This is a basic walking and talking activity using new English past tense for first graders in junior high. Download the excel spreadsheet and print out cards for the activity.
Basic Info
| Time: | 20 minutes |
|---|---|
| Level: | Junior high grade 1 |
| Works with: | Past tense: went, lived in, got up, wanted... |
| Class size: | Medium to large |
You will need:
- This excel file (click to view then download)
Lesson Description
This is a "Go Fish" style activity, where the aim is to get rid of all your cards.
- Print out enough cards so that everyone has 3~5 cards each.
- Go over three or four cards with the class, to ensure they can do it. Demonstrate with the teacher how the interaction takes place.
- Everyone walks around to find a partner. In that pair, one person reads the first line of one of their cards (the full, past tense sentence).
- If the other person has that card, they have to change the past tense sentence into simple present tense before both cards are discarded and they say goodbye and move on. eg. "He walked to school." + "often walks, (??)." = "He often walks to school."
- If there is no match, then the second person replies "Oh...", then tries one of their cards. If they get a match, great, if not they say goodbye and move on.
- The game finishes when most people are without cards and sitting down.
Using the example above, the conversation of a success would be:
- Hello!
- Hello!
- He walked to school.
- He often walks to school.
- Yay, bye.
- Woohoo, bye.
Tips
- The game can be made to last longer if instead of both players getting a chance to match a card, first they play paper, scissors rock, and only the winner gets to "ask", using the past tense sentence.
- At the start, write some examples on the board, show the students how to exchange the phrases, then get them as a class to try a few, then start the game.
Warnings
- I tried this game with three cards per student and after the explanation, the game was over in 7 or 8 minutes.