You’ll want to try these four fun simple past activities with your adult ESL students! Whether your students are just now dipping their toes into regular simple past verbs or already wrestling with simple past irregulars that refuse to behave, you’ve got options here.
Yes, many adult ESL students find comfort in worksheets. Worksheets are predictable, safe, familiar…and I’m not here to rip those away from them.
But most adults also want activities that wake their brains up a little. Activities that let them talk, move, laugh, and even argue mildly (or loudly) about whether something “counts.”
So… here are four simple past activities I used again and again with adult ESL students. They’re low-prep, flexible, and most importantly, they don’t feel like punishment for the shyer students.
Simple Past Activity 1: Find Someone Who
This one is for beginners.
Focus: yes/no questions, speaking and listening
This is one of those activities you can reuse forever by swapping out the prompts. Grammar class. Speaking class. Mixed-level noisy class (sounds like most of mine). It all works. You could even use it with simple present or simple future with some tweaks. Anyway…
Create a table in whatever program you like. Remember WordPerfect? Maybe not that one. Any size table but remember that more boxes = more talking. And more talking is rarely the problem. Use landscape, not portrait.
In each box, write the ending of the sentence “Find someone who…” using prompts that lend themselves to yes/no questions. For example:
- brushed their teeth last night
- didn’t eat breakfast this morning
- gave someone a ride to class or work last week
That’s it. That’s the design. It’s simple on purpose. You can make versions with:
- only regular verbs
- only irregular verbs
- or a mix, because real life does not politely separate them
Now students circulate and ask yes/no questions until they find someone who gives a yes answer.
Example for brushed their teeth last night:
Student A: Did you brush your teeth last night?
Student B: Yes, I did. I brushed my teeth last night.
Student A writes Student B’s name in the box and moves on.
I usually set a rule if the class is big enough: the same name can only appear once or twice. Otherwise, everyone just talks to the same three confident people. You know who they are.
Example for didn’t eat breakfast this morning:
Student A: Did you eat breakfast this morning?
Student B: Yes, I did. I ate breakfast this morning.
Nope. Move on. The goal is to find someone who didn’t eat breakfast.
Accessibility tip:
If your students need more support, write the exact questions in each box instead of using “Find someone who…”. Same activity with less cognitive overload.
Simple Past Activity 2: Swat It!
This one is for beginners.
Focus: positive and negative constructions, listening and reading
You’ll need some fly swatters for this activity. Yes…fly swatters. Clean ones, obviously, and preferably in bright colors.
If you already have a set of past-tense verb cards, amazing. If not, make some. Writing everything on the board technically works, but the fly swatters will quickly turn your beautiful handwriting into abstract art.
Cover the board with simple past verbs.
Divide the class into teams. One student from each team comes to the board and gets a swatter.
You call out the base form of a verb. Whoever swats the correct simple past form first earns a point.
Important rule: students must leave their swatter on the word they hit. The bottom swatter was first. This saves arguments…mostly.
Depending on your group, you may need to invent rules mid-game. Some rules in my classroom that got incorporated for very pertinent reasons were:
- You may not block someone with your swatter or your body.
- You may not pull someone else’s swatter off the board.
- You may not physically relocate another human being.
(Yep, I had a big, burly student pick up a smaller one and set him aside.)
If students waiting their turn shout answers, gently remind them they are helping the other team. Peer pressure fixes this fast.
WARNING:
Check with neighboring classrooms before you play. This game is loud. And joyful. And not compatible with testing silence.
Alternative version:
Instead of calling out the base verb, read a sentence and pause dramatically and loudly hum where the verb should be.
“HMMMMM.”
Students must choose the verb that best completes the sentence and swat it.
What about intermediate to advanced students
who need simple past practice?
You will absolutely teach higher-level classes where some students still need a review of lower-level grammar. There’s NO shame; that’s normal.
The next two activities work beautifully for that situation. They also double as informal assessments. You’ll know very quickly who’s still shaky and where.
Simple Past Activity 3: First World Problems (aka Rich People Problems)
Focus: yes/no questions, speaking and listening
Have students brainstorm a list of ridiculous first-world problems. The more dramatic, the better.
Then students ask their partners whether they experienced one of these problems yesterday, last week, last month, or last year.
If students freeze when creating questions on the spot, have them first turn the problems into yes/no questions.
Example:
A: I tried to buy my favorite shampoo yesterday, but the store was out.
B: How dreadful. Did you buy a different brand?
A: No, I didn’t. I bought nothing. They only had ten other brands. The selection was awful.
B: Did you go to another store?
A: Yes, I did. I went to another store. Thankfully, they had my brand but not the scent I wanted.
Another example:
A: I bought a new 5G phone, but my mansion only has 4G.
B: That’s terrible. Such a weak signal. Did you return the phone?
A: No, I didn’t return the phone. I threw it away.
B: Did you call to see if 5G is coming to your area soon?
A: No. I didn’t call anyone. I put my mansion up for sale. I want to live in a better location.
Lower-level option:
Write the conversations with gaps for the verbs. Students fill them in as they read.
Simple Past Activity 4: Pollyanna Day (The Day of Silver Linings)
Focus: positive and negative sentences, speaking and listening
Students brainstorm bad things that could happen… and then find the bright side.
They work in pairs to create a conversation where two people talk about yesterday, commiserate briefly, and then flip the script to pull out that silver lining.
Example:
A: Yesterday, my car didn’t start. I stubbed my toe on my way to my neighbor’s house. Then I stepped in dog poo.
B: Oh no. How awful! It sounds like you had a terrible day.
A: It wasn’t so bad. My neighbor jump-started my car. My toe didn’t hurt very much, and the dog poo didn’t smell at all.
For higher-level students, skip the writing and make this a full speaking role-play. Once they have their list, let them go.
You’ll hear excellent grammar. And some extremely questionable optimism.
The Bottom Line
These simple past activities give you momentum. They get students talking before they’ve had time to overthink every verb ending. They surface mistakes you can respond to. And they remind your class that grammar is not something we suffer through in silence. It’s something we use.
Right or wrong, they’ll remember the simple past better when they’re laughing, arguing, swatting verbs, and complaining about imaginary mansions with bad cell service. Try one activity…just one. Tweak it. Break it. And if it works, keep it in your back pocket for the next day when your energy is gone and the lesson plan looks suspiciously ambitious.
That’s it from me. See you in the next post!
Looking for some ready-to-use simple past grammar resources you can get and use with your students today?
These are available in my TpT store:
Irregular Simple Past grammar guide & worksheets . . . | | | . . . task cards set 1 . . . | | | . . . task cards set 2
Regular Simple Past grammar guide & worksheets . . . | | | . . . -ed endings presentation
