Tag: games to learn English

Grammar Point – Irregular verbs #2
Grammar Point – Irregular verbs #2

In my previous post I offered a set of materials to help you teach the 10 most frequent irregular verbs in English. Now, there are a couple of activities to teach, or if you are a student to learn, another set of 10 irregular verbs. We give you a set of activities to help you teach the past tense and the past participle of the verbs give, find, think, tell, become, show, leave, feel, put and bring.

Here you will find a video, a worksheet and a game. The video contains a short dictation, Random Repeat method and a simple fill in the gap exercise. In this way, your students will learn and remember the correct form and pronunciation of the past tense and the past participle of the given verbs. They can practise their knowledge using the worksheets below. And they can really enjoy the lesson by playing the Snake game in which they need to use the irregular verbs again.
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Irregular verbs – video

This video is called Grammar Point. It is an interactive video where you are given some time to complete the tasks set in this video.

The aim of this video is to help people learn the past tense and the past participle of the verbs give, find, think, tell, become, show, leave, feel, put and bring. In the first part, there is a dictation. You need a piece of paper and something to write with. Listen and write the sentences. At the end of the dictation you will see the correct version on the screen.

In the second part of the video, the Random Repeat method is used. This method was suggested in the book Human Memory by Baddeley. You first listen and just repeat the words, then you hear only the infinitive and your task is to say the past tense and past participle of the verb. You have 4 seconds to do this and then you hear the correct answer.

Then, you see a sentence and your task is to complete the sentence with a correct verb in the correct form. You have 5 seconds for this and then you hear and see the correct answer. Please read the whole sentence aloud to maximise the learning.


Mind map

Some students find mind maps very useful, while others hate them. Anyway, for those who it might help, here is a simple mind map showing the verbs, the past tenses, the past participles and the meaning of the verbs. It´s up to you if you use it.

Irregular verbs 2 mind map

Worksheet

It is important to practise the irregular verbs to learn them. The following worksheet contains several pages with exercises to practise the irregular verbs. You can check your answers in the key.

You can check your answers here:

Snake Game

To reward my students, I use video games. You can try it with the following Snake game. Once the students finish the worksheets, display the following game on the IWB. Students use the keyboard to control the snake. Whenever they eat an egg, they have to complete the sentence with an irregular verb in the correct form.

If you cannot connect to the internet, then you can use the desktop version of the programme.
Desktop – Windows 32 bits Desktop – Windows 64 bits

Links

You can find some interesting ideas on teaching irregular verbs at British Council site.
Did you like the post? Do you find it useful? Have you found a mistake here? Please, let us know and comment!!! Thank you.

English with Youtubers – Niga Higa´s Draw Your Life
English with Youtubers – Niga Higa´s Draw Your Life

English with Youtubers? Are you joking!? Youtubers use horrible English and their stories are about nothing! They use F words all the time and they have no ethics! For example, the most popular Youtuber showed some anti-Jew messages on his channel. Simply put, these videos cannot be shown at schools!

A few days ago I believed this too. Then I searched for the most popular youtubers and I was surprised that it is not true. I watched a video by a guy called Niga Higa (his real name is Ryan Higa) and I was stunned. The video had a message, there were no dirty words and his English was great.

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So I decided to create a lesson plan around this video. I piloted the lesson in my classes and I have to say that I enjoyed the lessons very much. And so did the students.

Lesson plan

The lesson plan is incredibly simple:

  1. Students draw their lives.
  2. Students speak about their lives.
  3. Watch the video and answer the questions

Interactive video

Play the following video and it stops after a few seconds and the students have to answer the comprehension questions to be able to continue.

[h5p id=”1″]

You can find the original video without the comprehension questions here

Draw you life

For the following activity, each student needs a piece of paper which is divided into 4 or 6 equal parts (it depends how much time you have). Ask the students to draw some important moments in their lives into each part. It is a good idea to prepare your own drawing before the lesson and demonstrate what you want your students to do.

Give your students about 5 minutes to do this. Give the time limit before they start so that the students do not spend too much time on it.

Speak about your life

Students work in pairs and speak about their lives.

After a while, they swap their partners and speak again.

It might be a good idea to do this speaking as a 4-3-2 activity. The first time, each student speaks 4 minutes. The second time they have to say the same things in just 3 minutes and the last time they have to do it in two minutes. In this way, they will become more fluent.

At the end, I ask my students if someone wants to present their life for the whole class. There are always some volunteers who I then reward.

Food – learn the vocabulary
Food – learn the vocabulary

It is vital to learn the words for different kinds of food. If you know the words for different kinds of food, not only you will not die of hunger, but you will be able to choose the food you like. Therefore, it is worth learning these words.

In this post, there is a pictionary with sixteen words. Then there is a game called random repeat which helps you learn the words really quickly and effectively. You can then practise the vocabulary in three crosswords, one wordsearch and a sudoku. I hope you will find this post useful.

Food vocabulary – presentation

Start learning the words with the following pictionary. Study the words, then cover them, look at the pictures and try to remember the words.

Food vocabulary pictionary

The best way I know to learn the new words is called Random Repeat. First, listen and repeat the words. Once the screen turns white, look at the picture and click the right word. To make this method more effective, it is a good idea to say the words aloud while you click.
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Random Repeat full screen

Food vocabulary – practice

In this part, you can practise the words you learnt in the previous paragraph. The first interactive puzzle is the wordsearch. Your task is to find all the words.

Full screen word search

Crosswords are another way to practise the vocabulary. There are three crosswords here. Can you solve them all? If you fill in a wrong letter, it will be red. Correct letters are black.

Food vocabulary – crossword 1 Food vocabulary – crossword 2 Food vocabulary – crossword 3

And as there are many sudoku lovers, I have prepared vocabulary sudoku for you, too. Fill in the words tomato, pasta, chips, meat, salad, muffin, bacon, soup and crisps in such a way that each word is just once in every line, every column and in every small square.

Must or Have to?
Must or Have to?

Elementary students are taught that there is very little difference between the words MUST and HAVE TO. Little as it may be, it exists. And in this post I would like to give you several rules which will help you decide which one is better in the given sentence.

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In this short post you will find an infographic, two online quizzes and a worksheet.

Must or Have to? – infographic

The common explanation of the difference sounds like this: You use MUST to give your own opinion. HAVE TO is used to give obligations imposed by some outside authority.

However, in this post I will give you a different explanation. It is based on the explanation given by Jim Scrivener in his book Teaching English Grammar. There he states 5 rules which should help learners decide which verb to use. The rules are summed up in the following infographic.

Must or Have To infographic web

Remember, that you can often use the verb HAVE TO instead of MUST but it may not sound completely natural.

Must or Have to? – Quizzes

In the following quizzes students should complete the sentences with the words MUST or HAVE TO in the correct form. Sometimes both of the answers are correct.

Must or Have to – quiz 1 Must or Have to – quiz 2

If you do not want to use the online version, here is the paper version of the same quiz:

Must or Have to -paper quiz

Must or Have to – Links

You can find some more infographics and games to teach modal verbs here:

Must and Should – this is one of the most popular posts at this site.

There is a nice board game to practise the verb Must here.

At https://engames.eu/past-tense-of-modal-verbs/ you can find the past tenses of the modal verbs.

And there is a great infographic explaining the usage of the verbs HAVE TO, DON´T HAVE TO and MUST here.

Present continuous questions
Present continuous questions

Present continuous tense is one of the most popular tenses among students. It is easy to form and its usage is crystal clear (at least at the beginning). However, when it comes to forming questions, students often fail. To avoid this, I have come up with a number of activities to help my learners and I would like to share them with you now.

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[showmyads] In this post, there is a video to teach the question word, an infographic, several interactive exercises and logical worksheets.

Present continuous YES/NO questions

In the first part, it is important to teach the formation of the YES/NO questions in the present continuous tense. Print the following worksheet:
Present continuous questions – worksheet In the first part, there is a column of sentences which students should transform into questions. Tell them to use the colours to guide them. Help those struggling. Check the questions. Then tell students to transform the sentences in the second column.
Now your students should be able to form questions in the present continuous tense. And as they discovered the rules themselves, they are sure to remember them well.

Present continuous tense – short answers

Display the following infographic.
Present continuous questions
Demonstrate how the infographic works. Write one of the questions on the board. Ask the students with which word the question starts. Point to the word in the infographic. Elicit the colour. Now, point to the question on the board and elicit what follows the first word. Find the continuation in the rectangles and explain that the correct answers are the two possibilities behind it.
It took just two examples for my students to understand the formation of the short answers.
Return to the worksheet and ask the students to write both of the short answers below the questions they formed previously. Check their answers.

Question words – video and infographic

Before you start teaching questions with the question words, teach the question words first. Here is a video teaching the question words:

You can use the following infographic too:
Question words web
Once the students know the basic question words, it is time to practise them. In the following video students see the answer and their task is to supply the correct question word.

Present continuous questions

Now teach students how to form questions starting with WH… words in the present continuous tense.
Print the following worksheet.
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Ask the students to form questions in the first column asking about the information in colour. Point to the colourful question words at the bottom of the worksheet which will help your students.
Check the answers and tell them to complete the second column.

Finish the worksheet above in one lesson and then bring the following worksheet. This worksheet contains three exercises. In the first exercise students see the answer and their task is to write the question words. In the second task, students see the answer and they should ask about the underlined information. In the last exercise, students see the answer and they should write three questions for the given answer.
Present continuous questions – worksheet 2

Present continuous questions – more exercises

In the first quiz, you should form the YES/NO questions.
Present continuous questions – quiz 1
In the second quiz students have to write the short answers:
Present continuous questions – quiz 2
In the third quiz students know the answers and they have to write the questions.
Present continuous questions – quiz 3
In the fourth quiz, students have some cues and they have to write the questions using the cues.
Present continuous questions – quiz 4
If you cannot use a computer in your classroom, you can use the following worksheet with all the exercises.
Present continuous questions worksheet
Two speaking activities for elementary students
Two speaking activities for elementary students

Speaking activities are essential in a communicative approach. Most people agree that students should communicate ever since they start learning English. However, it is really difficult to design genuine communicative tasks for low-level students of English. In this post, I would like to share two communicative tasks for beginners. In the first one, students practise the verb HAVE GOT and in the second one they go shopping for clothes. I hope you like them.

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Speaking activity – HAVE GOT

For this speaking activity, you need two worksheets. Each student needs the following picture:
Have got speaking game picture
Second, each student needs to cut the following picture into the pictures.
Have got speaking activity
Each student places four of the machines into their picture (one machine is in the garden, one is at home, one is in the picture and one is at school). They must not show their board to anyone.
Students work in pairs and they try to guess what their partner has placed in the places. They have to ask: “Have you got a computer?” If the answer is YES, they go on. “Have you got the computer in the garden?” If the answer is YES again, the thing is removed from the game. If the answer is NO, students swap roles. Students swap roles every time they answer NO.
The winner is the student who removes the four things from their partner’s plan first.
Students love the game.
You can download the worksheets here in pdf file.
Have Got speaking worksheet

Speaking activity – SHOPPING

I had to teach my students how to shop. There was a nice dialogue in the textbook which I turned into a vanishing drill and we learnt it. Then I was looking for a communicative activity where my students would be able to use the phrases. Unfortunately, there was none. So I spent quite a lot of time creating it. I hope you will find it useful.

Print the following worksheet. Students work in pairs and each of them has one half of the worksheet. They must not show their worksheet to their partner and their task is to find out how much they have to pay for the clothes with no price tags. They should use the dialogues in the boxes. Point out that they should use the blue dialogue for the clothes in the blue square and the yellow dialogue for the ones with the yellow background.
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Speaking activity – your opinion

Which of these activities do you like better:

22 Verbs in the past simple tense
22 Verbs in the past simple tense

Elementary students often struggle with verbs. They know very few of them and this deficit becomes obvious at the moment they start learning the past simple tense. To help them I created the following post where I try to teach 22 frequent verbs and their past tense.

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In this post, you can find an infographic with all the verbs and four games to learn the verbs.

Verbs in the past simple tense – infographic

Ask your students to study the following infographic. Drill the pronunciation with them and give them about five minutes to memorise the words.
22 verbs in the past simple tense
You might ask your students to divide the verbs to regular and irregular verbs, too.

Verbs in the past simple tense – games

Then play the following games. If each student has got their own computer, they play on their own. If you use an IWB, ask one student to come to the front of the class and the others try to help him/her.
[wptabsy] [tab]Darts game[/tab] [tab]Dice game[/tab] [tab]Time game[/tab] [tab]Length game[/tab] [tabcontent] In this games, students should write the verbs. They must divide the verbs with a comma and a space. If they answer correctly they have to stop the dart to get as many points as possible. The highest score they can achieve is 60, if they stop the dart in the triple of the number 20. The aim of this game is to get as many points as possible.


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[showmyadsa] Darts game – full screen [/tabcontent] [tabcontent] In this games, students should write the verbs. They must divide the verbs with a comma and a space. If they answer correctly they have to stop the dice to get as many points as possible. They get one point for each point on the dice and they get 10 points bonus if the dice show the same number.
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Dice game – full screen [/tabcontent] [tabcontent] In this game, student write the verbs. They must divide the verbs with a comma and a space. If they answer correctly, they have to guess how long is the line on the screen. The better their guess is the more points they get.

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[showmyadsa] Length game [/tabcontent] [tabcontent] In this game, student write the verbs. They must divide the verbs with a comma and a space. If they answer correctly, they have to stop the countdown when it reaches zero. The closer to zero they get the more points they get.

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[adinserter block=”2″] Guess the time game [/tabcontent] [/wptabsy]

Which game do you like best

Comparatives and Superlatives – additional exercises
Comparatives and Superlatives – additional exercises

It is quite easy to form comparatives and superlatives in English. However, without much practice students will make a lot of mistakes.

To provide enough practice for my students I have created the following exercises. There are three gap-fill exercises where students will practise the grammar in context.

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[showmyads] In this post, there are three interactive exercises and a word file with the same exercises to practise the grammar.

Comparing in English – infographic

The following infographic first appeared at Comparatives and Superlatives post here.

Show it to your students and explain that students first have to decide if the adjective is long or short. If the adjective is just 1 syllable, it is short. If it ends with -y, it is short. Otherwise, it is long.

Once they know whether the adjective is long or short, they can form the superlatives and comparatives correctly. With short adjectives, they add the suffixes -er or -est. With long adjectives, they add more or most in front of the adjective.

Comparatives and superlatives mind map

You can find the pdf version of the infographic here:
Comparatives and superlatives infographic – pdf

Comparatives and superlatives – online quizzes

The following quizzes are not for beginners who just need to practise this grammar. They are for students who can understand the text and decide which form is correct in the given context.

There are three quizzes:

Quiz 1
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Quiz 2
Quiz 3

You can print two of the quizzes and use them in the classroom:
Comparatives and superlatives

Comparing in English – Links

You can find more activities to practise comparatives and superlatives here:
Comparatives and superlatives activities
Comparatives and superlatives speaking activities
Moreover, there are very interesting activities to use in your classroom at British Council site.
I hope you will find this post useful and that your students will practise a lot.

Verb HAVE GOT – questions and short answers
Verb HAVE GOT – questions and short answers

The verb HAVE GOT is used mainly in British English and in many British textbooks it is taught immediately after the verb TO BE. I think it complicates things a bit for learners, and therefore, I wanted to make it a bit simpler for my students.

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In this post, you will find an infographic explaining the creation of short answers. Moreover, there is a simple worksheet which teaches the creation of questions with the verb HAVE GOT. At the end, you will find a simple speaking activity to practise the questions and short answers.
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[showmyads] In this post, we suppose that your students already know how to form the affirmative sentences with the verb HAVE GOT, as we explained those in the previous posts. You can find a simple rhyme to teach the affirmative forms of the verb HAVE GOT here and the infographic with all the forms here.

Verb HAVE GOT – creating questions

Print the following worksheet and ask your students to find out how to make questions from the affirmative sentences. If they hesitate, explain that they should stick to the colours. In my experience students quickly find the way to form the questions.
Forming questions with have got
Once they finish, check their answers.

Verb HAVE GOT – short answers

Display the following infographic and hand out the printed worksheets. Explain, how the infographic works using the questions from the worksheet above. Ask the students to follow your explanation with their fingers.
Have got short answers infographic web
The first question from the worksheet above is: Have you got a cat.
Elicit what word the question starts with. (“Does it start with HAVE or HAS?”) Point to the words HAVE and HAS. Students answer HAVE.
“Is it followed by YOU AND …?” Students answer NO.
“Is it followed by YOU …?” Students answer YES. (do not forget to point).
“Then the answer is either ´Yes, I have.´ or ´No, I haven´t.´” (Point)
Ask a student to come to the board and do the same with the second question. Do the same with the third question. Then ask the students to work on their own and write the possible answers below the questions.
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Verb HAVE GOT – pdf file

Verb HAVE GOT – speaking activity

Print the following questions and give each pair one copy. The student who holds the copy reads the questions aloud and the other one answers. After three minutes, they swap their roles.

1. Have you got an English book?
2. Have you got a dictionary?
3. What have you got in your bag?
4. What have you got in your pocket?
5. Have you got a pet?
6. What pet have you got?
7. What have you got in your pencil case?
8. Have you got a watch?
9. Where have you got your keys?
10. Have you got an exercise book?
11. Have you got a red pen?
12. Have you got a car?
13. Have your parents got a house?
14. Have your parents got a car?
15. Have you got a mobile phone?
16. Has your mother got long hair?
17. Has your father got blue eyes?
18. Has your mother got fair hair?
19. Have you got a computer?
20. Have you got a television in your bedroom?

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Modern Technology – English vocabulary
Modern Technology – English vocabulary

Picture dictionaries are very popular among learners of English. In this post, I would like to offer you a pictionary with vocabulary connected with Modern Technology. This post contains an infographic, a crossword and three games.

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Machines and appliances – infographic

Print the following infographic for your students.
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It is a good idea to drill the pronunciation first. Then ask the students to learn the words. I usually give my students about five minutes to do this.

Then hand out the following crossword. Ask the students to complete the crossword. They can use the original infographic if they need to.
Machines and appliances vocabulary crossword

You can print the infographic and the crossword using the following pdf file.

Machines and appliances – worksheet pdf

Modern Technology – games

To practise the new vocabulary, I have created three games which students can play either at school or at home. All the games are in HTML5 and they will work on all desktop computers and mobile devices.

[wptabsy] [tab]Dice game[/tab] [tab]Time game[/tab] [tab]Length game[/tab] [tabcontent] The first game is called Dice game. Click the PLAY button and then you will see a picture. Type what you see in the picture (do not use CAPITAL letters). If you type the correct word, two dice will appear on the screen. Your task is to click the STOP button. You will get as many points as there are on the dice when you stop them. If both of the dice show the same number, you will get ten extra points. Good luck.
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Dice game [/tabcontent] [tabcontent] The second games is called Guess the time. Your task is to type what you see in the picture (do not use CAPITAL letters). If your answer is correct, a countdown will appear on the screen. Your task is to stop the countdown at the moment it reaches zero. The closer to zero you stop it the more points you get.

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[showmyadsa] Guess the time – full screen [/tabcontent] [tabcontent] The third game is called Guess the Length. Once again, you will see a picture and your task is to type the correct word (do not use CAPITAL letters). If your answer is correct a line will appear on the screen. Your task is to guess how long the line is.
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Length game – full screen [/tabcontent] [/wptabsy]

You can find some more materials to teach about Technology at British Council site.

Verb master board game
Verb master board game

Verb master board game is intended to replace drills. The aim of this game is to help students learn to form verb tenses. While drills are boring, board games are interesting and fun. Thus, students practise the grammar forms and enjoy it.

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The great advantage of the Verb master game is the fact that the game is nearly universal. It is designed in such a way that you can practise nearly any English tense there is. So you just print the game once and then you can use it as many times as you like or your students like.
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Verb master – board game

Print the following board game. I recommend that you laminate your games because you will be able to use the board again and again.
Verb master board game
You can download the pdf file here:

Verb master game – pdf file

The great advantage of the game is, that you can arrange students into various groups of various sizes.

Ask students to find something that will serve as a counter. Hand out one game and one die for each group.

Tell students what tense they have to form, for example, present continuous. Students throw the dice and move along. When they finish their move, they have to say the sentence they landed on using the given tense. If they form the sentence correctly, they stay where they are. However, if they make a mistake, they have to go back to the start. (This rule might seem a bit harsh, but it makes the game more exciting and students pay more attention to the sentences their partners are saying.)

I always prepare the keys for each group and I hand them out before the game starts. You will find several of the keys below.

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[showmyads] [wptabsy] [tab]Pr. continuous[/tab] [tab]Past continuous[/tab] [tab]Past simple[/tab] [tab]Pr. simple[/tab] [tabcontent]1. I am going to school.
2. She is reading a book.
3. They are writing a letter.
4. We are singing a song.
5. They are running fast.
6. She is drinking lemonade.
7. The cat is eating fish.
8. Kate is doing her homework.
9. Dave is driving a car.
10. The baby is sleeping.
11. They are playing chess.
12. Mike is sitting.
13. I am swimming.
14. She is watching TV.
15. She is feeding birds.
16. She is talking on the phone.
17. They are dancing.
18. Sue is flying.
19. The child is crying.
20. The boy is building a snowman.
21. He is making a cake.

[/tabcontent] [tabcontent]1. I was going to school.
2. She was reading a book.
3. They were writing a letter.
4. We were singing a song.
5. They were running fast.
6. She was drinking lemonade.
7. The cat was eating fish.
8. Kate was doing her homework.
9. Dave was driving a car.
10. The baby was sleeping.
11. They were playing chess.
12. Mike was sitting.
13. I was swimming.
14. She was watching TV.
15. She was feeding birds.
16. She was talking on the phone.
17. They were dancing.
18. Sue was flying.
19. The child was crying.
20. The boy was building a snowman.
21. He was making a cake.

[/tabcontent] [tabcontent]1. I went to school.
2. She read a book.
3. They wrote a letter.
4. We sang a song.
5. They ran fast.
6. She drank lemonade.
7. The cat ate fish.
8. Kate did her homework.
9. Dave drove a car.
10. The baby slept.
11. They played chess.
12. Mike sat.
13. I swam.
14. She watched TV.
15. She fed birds.
16. She talked on the phone.
17. They danced.
18. Sue flew.
19. The child cried.
20. The boy built a snowman.
21. He made a cake.

[/tabcontent] [tabcontent]1. I go to school.
2. She reads a book.
3. They write a letter.
4. We sing a song.
5. They run fast.
6. She drinks lemonade.
7. The cat eats fish.
8. Kate does her homework.
9. Dave drives a car.
10. The baby sleeps.
11. They play chess.
12. Mike sits.
13. I swim.
14. She watches TV.
15. She feeds birds.
16. She talks on the phone.
17. They dance.
18. Sue flies.
19. The child cries.
20. The boy builds a snowman.
21. He makes a cake.

[/tabcontent] [/wptabsy] Verb master board game is designed to help students practise forming verb tenses in English. You can find several other board games at our website. There is a Halloween game and Superlatives and comparatives board game. I hope you will find them useful.

Phrases with Get #2
Phrases with Get #2

Together with Fluency MC we have already published several interesting posts. In our latest post, we tried to help you teach 16 phrases with GET. And this time, there are 16 more. All the phrases come from the song by Fluency MC called GET A LIFE. And as the song contains many more phrases with GET there will be some more posts soon.
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[showmyads] In this post, there is the song, an infographic and three games to help you teach the phrases with GET.

Phrases with GET – song

As a starter play the song Get a Life to your students. All the phrases taught in this post can be found between 0:38 and 1:20.


You can join Fluency MC’s free starter course here and also get his free YouTube songbook! http://fluencymc.com/starter-course/
After introducing the phrases, move to the infographic.

Phrases with GET – infographic

Display or print the following infographic for you students and go through the phrases with them. If you teach a monolingual class, it is a good idea to translate the phrases with the students.

Phrases with get infographic
After you teach the pronunciation and the meaning of the phrases, it is useful to give your students about five minutes to learn the phrases on their own.
After this, play the video again (from the beginning to 1:20) and let the students enjoy the fact that they can understand.

Phrases with GET – games

The first game is just a simple piece of a drilling software. I call it Vocabulary Trainer. It displays a definition and your task is to write the phrase. Then the computer writes whether you were right or not. The phrases which you do not write correctly get repeated. Once you can see a zero twice it is the end of the game. I admit that it is not much of a game but I find it very useful when I learn foreign vocabulary.

Vocabulary trainer

The second game is called Dice. You see a definition and your task is to type the correct phrase. If you succeed, you will see two dice and your task is to stop them. You get as many points as there are points on the dice. If both of the dice show the same number, you will get 10 points bonus. The best scores are saved. Good luck.
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The third game is called Guess the Length. Again, first write the correct words and then you will see a line. Your task is to guess how long the line is. The best scores are once again saved in a leaderboard.

Guess the length game
A SOME THE ANY AN
A SOME THE ANY AN

When you teach the concept of countability in English, students have to learn to use the words A, SOME, THE, ANY, AN in front of the nouns correctly. To decide correctly, students have to take several mental steps.In this post I explain the mental process and I offer your students a chance to practise it in several games.
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[showmyads] In this post you will find a simple infographic, which explains the thinking process. Moreover, there are three brand new games in which students can practise the grammar.

A SOME THE ANY AN – infographic

To decide correctly which word should be used in front of the given noun, students should ask the following questions in this order:
A SOME THE ANY AN infographic

If the students have already spoken about the thing, then we have to use the article THE. If not, then they have to ask whether the noun is in plural or uncountable. If any of the answers is Yes, then two more questions have to be asked. Is the sentence a request or an affirmative sentence? If the answer is YES, then SOME have to be used. If the answer is NO, then ANY have to be used.

If the noun is not in plural or uncountable, then A or AN is used. AN is used if a vowel is pronounced at the beginning of the noun. Otherwise A is used.

The process might seem a bit complicated when you read the text, but my students found it very easy when they could use the infographic.

A SOME THE ANY AN – games

To practise the grammar, I created three brand new games. All the games are in HTML5 and they will play on desktops and mobile devices.

The first game is called Shooting Game. Your task is to read the sentence and shoot the correct answer. To shoot the word, just click it. Speed matters and you will see your score at the end of the game. Will you be better than me?

Shooting Game

The second game is called Dice Game. Your task is to type A, SOME, THE, ANY or AN (do not use the capital letters) and then stop the dice. The more points the dice show the more points you get. Moreover, if both the dice show the same number, you get a bonus – 10 points.

Dice Game
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[showmyadsa] The third game is called Time Guess. Your task is to complete the sentence with the correct word and then click the button STOP at the moment you think the countdown got to zero. The closer to zero you get the more points you get.

Time Guess

Poll – Which game do you like best?

Which game do you like best?

Present perfect tense activities
Present perfect tense activities

The present perfect tense is one of the most difficult tenses for learners of English. It is not easy to form the tense correctly as you need the verb HAVE or HAS and the past participle. Moreover, the usage is very specific and many students feel that they could do with the past simple tense only. Thus teaching this tense is not easy.

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In this post I do not aim to explain anything about the present perfect tense. Here, I would like to share a set of activities to help you teach this tense. You will find here two speaking activities and a worksheet with five more activities to help your students master the present perfect tense.

Present perfect tense – speaking activities

The following worksheet contains two speaking activities. I have tried both of them in my classes and they worked very well.

The first activity is a very simple one. It should be used if your students know just how to form the present perfect tense and you want to practise it with them. Print the first exercise and cut it in the middle. The students have to write whether they HAVE or HAVE NOT done the activities in the pictures. (Check that the students form the tense correctly).
Then students work in pairs and read their sentences to their partners. They listen and tick the activities their partner has done.

In the last phase students write the sentences about their partner.

The second activity is called Clock speaking. I has been very successful in my classes and it always leads to a lot of speaking in English.

Print the second page of the worksheet and hand it out. In the first part students have to arrange a partner for each time. Set the following rules:

  1. You may have only one person for each time.
  2. Write the name of your partner next to the time.
  3. You cannot have the same person on the paper twice.

Do not worry about the chaos. In the end there will be some people who will not have a partner for one or two of the times. Elicit the times and pair the students yourself.

Then call out one of the times. The students find their partner for the time and ask the questions for the given time. They ask the questions in italics only if their partner answers yes to the first question (emphasize this). After a couple of minutes call another time.

Present perfect tense – speaking

Present perfect tense – worksheet

The following worksheet contains 5 activities. They are based on the verbs contained in the fifth Unit of the textbook Project 3 (third edition) by Oxford University Press. The activities are in random order and you can order them in any way you like.

The first activity is a crossword. Students should fill in the past participle of the verbs.

The second activity is a gap fill. Students should choose the correct option for each sentence.

In the third activity students should fill in HAVE or HAS.

In the fourth activity students have to write the past participle of each verb.
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[showmyadsa] In the fifth activity students have to complete the text either with the present perfect tense or the past simple tense.

Present perfect tense – worksheet

Present perfect tense – links

If you need a mind map and a video, you will find them at Present perfect post.
If you decide to teach the activities above, certainly start with the following song.

Verb to be
Verb to be

The verb TO BE is the most important verb in English. Unfortunately, it is the most irregular verb in English, too. However, as all students of English manage to master its forms in the end, there is no reason to dispair. This mastery comes through practise.

In this post I would like to share with you several several exercises and games in which your students can practise the verb. There are about 90 different sentences in which students should use the verb TO BE. The vocabulary is limited so that students with a vocabulary of 100 words will be able to do the exercises.

In this post there is an infographic, a worksheet, an online quiz and two games. I hope it is enough and your students will learn the forms of the verb to be.

Verb to be – infographic

In the following infographic all the affirmative and negative forms are covered. The lower part gives a simple rule of thumb to help your students decide which form of the verb to be they should use.

Verb to be affirmative infographic
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[showmyads] Verb to be additional infographic

If you teach a monolingual group of elementary students it is a good idea to translate the second infographic.

Verb to be – worksheet

The following worksheet is nothing fancy. There are no sophisticated communicative activities or unusual exercises. There are six simple exercises to practise all the forms of the verb TO BE.

Verb to be worksheet

Verb to be – online quiz and games

The following quiz can help your students practise all the forms of the verb to beat home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the beginnings and ends of the sentences and complete the sentences with the verb TO BE. In the second part, students have to put the verb TO BE into the correct form. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Verb to be – quiz

The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct form of the verb to be and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.

Verb to be – Penalty game

The second game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.

Verb to be – On Target game

Verb to be – links

There are some great activities to practise the verb to be at British Council site.

If your students do not know the adjectives used in this post, there is great song teaching the adjectives by my friend Jules from English Through Music Madrid.

Used to grammar activities
Used to grammar activities

The phrase USED TO is one of the highly productive chunks in English. I have already published a post on Used to but I have created several new activities since, and I would like to share those with you. So, in this post you will find several USED TO grammar activities which will help you teach this grammar point.

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In this post there is a song by my friend Chris Barickman, a speaking activity, a game and a grammar worksheet.

Used to – song

This song is by my friend Chris Barickman. He is a tallented musician and the song is a great way to introduce the grammar. Ask the students to listen to the song and choose the photo of the man who sings the song. Is it the man in picture A, B or C?
Song men choose


Used to – mind map

After the song, it is the ideal time to highlight the grammar. Display the following infographic and show how affirmative sentences, negative sentences and questions are formed.

Used-to-mind-map

Remember to emphasize that USED TO is used for repeated actions or states in the past.

Used to – speaking activity

Print and hand out the following worksheets. Students work in pairs and one of them has got worksheet A and the other worksheet B.

used to speaking worksheets

Ask the students to look at their worksheet and tick the things they used to do when they were younger. Remind them that they should tick only the activities they used to do often and yes, they can do them now too.

Students work in pairs and tell their partners what they used to do and didn’t use to do.

Then students ask their partner whether he/she used to do the activities in the pictures.

In the end students can write about their partner what he/she used to do.

Used to – speaking worksheet

Used to – grammar worksheet

Print the worksheet and ask the students to complete it.

Used to grammar worksheet pdf

Used to – games

The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct option and then try to score a goal. Good luck.

As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.

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[showmyads] Used to – Penalty game

The second game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.

Gerund or infinitive – On target game

Used to – links

As I write above, I have already created one post on USED TO. You can find here.

There are some great games and exercises at British Council site too.

There is a nice explanation at BBC learning English.

Somebody or anybody, something or anything
Somebody or anybody, something or anything

Do your students struggle with the words somebody, anybody, something, anything, everything, everybody, nothing and nobody? Do they get these basic words wrong nearly every time? If your answer is yes, then this post is just for you.
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[showmyads] In this post I would like to share with you several tools to help your students use the words somebody, anybody, something, anything, everything, everybody, nothing and nobody correctly. In this post you will find an infographic and two games. I hope you will like it.

Somebody or anybody, something or anything – infographic

Display or print the following infographic and ask the students to read through it. Then elicit what they learnt. If you feel that they did not get the message, explain the grammar using either their MT or your own words.
Something anything infographic
Mention please, that the word BODY, could be replace with ONE and the meaning will be the same. Emphasize the spelling of NO ONE (two words instead of one).

Somebody or anybody, something or anything – games

To practise the usage of the words somebody, anybody, something, anything, everything, everybody, nothing and nobody your students can play the following game. Its name is En Garde. Your task is to choose the correct answer and then stop the target as close to the centre as possible. Hopefully, you will be faster and more accurate then your opponent. The game is in Flash and will play only on desktops:

En Garde game ADVERT:
[showmyadsa] The second game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.

Gerund or infinitive – On target game

Somebody or anybody, something or anything – What more?

I realize that the post is rather short. What do you think would be the best activity to add?

What activity should I add?

Questions in present simple tense
Questions in present simple tense

Once elementary students master forming questions in the present simple tense, their communicative ability grows by hundreds of percent. Students then can ask nearly about anything, and all of a sudden they can communicate meaningfully. However, for many teachers the questions are a nightmare because only a few students do really learn to form the questions.

To help you and your students I will share a set of activities I have used and which worked really well in my classes. In this post you can find an infographic, a video drill, a speaking activity, two games and an online quiz.

Questions in present simple tense – infographic

Start the lesson by explaining the grammar. I use the following infographic to explain the way in which questions are formed.
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[showmyads] Remind your students that the word order in English is given (SVOMPT) and that they have to follow it. To form a question they need to add the words DO or DOES at the beginning and a question mark at the end.

Present simple questions part

To form the short answers students have to start with YES or NO, the pronoun representing the subject from the question and DO, DOES, DON’T or DOESN’T. You can tell your students that the word which was at the beginning of the question appears at the end of the answer.

You can see my explanation of the process in the following video:

The following quiz can help your students practise the short answers either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the questions and answers. In the second part, students have to write the short answers. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Short answers quiz

Questions in present simple tense – speaking activity

In the following activity students should work in pairs or in small groups of three or four. Print the worksheet once for each pair or group.
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[showmyads] One of the students chooses a picture and the others form questions about the pictures. Their task is to ask YES/NO questions in such a way to find out which picture their partner is thinking about.

Speaking activity worksheet

Questions in present simple tense – question words

Before you move to questions starting with the question words, it is a must that students know, and are able to produce, the question words.

Start with the following drill. On the first slide students listen and repeat the words. From the second slide on, they have to produce the question words before the native speaker says them. Play the video at least twice.

Now, hand out the following worksheet and ask the students to complete the first exercise with the question words

Present simple worksheet

Questions in present simple tense – WH questions

Now explain that WH questions are formed by adding the WH words at the beginning of the question. You can explain it using the infographic below:

Present simple questions part 2

Questions in present simple tense – games

Use the following games to practise the grammar your students learnt.
The first game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct question and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.

Present simple questions – Penalty Shoot out

The second game is in Flash too, and it will play only on desktop computers. It is called En Garde, and your task is to choose the correct option and then stop the circle as close to the centre of the target as possible. Enjoy.

Present simple questions – En Garde
Common Mistakes in English
Common Mistakes in English

Mistakes that students make should serve as an opportunity to learn. But more often than not students just look at or listen to your correction and pass the opportunity. And that is a pity. As I do not want my students to miss this precious opportunity any more I have come up with a lesson plan which does not allow the students just to pass the common mistakes they make in English, but gives them a fair chance to learn from them.
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[showmyads] In this post you will find an infographic, a game and a worksheet with the most common mistakes my students made in their essays.

Common mistakes in English – beginning

Print the following worksheet and give a copy either to each student or ask the students to work in small groups and give a copy to each group. Ask the students to look at the first exercise. That the sentences come from the essays written by other students and that they should correct the red places.

Common Mistakes in English – worksheet

Common mistakes in English – infographic

First elicit the mistakes students have found and corrected.

Then display the following infographic and explain the mistakes and the corrections.

Common mistakes holiday 2

You can hand out the infographic if you think your students might profit from it. Once you have explained everything (as we always do), it is time to give your students a chance to use the knowledge. Now they have to do the exercise 2 and complete the sentences with the words from the infographic.

At the end check their answers – be open to more than one correct answer.

Common mistakes in English – game

The second game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.

Common Mistakes – On target game
Modal verb CAN
Modal verb CAN

In my opinion the modal verb CAN is one of the easiest grammar points in English to teach. That is why I have not produced a post on this topic yet. However, this is going to change, as I am in need of one and I am going to share it here with you.

In this post you can find a simple mind map explaining the usage of the modal verb CAN. Then there are two speaking activities and an interactive quiz to give your students a chance to practise the grammar.

Modal verb CAN – songs

Having taught the modal verb CAN yesterday I added these two songs. Both of them are from British Council pages and they serve as a great introduction of the affirmative sentences and questions.

Here is the song I can run.

And here you can find a great song to introduce questions with CAN which is called Can a Flea Climb a Tree.

Modal verb CAN – mind map

In the last week I created two mind maps about the verb CAN. However, I felt that the first one was unnecessary complicated and therefore I decided to replace it with this one.
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Modal verb Can

If you are interested in the first version of the infographic, you can download it here:
Modal verb Can explanation

Modal verb CAN – speaking activities

In this part I would like to share two speaking activities. For the first one you need to download and print the following worksheet.
Can pdf speaking
Now you can choose what you will do with it. You can either cut the worksheet and give each student just one picture and ask them to write the questions with can below the picture. Then check their questions. Next, ask the students to stand up and mingle and ask their classmates whether they can do the activity.

If you do not like mingling activity you can print one worksheet for everyone and ask them to write the questions. Then check their questions and ask students to work in pairs and ask and answer the questions in pairs.
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[showmyadsa] The second speaking activity is called LIAR. Prepare 4 sentences with the modal verb CAN and say them aloud. Now tell your students that one of them is a lie and your students have to guess which one. Now, ask your students to write 4 sentences with the verb CAN and one of them must be a lie. Let the students work in groups of 4. One student reads all 4 sentences and the others write down which sentence they believe to be a lie. Then another student reads and so on. At the end all the students say which sentence was a lie and they see who guessed it.

Modal verb CAN – quiz

The following quiz can help your students practise the modal verb CAN either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the pictures and the sentences. In the second part, students have to complete the sentences with the missing words. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Modal verb CAN – quiz