Past tense games and activities
for ESL kids lessons
Games and activities for teaching the “Past tense” to ESL kids
Clock fun past tense
Have all of your students make a clock (our crafts page has a great one).
The teacher (or student pairs) ask questions. E.g. What time did you eat breakfast this morning?, What time did you go to bed last night?, etc. Move the clock arms to the correct times.
Once upon a time …
Give each student a squeaky toy or something that makes a noise. This is a nice listening activity. The teacher tells a story set in the past (make it up as you go along). However, make mistakes with some of the verbs (e.g. A beautiful princess one day waked up and looked out of her window…). Each time you make a mistake the students need to squeeze their squeaky toy to make a noise and then correct the teacher.
Past tense lesson plans
We also have a number of FREE lesson plan on using the past tense which includes games and activities as well as other lesson materials.
- Click to download our Past tense activities – Regular verbs lesson plan.
- Click to download our Past tense activities – Irregular verbs: Part 1 lesson plan.
- Click to download our Past tense activities – Irregular verbs: Part 2 lesson plan.
Past tense songs
We have 3 songs available for download focusing on the past tense:
Past tense mistakes
In groups, have students write past tense sentences about anything they want on separate pieces of paper – but they have to make a mistake when writing the verb (most will really enjoy being allowed to make a mistake on purpose!). For example, “Last week I eated curry for breakfast everyday.” (Encourage crazy situations to make it fun).
After writing some sentences on different pieces of paper have the swap papers with other groups and make corrections.
Past tense slap
A very simple activity. Students are put into teams. The teacher either shows a verb flashcard or says a verb in the infinitive and the students have to slap the table if they know the past tense version (e.g. Teacher: “Throw”, Student: “Threw”).
The teacher asks the student who slapped the table first to give his/her answer to win a point for their team.
The last time I …
Sit in a circle with a pile of action flashcards, face down, in the middle. Student 1 picks up a card and makes a sentence using the structure, “The last time I _______ was (time expression)” – For example,
- The last time I played tennis was last summer.
- The last time I watched TV was yesterday evening.
- The last time I cooked was 4 days ago.
- etc.
If the sentence is perfect the student keeps the card and scores 1 point. If not, the card is returned to the pile.
Yesterday I went to …
This is a chain game, like the game “I went to the market and bought ______”. The teacher sits in a circle with the students. The teacher starts by saying, “Yesterday, I went to the supermarket and bought some bread“.
Then Student 2 will have to repeat that sentence and add his/her own, e.g. “Yesterday, I went to the supermarket and bought some bread, then I went to the movie theater and watched a movie“.
Then Student 3 repeats these two sentences and add his/her own e.g. “Yesterday, I went to the supermarket and bought some bread, then I went to the movie theater and watched a movie, then I went to a cafe and drank a Coke“, etc.
If a student forgets something he/she sits out that round.
Yesterday time guess
On 12 small squares of paper write down key hourly times (e.g. 6am, 7am, 12pm, 4pm, 6pm, etc.). Also include a few “wild cards” with a question mark written on them. Fold the squares of paper and put into a small box.
Students sit around the box and take turns on taking out a piece of paper. They have to make a sentence based on what they did yesterday using the structure, e.g. “Yesterday, I was __________ing at ____ o’clock ____________” (E.g. Yesterday, I was sleeping at 6 o’clock in the morning, Yesterday, I was eating dinner at 6 o’clock in the evening, etc.).
If a student picks a wild card they can make a sentence about any time of the day. If the student makes a perfect sentence they keep the piece of paper, if not it goes back into the box. The person with the most pieces of paper at the end is the winner.
