Objective: practicing writing, identifying, and speaking with simple and perfect tenses
Time: 30 minutes
Resources: 12 blank index cards or 2″ by 3″ squares of paper per student
*Teacher’s Note – Students should have been taught the following tenses: present simple, past simple, future simple, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. This game can be used for practice or review.
Directions: On the board write a verb chart showing all six tenses. Here is a sample with the verb “walk” and the subject pronoun “he.”
Simple Perfect
Present he walks he has walked
Past he walked he had walked
Future he will walk he will have walked
It would be best to write the chart in six boxes. Always write your verb charts in the same order so that students do not get confused.
Review the different tenses by going over the chart and making sentences for each tense.
Give each student 6 cards. Ask them to each choose a regular verb and a pronoun. Following the “walk” example on the board, they should each write one verb tense on each card. For example, the students have six cards. A student chooses the word, “stop.” He chooses the pronoun “they.” One the first card he should write, “They stop.” On the second he should write, “They stopped.” On the third, “They will stop.” On the fourth, “They have stopped.” On the fifth, “They had stopped.” And finally on the sixth, “They will have stopped.”
Each student should fill in the six cards. They should not write entire sentences, but only the subject and verb phrase. Walk around and make sure everyone is doing this correctly. They may be confused or may use other tenses (like progressive tenses) that are not part of the game.
Once all students have completed making their set of six cards, ask them to put them in the same order as the chart on the board. Students should have three rows of two in front of them. Explain to students that they will mix up their cards and they must work as fast as possible to put them back in the right order: the order of the chart on the board. Ask students to mix up their cards. Say, “3,2,1…Go!”
Students should identify the tenses and put them in place within a matter of seconds. You can give points to the student who finishes the fastest if you’d like.
Now ask students to mix up their cards and exchange them with another student. Ask students to leave their cards in a pile face down on their desks until you say, “3,2,1…Go!”
After everyone gets his verb chart in place, group students into threes and fours. Ask each student to make one complete sentence in each of the six sentences. This can be done orally in groups. As you walk around, listen to make sure students are making complete and correct sentences. Pay careful attention to the perfect tenses. Make sure in past and future perfect students use two clauses to take about two different points in time. Offer correction as you walk around the class.
Once all students have attempted six sentences in six different sentences, have students exchange cards again. Repeat the same procedure.
If you want to practice irregular verbs as well, give each student six more cards. Ask them each to choose an irregular verb and a subject pronoun. For example they can choose “to be” and “she.” They will write the following on each of the six cards respectively: she is, she was, she will be, she has been, she had been, she will have been. Encourage each student to choose a different verb. Repeat the game as you did with regular verbs.
Five or six rounds total, maybe three in regular verbs and three in irregular verbs, should give students a good amount of practice in these six tenses. If you want to adjust it for progressive tenses, just change your template on the board!
