Lessons & Classroom Games for Teachers
Children will learn the concept of verb tense simply by hearing and using more speech as they grow and develop. Most children start out by generalizing the past tense rules they hear in some regular verbs for application to irregular verbs, which can lead to errors like using "taked" instead of "took". The only way to learn how to use irregular verb tenses is to learn the irregular verbs and practice with them in different tenses. Games are a fun and effective way to practice with irregular verb tenses, and can always be modified to meet players' particular needs.
Irregular Verb Flash Cards
Create game cards by printing irregular verbs in their different tenses on one side of a set index cards or similarly sized paper. For example, one set of verbs in the cards could be "take, took, taken" -- or just "take and took" for a simpler game. Create game cards for several irregular verbs. Laminate the cards to make them more durable, and periodically use them to quiz your class. You can also allow children to test each other in pairs or small groups. There are many different games that classes can play with flash cards, including trivia, around-the-world, and sudden death.
Verb Memory
In the classic game of memory, players put cards face down in an array and try to turn over matching cards, two at a time. For irregular verb memory, players don't try to find pairs of identical cards, but rather corresponding verb tenses. Each player gets to turn over cards printed with irregular verbs to look for corresponding verb tenses on each turn. Players that find corresponding cards take them from the field of play. The game ends when the players have taken all the cards. To make the game easier, you can write the corresponding verbs in matching colors, or in corresponding fonts.
Create tic-tac-toe boards by printing three-by-three grids of squares on paper. Make them out of regular paper, or laminate game boards printed on card stock to use with erasable markers for multiple uses. Players take turns writing present tense irregular verbs in the game board squares, until all the squares are filled. A player must create and read a sentence using the correct irregular verb tense of a verb on the board before claiming that box with an "X" or an "O". If the player does not use the correct verb tense, he cannot mark the box.
