Verb Tenses

[tervin7]

Hello,
I am going to be doing a lesson on verb tenses (past, present and future) and am looking for some fun ideas about how to teach this to the students so they will be actively involved. They are third and fourth graders (combo class).

[Addict]

Hey tervin7 - Welcome to The Teacher's Corner!

Here is an idea that may be fun. You can expand it to other puzzles as well.

Past Tense Crossword Puzzle (http://www.theteacherscorner.net/printable-worksheets/make-your-own/crossword/crossword-puzzle-maker.php?list_id=2194)

To expand on it - you can use the same list in the word search (http://www.theteacherscorner.net/printable-worksheets/make-your-own/word-search/word-search.php)! Just click the "Save" icon below the crossword list, and save it in a slot. Then go to the word search. Click the save icon to bring up your saved list(s). Load the appropriate list. Now choose "Fun Options" and and make the "Shown list" the past or present tense... so if the hidden word is "ride", then you put "rode" in the list they are shown.

Make sense? If this is too complicated (for you) let me know, I'll try to explain better. If it too complicated for the kids, try transfering the list to the 'matchups (http://www.theteacherscorner.net/printable-worksheets/make-your-own/match-up/match-up.php)'.

Just some ideas...

[mopar]

When I worked with younger students, I made an animal for each student. (It needs to be an animal with a tail). Then I made a bunch of tails. On the tails, I would write a variety of endings (s/ed/es/ing). I would make a bunch of cloze type sentences (My brother wants to go swim_______ today). I would then have my students attach the correct tail to their animal as one student did this on the board.

I have also had my students work in smaller groups. I make a die using a square sponge. I write past, present, and future on two sides of the die each. Then I give my students a bunch of verb cards. The students pick a verb and roll the die, then they need to give the verb with the correct ending.

[David Brown]

There's a teacher at my school who did a great lesson about tense where she spoke to the students and said things like "I 'seened' you at lunch" and "Mr Brown has 'goned' now". The students could tell she wasn't waying the words write and started discussing what the right words are "saw" and "gone". It was very engaging and really made the students think about the importance of using the correct tense in writing.

[mopar]

That really counts on the students figuring it out. I've taught some classes where they wouldn't even notice! But I do think it would be quite fun for a day.

[David Brown]

True. It does have to be pitched at the right level, try it out on the kids and see how they respond.

[yeongo saem]

Most kids this age don't really have the explicit learning ability to get their heads around identifying simple, progressive (continuous), perfect, and perfect progressive tenses, much less active and passive voices. Indeed many educated adults couldn't put a particular verb in, say, the present perfect continuous tense if you asked them on the spot. However, elementary kids do have the ability to use all of these forms through their implicit learning ability. Thus, I'd simply try to get them to recognise whether a particular phrase is in the past, present, or future and save the concept of 'tenses' until they're older.