Past Simple Tense – Round Up Lesson Plan
3rd Form
Materials for this lesson:
Memory Game – Past Tense
Past Tense Guessing Game (YouTube)
Past Tense Mystery Box Game (YouTube)
Introducing The Past Tense
Before teaching students the past tense form, it is important to put the
lesson in context so that students can understand what it is they will
learn. A great way to introduce the past tense is to draw a simple timeline
on the board. In the middle of the timeline write ‘today’ and ask students
what day it is today and write that day on the board.
Next, ask students what day it was yesterday and write that day on the
left side of the timeline. Do the same for tomorrow and write that day on
the right side. Using this simple timeline, demonstrate the meaning of
‘past’ to students and elicit other times in the past ( last week, last year,
last weekend, before class, winter vacation, etc). Once students
understand what they are going to learn, it’s time to introduce some past
tense verbs.
Practice Key Words And Sentences
Tell students that in order to talk about the past, we need to change the
verb into the past tense. Write some regular verbs on the board (watch,
play, walk, talk, cook, etc.) and show students how to change into the
past tense by adding ‘ed’. Ask students to repeat after you and practice
saying each past tense verb. Next, explain to students that not all verbs
follow this rule as there are many irregular verbs. Write some on the
board and drill the past tense verbs with students. (Note: You may wish to
teach the past tense over 2 or more lessons. If so, teach the simple past
tense verbs first, and teach irregular verbs in the next lesson.) Once
students are used to changing verbs into the past tense, it’s time to
practice some more with a fun guessing game.
Activity 1: Past Tense Guessing Game
This game is great to introduce the past tense to students and is a fun
way to practice making past tense sentences. In this past tense game,
students will see how to change a verb into the past tense. Then an
image that is hidden behind some colored shapes is slowly revealed.
Students must guess what the picture is of, and use that word to
complete the past tense sentence. To play, simply play the above video
in class and pause when students are ready to guess.
Activity 2: Past Tense Memory Game
This past tense PowerPoint Game is a great activity to practice past
tense verbs while testing students’ memories. In this game, students
must try to find the matching present tense and past tense verbs. To play,
divide the class into two teams. Then the teams will take turns in
choosing two numbers. Click on the numbered squares to reveal the verb
below. If the two verbs are a matching pair (e.g. ‘go’ and ‘went’) then that
team gets a point. If they are not matching (e.g. ‘go’ and ‘studied’) then
click on the red circle to hide the word again. This past tense memory
game becomes incredibly fun once students start to remember where the
matching verbs are.
Activity 3: Mystery Box Game – Past Tense
This final game will encourage learners to make their own past tense
sentences in a fun way. To play, divide the class into two teams. The
teams will then take turns in answering the question (there are 10
questions). After each question, students must make their own past tense
sentence using the verb provided. Then, the team must choose to keep
the box, or give the box to the other team. Inside the box is either plus
points (e.g. +1000) or minus points (-1000). At the end of the game, the
team with the most points is the winner.
Before finishing the class, review the past tense verbs and sentences
from the lesson. A great way to do this is to ask students to ask their
partner ‘What did you do (yesterday / last weekend)?’. Once students
have asked their partner, then ask students to tell you what their partner
did yesterday / at the weekend.
Additional Resources
Past Tense Worksheets
Irregular Past Tense Game
25 Past Tense Questions
List Of Past Tense Verbs
