Narrative Tenses ESL Worksheets, Activities and Games

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Act out my Story

ESL Narrative Tenses Activity - Grammar and Writing: Writing Sentences from Prompts, Story Writing, Acting - Pair Work - Intermediate (B1) - 30 minutes

In this engaging narrative tenses activity, students practice using narrative tenses to tell a story for other students to act out. In pairs, students begin by thinking of a title for their story and the name of the main character. The pairs then create their story by answering a set of questions in sentence form using the narrative tenses in brackets. When the pairs have finished, they take turns reading their story to another pair, with each student reading alternate sentences, while the other pair listens and acts out the story.
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Fairy Tale Fun

ESL Narrative Tenses Worksheet - Reading and Grammar Exercises: Binary Choice, True or False Reading Comprehension, Gap-fill - Intermediate (B1) - 30 minutes

In this useful narrative tenses worksheet, students read fairy tale stories and complete them with the correct narrative tense verb forms. First, students read a summary of the fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk" and underline the correct narrative tense verb forms. Next, students read six statements about the story and indicate whether they are true or false. After that, students complete a story with verbs in brackets in their correct narrative tense. Students then say which fairy tale the story has been adapted from and what kind of story it is. As an extension, students rewrite a fairy tale of their own in a different genre.
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Match and Mime

ESL Narrative Tense Games - Grammar: Matching, Gap-fill, Sentence Completion, Miming, Guessing - Pair Work - Intermediate (B1) - 40 minutes

Here is a fun set of narrative tense games to help students practice or review narrative tenses. First, students play a pelmanism game where they take turns turning over one sentence beginning card and one ending card from each set. If the beginning and ending match to make a sentence, the student writes the verb in brackets on the ending card in the correct narrative tense, keeps the pair of cards and has another turn. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. Next, students move on to play a miming game. Working alone, students use their own ideas to complete each sentence ending on a worksheet with a suitable narrative tense. Students then take turns reading out the beginning of each sentence to their partner and then mimming the ending. Their partner has one minute to guess and say the correct ending. If they manage to do this, they score a point. The student with the most points at the end is the winner.
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Narrative Tenses Practice

ESL Narrative Tenses Worksheet - Reading, Grammar and Writing Exercises: Binary Choice, Matching, Writing Sentences from Prompts, Gap-fill, Story Completion - Intermediate (B1) - 30 minutes

In this free narrative tenses worksheet, students learn four narrative tenses and how to use them to tell stories. Students start by reading a short story and choosing the correct forms of verbs to practice four narrative tenses. Students then match the four narrative tenses to their descriptions. Next, students use prompts to create sentences using the narrative tenses. In the last exercise, students complete the first part of a story using verbs in their correct form. Students then continue the story using the four narrative tenses and their own ideas. Finally, students read their stories to the class.
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Story Time

ESL Narrative Tenses Activity - Grammar and Writing: Matching, Short Answer Questions, Guided Story Writing, Sentence Completion - Group Work - Intermediate (B1) - 35 minutes

This imaginative story writing activity helps students practice narrative tenses. First, students match the forms of the verb 'live' with the narrative tenses. Next, students answer questions using the four narrative tenses. After that, students write a story using the outline detailed on the worksheet. Each student writes their name to indicate it's their story and then writes the first sentence of their story using the narrative tenses in brackets. When they have finished, they pass their paper to the group member on their right. The group members complete the second, third and fourth sentences in turn using the narrative tenses in brackets, passing the paper to the right after each sentence. In this way, each group member writes the first, second, third and fourth sentence of a different story. After the fourth sentence, each paper is returned to its owner, who writes the final sentence. Students then take turns reading their stories to the group and the group chooses the best one.
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Tales from the Waiting Room

ESL Narrative Tenses Worksheet - Reading and Grammar Exercises: Matching, Gap-fill, Binary Choice - Speaking Activity: Guided Discussion - Pair Work - Upper-intermediate (B2) - 30 minutes

In this creative narrative tenses worksheet, students work through a variety of grammar exercises in order to complete a story and practice narrative tenses. To start, students read the first part of a story. Students then match four sentence parts from the story to the correct narrative tense and complete definitions of the four tenses. Next, students go on to read the next part of the story, selecting the correct forms of the verbs as they go. After reading, students discuss an item from the story with a partner. Following that, students proceed to read the next part of the story and fill in gaps with the verbs in brackets in their correct form, pausing after to discuss a question about the story. Finally, students complete the last part of the story with verbs from a box in their correct narrative form.
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Tell me a Story

ESL Narrative Tenses Worksheet - Grammar and Reading Exercises: Identifying, Gap-fill, Changing Word Forms, Matching - Speaking Activity: Story Telling - Group Work - Upper-intermediate (B2) - 30 minutes

In this productive narrative tenses worksheet, students review and practice narrative tenses to talk about past experiences. To begin, students read a short story and identify all the narrative tenses used to talk about the past. Students then complete gaps in a story by changing the verbs in brackets into their correct narrative forms. Next, students complete gaps in another story with verbs from a box in the correct narrative tense. After that, students match example sentences to the correct tense. Lastly, in pairs or small groups, students talk about a memorable experience from their past using prompts to help them as well as the four narrative tenses used in the worksheet.
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