ESL Lessons speaking activities & teaching ideas for Past Tense

Holiday questions using past tense

Picture story lesson for teaching past tense (PDF)

Past simple story gapfill with irregular verbs (PDF)

Complete the dialogue (PDF)

Make a personal timeline worksheet (PDF)

Past tense story telling activity with sentence
starters (PDF)

Practice building past tense sentences like the following examples.(PDF)

Drill - 3rd person singular of Past “Be”(PDF)

Past simple questions exercise (PDF)


More ideas for teaching students the Past Simple Tense

Past tense game: Ghosts

ESL Activities - Past Mime

Vacation Brainstorm

Take a Trip Lesson

Champagne Story

Past tense Tic-Tac-Toe (PDF)

Conversation cards re entertainment present/past

Past simple/video

Retelling a story

Past tense speaking exercises

Past simple pairwork speaking 1(PDF)

Past simple pairwork speaking 2(PDF)

Find Someone Who...(PDF)

Find someone ...past tense speaking (PDF)

Past tense: pairwork speaking activity (PDF)

Past Simple: fun quiz/pairwork exercise (PDF)

Pronunciation of final "ed"

Put the verbs in the correct columns (PDF)

Past tense questions with "t", "d" and "Id" (PDF)

Pronunciation worksheet (PDF)

Pronunciation of regular past tense verbs (PDF)

Pronouncing ed endings (PDF)

3 ways to pronounce ed (PDF)

Past Simple: Pronunciation of Regulars exercise

Past tense sounds puzzle (pdf)

Past Tense on the First Day: teaching -ed = /t, d, Id/

Recognize the different ends of regular past tense verbs

Past tense worksheets

More gapfill worksheets

Past simple worksheet (PDF)

Verb Lists for ESL Students

Verb Chart

Verb chart  worksheet

Irregular verbs

Comprehensive verb chart (PDF)