This lesson plan focuses on grammar. Grammar can be dry and boring. So, hopefully this game helps you spice up the classroom. Recommended Method: First, we suggest you teach or review past simple, past continuous and past perfect. The following activities are designed to do that. Then, we recommend you build their vocabulary. This lesson plan focuses on Proper nouns, places, and transportation activities. How to navigate the map page and play the game: It’s an easy concept. It is a logical deduction game similar to the board game “Clue”. Your students must logically deduce who, where AND how. We suggest to award points only if they guess all three correctly. The first team to guess all three correctly wins. Follow these steps: 1.Have the student compose a sentence using the target verb tense. 2.Click on the corresponding pictures to the right of the map. 3.Then verify the student’s answer is correct by clicking on the “check” button. When the “check” button is clicked, a picture of the correct answer appears. Example: If the student guesses, “David walked to school.” but the correct answer is, “David drove a car to school”, then a picture of David and a picture of the school shall appear, but NOT a picture for walking. If the student’s guess is completely wrong, then no pictures shall appear when you click the “check” button. If the student’s guess is completely correct, then all three pictures shall appear. There is only one correct combination for each location. Therefore, the students try to logically deduce which combination is correct by using incorrect guesses. Alternate turns with each student or team. One guess per turn. The game ends when one student or team guesses all three correctly. Download more free games and lesson plans at
Use past simple when the action happened in the past and it is finished. Examples: “Mr. Smith walked to the bank.” “Sally watched TV yesterday.” “David and Jonathan played basketball for two hours.” Often times, you can simply add “ed” to the verb to make it past tense: WalkWalk ed WatchWatch ed PlayPlay ed
Try it! Regular verbs: Dance Laugh Listen Talk Add “ed”: Danced Laughed Listened Talked If the verb already ends with “e”, only add “d”. If the verb ends with “y”, then change the “y” to “i” and add “ed”.
Irregular verbs Some verbs are different. We don’t add “ed”. Remember, even though there are grammar rules, we always break the rules! Examples: Drive Drove Ride Rode Take Took There’s no easy way to remember the rules.
Try it! SallyDavidMr. Smith walktake (a bus)ride (a bike) + Click on the pictures. Clear LabelsNext Slide
…walked. …took a bus. …rode a bike. …drove a car. …took a taxi. …took the subway. Click on the pictures. Next Slide
Library Bank School Zoo Supermarket Park Click on the pictures. Next Slide
On the next slide there is a picture of a town. Yesterday, six people went to six different places using six different methods of transportation. Your team must find out who went where and how did they get there. Divide the class into two teams, and then take turns guessing. You must say the sentence correctly using past simple tense. Example: “David drove a car to the supermarket.” Check your answer by clicking on the appropriate pictures.
Mrs. Brown Mr. Smith GaryDavid Sally Darrel Clear Labels Next Slide Check Click on the pictures, then check your answer by clicking on the map location. Check
Use past continuous to describe a situation that was happening during the past. In other words, past continuous is used to describe a duration of time instead of a single instance. Often times, past continuous is used to describe an action that was occurring when something else happened. Examples: “Mr. Smith was walking to the bank when he saw the car crash.” “Sally was watching TV yesterday when the phone rang.” “David and Jonathan were playing basketball when Jonathan hurt himself.” Add the past tense of the verb “to be”, then add “ing”: Walkwas walk ing Watchwas watch ing Playwas play ing
Try it! He; Dance They; Laugh I; Listen You; Talk He was dancing… They were laughing… I was listening to music… You were talking… Remember to conjugate the verb “to be”. I was, He was, She was, You were, They were, We were
Past Simple: Add “ed” Past Continuous: Add “to be” and “ing” Verb: Try Increase Work Spill tried increased Worked spilled was trying was increasing was working was spilling
Mrs. Brown Mr. Smith GaryDavid Sally Darrel Clear Labels Next Slide Check
Use past perfect to describe a situation in the past that had finished by the time another action had occurred. In other words, past perfect describes an action that had already finished before another action began. Examples: “Mr. Smith had walked to the bank before he noticed the bus stop.” “Sally had finished her homework before she watched movies with her friends.” “David and Jonathan had played basketball for two hours by the time the other team got there.” You can use the word “already”, but it is not necessary. “Mr. Smith had already walked to the bank before he noticed the bus stop.”
Changing the verb to its past participle. Every verb has a past participle. Sometimes the past tense and the past participle are the same, sometimes they’re different. Verb: Walk Take Ride Drive walked took rode drove Past tense:Past participle: walked taken ridden driven Past Perfect tense uses the past participle instead of the past tense of the verb. Past Simple: “Mr. Smith drove to the bank.” Past Continuous: “Mr. Smith was driving to the bank.” Past Perfect: “Mr. Smith had driven to the bank.”
Add “had” and use the past participle. Example: “Mr. Smith + had + driven to the bank before he noticed the bus stop.” Try it! David; ride a bike; to the park. David had ridden a bike to the park. Sally; take a bus; to the library. Sally had taken a bus to the library. Darrel; walk; to the zoo. Darrel had walked to the zoo.
Why are there so many different verb tenses? Answer: TIME! Different verb tenses describe different moments in time. Past Simple:…rode a bike…A finished, single point in time. Past Continuous:…was riding a bike…A period of time in the past. Past Perfect:…had ridden a bike… Finished before another action started.
Look at this easy comparison. Past Simple: “David left the party when his friends arrived.” Verb: Leave Arrive Past tense: Left arrived Past Participle: Left arrived Past Continuous: “David was leaving the party when his friends arrived.” Past Perfect: “David had left the party when his friends arrived.”
Past Simple: “David left the party when his friends arrived.” Friends arrived Time David left
Past Continuous: “David was leaving the party when his friends arrived.” Time Friends arrived David was leaving
Past Perfect: “David had left the party when his friends arrived.” Time Friends arrived David had left already
Use past perfect tense to guess who went where and how.
Mrs. Brown Mr. Smith GaryDavid Sally Darrel Clear Labels Next Slide Check