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It's Been a Long Time!
The activities below provide fun exercises for the entire class when you have extra time. They are designed to be taught with specific exercises in this unit. Click on an activity in the list below or scroll down the page.
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Charades
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 3, "Grammar Focus: Past continuous vs. simple past."
Time: 20 minutes. This activity reviews the vocabulary for any activity or situation; i.e., it can be adapted for any unit.
- Students form groups. Each group thinks of several situations (e.g., ordering in a restaurant; eating an ice cream cone; playing the guitar; vacuuming) – one situation for each member of the group to mime.
- Groups take turns miming their situations in front of the class. Remind each group not to speak while performing; they can only nod their heads when another group guesses the situation correctly. The other groups call out their guesses. Keep score on the board: Each group that guesses correctly gets one point.
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Verb contest
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 3, "Grammar Focus: Past continuous vs. simple past."
Time: 15 minutes. This activity provides an opportunity for students to review the spelling of verb forms – here, the simple past and the past participle. This contest can easily be conducted with another focus (e.g., singular and plural nouns; comparative forms of adjectives).
Preparation: Make a list of verbs for the contest. Choose verbs from the current unit and from previous units, focusing on verbs that have irregular forms (see the appendix at the back of the Student's Book for a handy list of irregular verbs). You will need the same number of verbs for each group of students (e.g., 5 groups 5 words = 25 words total needed).
Suggested verb list:
| build |
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eat |
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keep |
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run |
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stand |
| buy |
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get |
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leave |
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see |
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take |
| catch |
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go |
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make |
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sell |
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teach |
| come |
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grow |
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meet |
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sit |
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wear |
| do |
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have |
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pay |
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speak |
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write |
- Books closed. Divide the class into groups and assign them letters (e.g., Group A, Group B). Then choose a verb from your list and ask Group A how to say and spell the simple past and past participle. Give the group a few seconds to discuss how each verb is spelled. (Note: Make sure that each student in a group gets a turn to spell a word aloud.) If both forms are correct, the group gets two points; if only one is correct, the group gets one point and the next group gets a chance for a point. If both forms are incorrect, spell the words correctly for the class and go on to the next group and the next word. For example:
Teacher: OK, Group A starts. Here's the first verb: build. What's the past tense of build?
Student 1: Built. B-U-I-L-T.
Teacher: Correct. That's one point. Now what's the past participle?
Student 2: Built. B-U-I-L-T.
Teacher: Correct. Two points. Now Group B . . . .
- Continue in this way until you have used all the verbs in the list and each group has had the same number of turns. The winner is the group with the most points.
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Alibis
This activity is designed to be taught with Exercise 11, "Reading: Child prodigies."
Time: 5–10 minutes. This fun activity provides additional practice with the simple past and the past continuous.
- Explain this role play situation: A famous painting by the child prodigy, Alexandra Nechita, has been stolen from the local museum. It disappeared sometime last Sunday afternoon between 2 P.M. and 5 P.M.
- Tell the class that they are all possible suspects. Explain that a suspect is a person who might have stolen the painting and is therefore under suspicion by the police. Therefore, each student must write down exactly what he or she was doing between 12 noon and 7 P.M. last Sunday. (Note: This can be real information, or students can make up imaginary events for themselves.) They must do this to show the police that they each have an alibi. Explain that an alibi is proof that a person was in another place when a crime was committed; therefore, he or she could not have done it.
- Now students form pairs for a role play between the police detective investigating the crime and the suspect. Write these questions on the board for the police detective to use and then elicit additional ones from the class:
Where were you at noon last Sunday?
What were you doing between 2 and 3 P.M.?
Who was with you?
What were you wearing that day?
- Set a time limit of about five minutes. Pairs do the role play, taking turns being the detective who asks all the questions and the suspect who must answer every one. Go around the class and give help as needed. If several pairs are having trouble, stop the role play and model it with one or two volunteers. Then let pairs try it again.
- Find out who had the best alibi (i.e., who was with other people at the time of the crime or was seen by other people in a different place at that time and therefore could not have committed the crime).
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