short form of the verb to be.
Seventh, hand out the following worksheet. As my students are very tactile and they love touching things, I created the following worksheet. Print it out (both pages on one piece of paper) and hand it out. Students cut the worksheet and now they can model the short forms by folding the slips correctly. If they fold them well, the short form will cover the long form precisely. In this way, they see the formation of the short form.
It is a good idea to repeat the most popular activities at the end of the lesson.
I hope you like the ideas which I share here and that they will come hand when you teach the verb to be.
I have already taught the verb to be many times. But this year I failed exemplarily. So I stopped and spent a week planning a sequence of lessons to really teach this basic grammar point. In these posts, I would like to share the lesson plans and materials I have created.
[su_heading size=”20″]Lesson 1 – Affirmative[/su_heading]To be able to teach this grammar, I found out that I need to teach the pronouns first. If my students fail to understand the pronouns, they cannot learn the grammar.
So I start with the following video. First, students listen and repeat the pronouns. It is a good idea to tell the students the meaning of the words in their MT now. Otherwise, they might be confused and they will learn nothing.
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Next, students watch the video and supply the correct pronoun.
Third, print the following game. It is best to print it on a slightly heavier paper and laminate it. Ask the students to use their scissors and cut the first two columns. Students need to cut the papers into similar squares.
Once they finish, they shuffle the cards and then they try to match the pictures with pronouns. The teacher goes around and checks their answers.
Fourth, display or print the following graphic organiser and explain the grammar.
Fifth, ask students to use the graphic organiser and write as many sentences as possible. Set a time limit (5 minutes are enough) and make it a competition.
Sixth, ask the students to cut the third column of the game into cards. Now, they use only the black and red words. They shuffle the cards and then they match them. The teacher checks their answers again.
Seventh, students cut the last column into cards and they play the following memory game. They turn all the cards face down. Students work in pairs and they take turns. One of the students turns three cards. If she is able to create a sentence which consists of three colours (black, red and blue), they can keep the cards. The winner is the student who collects most cards. My students love this game and they really care if the sentences are correct.
Eighth, students place the black, red and blue cards in front of them and the teacher says a sentence in their MT and the students make the sentence in English using the cards.
Ninth, students work in pairs and one of them says a sentence in their MT and the other student makes it using the cards. Activities 8 and 9 are possible only if the students share the same MT. If this is not the case, just skip the activities.
Tenth, students watch the following video and they say the whole sentence adding the verb to be in the correct form.
By following the sequence of activities, my students mastered the pronouns and corresponding forms of the verb to be. In the following lesson, I am going to teach the short forms of the verb to be.
Beginners have to memorise a lot of new words and grammar. To make the process a bit easier, I and my colleague came up with a set of simple grammar rhymes that help our learners remember the crucial verb forms.
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In this post, I would like to share the rhymes with you. There is a short video for two rhymes and the text. And one of the rhymes comes only with the audio file. It seems that the best way to teach the grammar is to ask your students to memorise the poems, and then they use the underlying grammar automatically. I hope you will find these rhymes useful.
Simple grammar rhymes – Verb TO BE
[/su_heading][su_spacer]I am small.
You are tall.
He is fat.
It is bad.
She is late.
It´s not great.
We are old.
They are cold. [su_spacer][su_heading]
Simple grammar rhymes – Verb HAVE GOT
[/su_heading][su_spacer]She’s got a cat
He’s got a pet.
I’ve got a ball.
You’ve got a doll.
We’ve got a house.
They’ve got a mouse.
Sue’s got a parrot
It’s got a carrot. [su_spacer][su_heading]
Simple grammar rhymes – Present simple tense
[/su_heading][su_spacer]You say.
I play.
We learn.
They turn.
He works.
She talks.
It rains.
He trains.
They live.
We make.
We give.
They take.
And here is just the audio recording:
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Rhymes.mp3-present-simple.mp3″ target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Present simple – simple grammar rhyme MP3[/su_button]
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Simple grammar rhymes – How to use them
[/su_heading][su_spacer] I always use the rhymes to introduce the grammar. I play the video and then we read the rhyme together with the video several times. I hand out the text and the students have to learn the rhyme by heart.If you teach a monolingual class, it is a good idea to translate the rhyme.
In the following lesson, I ask the students to recite the rhyme and I introduce the grammar and we do several exercises.
I have to say that it really works and it is much easier for the students to learn and understand the grammar then.
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Simple grammar rhymes – Share
[/su_heading][su_spacer] If you have created your own rhyme, please do not be afraid to share it here. Please, post your rhymes in the comments. Thank you.What is the best way to present the rhymes?
It is a well accepted fact that students remember things better if they discover them for themselves. However, it is a real challenge to design our materials in such a way that we allow the students to discover the rules. I have tried to create such materials for my students and they were really successful. While last year my students often formed the questions wrongly, this year they claim it is really easy.
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In this post I am going to share with you a worksheet with the two activities that will help your students discover the rules how to form questions and short answers with the verb to be in the present simple tense. Moreover, there is a quiz where your students can practise the grammar.
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Verb to be – questions and short answers
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Print the following worksheet in colour and hand out the first page. Go through the sentences and ask the students to translate them. [su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Forming-questions-and-short-answers.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Verb to BE forming questions and short answers[/su_button]Then tell your students to form questions in the squares under the sentences. Do not help your students for two or three minutes. Let them discover the logic for themselves. After the couple of minutes go around the classroom and help the struggling students. Show them a question or two and I am sure they will understand the principle.
Check the questions at the end of the exercise.
Now, hand out the second page. Once again, give your students a few minutes to complete as much as they can in the worksheet. Then, help the students by saying that to complete it correctly they need to use the table on the right and show them one sentence as an example. Then go around and help the struggling students.
Check the answers at the end.
And now your students know how to form the questions and answers.
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Verb to be – quiz
[/su_heading][su_spacer]The following quiz can help your students practise questions and short answers with the verb to be in the present simple tense either at school or at home. At the beginning, students should complete the questions and short answers. In the second part, students have to put the words into the correct order to form the questions. The students will be rewarded with a game if they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.
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[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/verb_to_be/FORMING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Verb to be – quiz[/su_button]
When I was looking for some materials to teach the present simple tense of the verb to be I was rather unpleasantly surprised by the fact that there are very few speaking activities. Obviously, the verbs IS/AM/ARE are taught to elementary students whose vocabulary is severely limited. But, there should be some speaking activities anyway. And I could not find any.
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That was why I decide to create one. Moreover, I managed to find a great song to help me drill the verb to be with my students. I hope you like the two activities, too.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Verb to be in present tense – song
[/su_heading][su_spacer] When I searched the internet I found the following simple song by Rockin’ English Lessons. It is simple, short and yet catchy. My students loved it and sang it three times.Display the song and then simply play it and ask your students to sing along. It is a wonderful drill.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Verb to be in present tense – Speaking/h2>[/su_heading][su_spacer]
Print the following worksheet.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Verb-to-be-speaking.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Verb to be present simple speaking[/su_button]ADVERT:
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Cut it in the middle. Students work in pairs. Each students gets one half of the worksheet.
First students complete the exercise 1 with the verbs IS/AM/ARE. They use only these three verbs. To check their answers here, is a simple way to do it. Say:”If your first sentence starts with “My father …” STAND UP.” Now go through the sentences with those who are standing. Then ask them to sit down and ask the others to stand up and check their answers too.
In the second task, students read their sentences and write YES or NO into the squares provided. They write YES, if the sentence is true for them and NO if it is not.
In the third task, they work in pairs and read the sentences to their partner. Their partner listens and says YES, if they think it is true. If they think it is not true, they say NO. They count how many times times they were right. (About 25% of students get all their answers right.)
In exercise 4 students use the negative forms of the verb to be in the present simple tense. They take five of the NO sentences from the exercise 1 and write them in negative.
The last exercise is a classical gap fill. Students complete it with the correct form of the verb to be in the present simple tense.
The verb TO BE is the most important verb in English. Unfortunately, it is the most irregular verb in English, too. However, as all students of English manage to master its forms in the end, there is no reason to dispair. This mastery comes through practise.
In this post I would like to share with you several several exercises and games in which your students can practise the verb. There are about 90 different sentences in which students should use the verb TO BE. The vocabulary is limited so that students with a vocabulary of 100 words will be able to do the exercises.
In this post there is an infographic, a worksheet, an online quiz and two games. I hope it is enough and your students will learn the forms of the verb to be.
[su_spacer][su_heading]Verb to be – infographic
[/su_heading][su_spacer] In the following infographic all the affirmative and negative forms are covered. The lower part gives a simple rule of thumb to help your students decide which form of the verb to be they should use.
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If you teach a monolingual group of elementary students it is a good idea to translate the second infographic.
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Verb to be – worksheet
[/su_heading][su_spacer] The following worksheet is nothing fancy. There are no sophisticated communicative activities or unusual exercises. There are six simple exercises to practise all the forms of the verb TO BE. [su_button url=”https://engames.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Verb-to-be-worksheet.pdf” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Verb to be worksheet[/su_button] [su_spacer][su_heading]Verb to be – online quiz and games
[/su_heading][su_spacer] The following quiz can help your students practise all the forms of the verb to beat home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the beginnings and ends of the sentences and complete the sentences with the verb TO BE. In the second part, students have to put the verb TO BE into the correct form. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices. [su_button url=”https://engames.eu/grammar/Verb to be/Verb to be quiz (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Verb to be – quiz[/su_button]The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct form of the verb to be and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.
The second game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/grammar/Verb to be/Verb to be on target.html” target=”blank” background=”#f56b68″ size=”6″]Verb to be – On Target game[/su_button] [su_spacer][su_heading]Verb to be – links
[/su_heading][su_spacer] There are some great activities to practise the verb to be at British Council site.If your students do not know the adjectives used in this post, there is great song teaching the adjectives by my friend Jules from English Through Music Madrid.
As I mentioned before, next year I am going to teach low level students, so I am trying to prepare some materials which I will be able to use with them. A week ago I wrote a post on the verb to be in affirmative and negative sentences. In this post I would like to explain the creation of questions with the verb to be.
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In this post there is a mind map showing the usage of the verb to be in questions and then there are several pictures with examples. Under the pictures there is a simple quiz repeating what the students have just learnt. Then there are two quizes to practise the questions and short answers.
Questions with the verb TO BE – mind map
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Here is a simple mind map showing the way the questions are made with the verb to be. Simply swap the verb and the subject.In the short answers you say YES/NO + the pronoun and the verb to be.
In the following picture you can see some examples of the questions:
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Questions with the verb TO BE – games
[/su_heading][su_spacer] Let’s start with something really easy. Your task is to complete the questions in the same way as they are in the example above. All the games in this section are in HTML5, so they should work without any problems on your mobile devices.[h5p id=”3″]
Questions with the verb to be – quiz
It was really easy, wasn’t is? Let us try something more difficult. Try to complete the questions in the following quiz. If you succeed you will get a chance to play the game Tower Defence. Good luck.
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/verb_to_be/Questions_tobe_tower (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#2dd2ef” size=”9″]Verb to be – questions quiz[/su_button]
And now it is time to practise your short answers to the questions. Try the following quiz and if you pass it you will have a chance to play the game called Tic-Tac-Toe. Will you win?
[su_button url=”https://engames.eu/verb_to_be/short_answers_quiz (Web)/index.html” target=”blank” background=”#98ef2d” size=”9″]Verb to be – short answers[/su_button]
Next school year I am going to teach low level students, so I started to prepare materials for them. The first one deals with the verb to be in affirmative and negative sentences.
The verb to be is the most important verb in English. You need it all the time. That is why solid knowledge of this grammar is vital. Spend your time learning this grammar it will pay off.
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In this post you will find a mind map and two games for elementary students. I tried to limit the vocabulary, so even a complete beginners would be able to do the exercises.
VERB TO BE – mind map
[/su_heading][su_spacer] This mind map explains the usage of the verb to be. Moreover, it can serve as a worksheet. Print it out and after explaining everything, ask the students to fill in the gaps.Study and fill in the gaps.
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VERB TO BE – games
[/su_heading][su_spacer] The first game is in HTML5 so it should be playable on any mobile device. Your task is to complete the quiz correctly with verb to be. If you get more than 80% of your answers correct, you will get to a game called Tower defence and you can play as long as you like. However, if you do not pass the test, there will be no game.
If you are viewing the post on your mobile device, click on the button below to open the quiz in a new window, which is more comfortable.
The second game is in Flash and thus it will not play on your mobile device. The game is called on Target and your task is to choose the correct form of the verb TO BE and then shoot all the bad ducks. Do not forget that you can get a bonus if you shoot any of the bottles.