Journey to the Past: Exploring the Past Tense

Journey to the Past: Exploring the Past Tense

Learning Objective

At the end of the lesson you will be able to understand and use past tense verbs correctly.

What do you already know about actions that happened in the past?

What is Past Tense?

Past tense is used to talk about actions that have already happened. We add -ed to regular verbs to show that they happened in the past.

Regular Verbs

Regular verbs follow a pattern when changing to past tense. For example, 'walk' becomes 'walked' and 'play' becomes 'played'.

Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs do not follow the usual pattern when changing to past tense. For example, 'go' becomes 'went' and 'eat' becomes 'ate'.

Forming Past Tense

To form the past tense of regular verbs, add -ed to the base form. Irregular verbs have unique past tense forms that need to be memorized.

Using Past Tense

We use past tense to talk about actions or events that happened before the present moment. For example, 'I played soccer yesterday.'

Practice Time

Complete the sentences with the correct past tense form of the verb. 1. She ________ (dance) at the party. 2. They ________ (sing) a song yesterday.

Review and Recap

Recap the key points about past tense verbs and ask students to share a sentence using past tense. Encourage peer feedback.

Write down 3 things you learned in this lesson.

Have students enter three things they learned in this lesson. With this they can indicate their own learning efficiency of this lesson.

Write down 2 things you want to know more about.

Here, students enter two things they would like to know more about. This not only increases involvement, but also gives them more ownership.

Ask 1 question about something you haven't quite understood yet.

The students indicate here (in question form) with which part of the material they still have difficulty. For the teacher, this not only provides insight into the extent to which the students understand/master the material, but also a good starting point for the next lesson.