Simple Past Stories - ESL Grammar Ideas

The simple past is one of the most important verb tenses in English. 

This simple past activity helps students practice the verb tense and conjugate the verbs.  

Many students have trouble using past tense verbs when speaking in the past. When telling a story, it is common to use a few verbs in the present instead of the past. This is especially true with irregular verbs. This activity will help them fix that issue.

Here are the steps:

1.  Students work in pairs.

2.  Student A tells Student B everything he/she did that day. They key is to be very specific.  For example, 

• I woke up at 7 am.
• I made breakfast.
• I ate breakfast.
• I had a shower.
• etc.

3.  Student B writes down every verb mistake Student A makes.  

4.  Students changes places and repeat.

5.  Students share the verb tense mistakes with each other.


You will notice the activity is simple, but it is something students can do every day for 5 minutes. It is also a good activity for homework. The idea is to close the gap between students' grammar abilities and their use of verbs in speaking.

I have made it a routine for students to explain what they did the day before in every class. It is amazing how doing this 5-minute activity each day can lead to dramatic improvements.

Do you have other activities you like to do for the simple past? 

Trivia for Dummies - ESL Games

Trivia for Dummies is very similar to Trivial Pursuit, except it is much easier.  This works for ESL students, who often have difficulty with more challenging questions that are based on North American cultural references.  Trivia for Dummies is better because students can answer many of the questions.

This game is good for an ESL class because it helps students practice asking questions.  The game is based on asking questions, so students have many chances to see properly formed questions in context.

For a variation, have students look at the answers and attempt to ask a question.  This is similar in a way to Jeopardy   This way, the students are able to form their own questions, making it more challenging linguistically.

For more information on Trivia for Dummies, click on the image below.