Past Simple Affirmative Negative ESL Games, Worksheets and Activities

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Alicia's Day

ESL Past Simple Affirmative and Negative Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Matching, Categorizing, Gap-fill, Rewriting Sentences - Elementary (A1-A2) - 35 minutes

This insightful past simple worksheet helps students to learn and practice regular and irregular verbs in past simple affirmative and negative sentences. Students start by matching regular and irregular verbs to pictures and writing the verbs under the pictures in the past simple. Next, students decide whether verbs are regular or irregular and write the past simple form of each verb under the appropriate heading. Students then move on to complete affirmative and negative sentences with the past simple form of the verbs in brackets. Next, students do a gap-fill exercise to practice the verbs where they complete a text in the past simple. Finally, students rewrite some past simple sentences from the text in their negative form.
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In the Past

ESL Past Simple Game - Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work - Elementary (A1-A2) - 25 minutes

Here is an engaging past simple game to help students practice forming past simple affirmative sentences. Players take it in turns to turn over a time expression card and make a true past simple affirmative sentence using one of the verbs on their cards and the time expression. If the player constructs a believable past simple sentence, which is agreed on by the other students to be true, the player discards the verb card. If the other students think the sentence can’t be true or it's grammatically incorrect, the player keeps the card. The first player to get rid of all their verb cards wins.
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Mark the Jogger

ESL Past Simple Worksheet - Grammar, Reading and Writing Exercises: Identifying, Gap-fill, Writing a Short Paragraph - Elementary (A1-A2) - 25 minutes

In this free past simple worksheet, students read a text about 'Mark the Jogger' and complete past simple affirmative and negative sentences about the text. First, students read a text about Mark's day and underline all the verbs in the text. Students then pretend that yesterday was a normal day for Mark and complete past simple affirmative and negative sentences about what he did and didn't do. They do this by changing the verbs in the text into their past simple form and using them in the sentences. Students then write a short paragraph about what they did yesterday in the past simple. Finally, students read their paragraphs to the class.
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My Last Summer Holiday

ESL Past Simple Worksheet - Grammar, Reading and Writing Exercises: Identifying, Categorising, Answering Questions, Gap-fill, Rewriting Sentences, Paragraph Writing - Elementary (A1-A2) - 30 minutes

In this productive past simple worksheet, students practice common regular and irregular verbs in their affirmative and negative forms by reading and writing about past holidays. Students begin by reading a story about someone's last holiday and underlining all the past simple verbs in the text. Students then use the verbs from the story to complete a table of present simple and past simple verbs. Students also identify the irregular verbs from the table and put a tick next to them. Next, students answer comprehension questions in sentence form about the story. Students then move on to complete sentences with the negative form of the verbs in brackets. After that, students rewrite present simple sentences in the past simple. In the last exercise, students write about their last holiday using the past simple.
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Present to Past

ESL Present Simple to Past Simple Board Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Changing Verb Forms - Group Work - Elementary (A1-A2) - 25 minutes

This fun present simple to past simple board game helps students practice making past simple affirmative sentences with time expressions. The game also helps students practice changing regular and irregular verbs into their past simple form. Students take it in turns to roll the dice and move their counter along the board. When a student lands on a square, they make a past simple affirmative sentence with the time expression and words in the square. If a student forms the sentence correctly, they stay on the square. If a student makes a grammar mistake, they go back two squares. The first student to reach the finish wins the game.
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Restart

ESL Past Simple Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work - Elementary (A1-A2) - 25 minutes

In this interesting past simple speaking activity, students play a game where they use past simple affirmative sentences and picture cards to talk about what they did yesterday. One student goes first, lays down a picture card and makes a past simple affirmative sentence about the action shown on the card, e.g. 'Yesterday, I went cycling'. The next student must now lay down either another ‘I went...’ card or a ‘Restart’ card which enables the student to change the verb into something else, e.g. 'Yesterday, I did my homework'. The first student to lay down all their cards wins the game.
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Who did the same?

ESL Past Simple Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Sentence Completion, Controlled Practice - Elementary (A1-A2) - 35 minutes

In this free past simple speaking activity, students complete affirmative sentences with true information about what they did in the past. Students then try to find someone who did the same as them. To begin, students complete past simple affirmative sentences with true information about what they did in the past. Students also write one more true past simple sentence at the end. Next, students move around the class, trying to find someone who did the same as them, e.g. A: I woke up at 7 o'clock this morning. What about you? B: I woke up at 7 o'clock too. If both students' answers are the same, the two students write each other's names in the 'Name' column next to the sentence. However, if their answers are different, neither student writes anything. When everyone has finished, students tell the class what they found out.
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A Holiday to Remember

ESL Past Simple Affirmative Negative Worksheet - Grammar and Writing Exercises: Gap-fill, Writing Sentences and a Paragraph - Speaking Activity: Discussion - Pair Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 30 minutes

This holiday-themed worksheet helps students practice past simple affirmative and negative statements as well as regular and irregular past simple verbs. First, students complete a text about someone's holiday using regular and irregular verbs from a box in their past simple form. Students then complete sentences with verbs from a box in their past simple affirmative or negative form. After that, students answer questions about their last holiday, writing their answers in complete past simple sentences. Next, students write a paragraph about their best-ever holiday using the past simple. Afterwards, in pairs, students read their paragraph to their partner and discuss who had the best holiday and why. Finally, get feedback from around the class.
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Class Story

ESL Past Simple Story Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Story Telling, Communicative Practice - Group Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 30 minutes

In this imaginative past simple game, students work together to make a story using past simple affirmative and negative sentences. Take three word cards and write them on the board. One student from the first team starts the story. The student must use the past simple and keep talking until one or more of the words on the board have been used. For every word used from the board, the student scores one point for their team. When the student has completed their turn, erase the words and replace them with new ones. A member from the next team then plays and continues the story. The team with the highest score at the end of the game wins.
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Excuses Excuses

ESL Past Simple Board Game - Speaking: Reforming Sentences, Freer Practice - Group Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 30 minutes

Here is an amusing past simple board game to help students practice past simple affirmative sentences as well as regular and irregular verbs. In the game, students practice making excuses for arriving to class late. Students take it in turns to roll the dice and move their counter along the board. When a student lands on a square marked 'Sorry I’m late', they pick up an excuse card and change the sentence into its past simple form to make an excuse for being late, e.g. 'Sorry I’m late. I missed the bus'. If the student forms the sentence correctly, they stay on the square. If not, the student must go back two spaces. The first student to arrive at class wins the game.
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Gone in 30 Seconds

ESL Past Simple Board Game - Grammar and Speaking: Impromptu Speech, Communicative Practice - Group Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 30 minutes

This free past simple board game helps students to utilize their knowledge of the past simple to talk about a variety of everyday topics. Students take it in turns to roll the dice and move their counter along the board. When a student lands on a square, they talk about the topic on the square in the past simple tense for 30 seconds without stopping. If a student can’t think of anything to say, makes a grammar mistake, or stops talking before the 30 seconds are up, they go back two squares. The first student to reach the finish wins the game.
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Holiday Romance

ESL Past Simple Activity - Grammar and Writing: Writing Sentences from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 30 minutes

In this memorable past simple activity, students create a story about a holiday romance by inventing answers to questions and writing them down. The grammar focus is on past simple affirmative sentences as well as past simple regular and irregular verbs. Students answer the first question on their worksheet by inventing details and writing the answer down in the form of a past simple sentence. After that, students fold the paper and pass it to the person on their right who answers the next question. This continues until all the questions have been completed. Students then take it in turns to read their stories to the group and the group chooses the best one. The groups then read their chosen story to the class and the class votes for the best story.
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How was your weekend?

ESL Past Simple Worksheet - Reading and Grammar Exercises: Unscrambling, Matching, Binary Choice - Speaking Activity: Delivering a Dialogue, Freer Practice - Pair Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 50 minutes

This useful past simple worksheet helps to teach students how to use the past simple to talk about what they did at the weekend. The worksheet also introduces students to basic small talk techniques such as expressing interest and keeping a conversation going. To start, students put words in the correct order to form past simple questions in a conversation about the weekend. Students then match a reply to each question. Next, students read brief dialogues and choose the most suitable answer that indicates interest in the conversation. Students then move on to complete a dialogue about the weekend that helps to demonstrate how to keep a conversation going. In the last exercise, students work with a partner and use the language from the worksheet and their own ideas to create a past simple conversation about what they did at the weekend.
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Past Simple Review

ESL Past Simple Review Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Categorising, Changing Word Forms, Gap-fill, Rewriting Sentences, Writing Questions from Prompts - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 30 minutes

In this in-depth past simple revision worksheet, students revise regular and irregular past simple verbs as well as affirmative and negative past simple sentences, and Wh questions. To start, students categorize verbs as regular or irregular. Students then write the past simple form of the verbs. Next, students use the past simple verbs to complete affirmative sentences. Students then rewrite sentences in their past simple negative form. In the last exercise, students write past simple Wh questions that correspond to underlined information in responses.
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True Lies

ESL Past Simple Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, True or False, Asking Questions, Guessing - Group Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 30 minutes

Here is a light-hearted past simple true or false game that helps students practice past simple affirmative and negative statements, questions and regular and irregular verb forms. In the game, students take it in turns to make true or false statements about things they did or didn’t do in the past. Students take it in turns to pick up a time expression card and a verb card. The student then makes an affirmative or negative past simple statement using the words on the cards. The other students in the group ask past simple questions to help them decide whether the student is telling the truth or not. After asking a few questions, the other students say if they think the student is telling the truth or lying. The student then reveals the answer. Students who guessed correctly score a point. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins.
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Words to Sentences

ESL Past Simple Board Game - Grammar and Writing: Writing Sentences from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 30 minutes

In this creative past simple board game, students collect words in order to make as many past simple affirmative sentences as they can. Players take it in turns to roll the dice and move their counter along the board. The player then writes down the word they land on and colours in the square. The player now owns the word in the square and no one else can write it down. However, other players are allowed to pass through the square during the game to get to other words. The game continues until all the words have been coloured in. Afterwards, players use the words they wrote down to make as many past simple affirmative sentences as they can. Each word can only be used once. Players then read out their sentences, paying close attention to the -ed sound of the past simple regular verbs. The other players listen and confirm each sentence is grammatically correct and that the -ed pronunciation is appropriate. Players score one point for each grammatically correct sentence and one point for each suitable -ed pronunciation. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.
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My Memories

ESL Past Simple Fluency Practice - Speaking Activity: Impromptu Speech, Communicative Practice - Group Work - Intermediate (B1) - 30 minutes

In this enjoyable past simple speaking activity, students use past simple affirmative and negative sentences to talk about various things they remember. This activity works best with older students or adults and is good for developing fluency. Students take it in turns to pick up a topic card and talk about the topic on the card for one minute using past simple affirmative and negative sentences. The rest of the group asks the student questions to encourage them to speak more. Then, the next student takes a card and so on.
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Oh, Really?

ESL Past Simple Game - Grammar and Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work - Intermediate (B1) - 25 minutes

In this free past simple game, students try to make believable past simple sentences with a variety of time expressions. One student goes first by picking up a picture card and asking the student on their right a 'When did you last...?' question based on the picture, e.g. 'When did you last go shopping?' The other student looks at their time expression cards and tries to make a believable past simple sentence using one of the time expressions, e.g. 'I went shopping two days ago'. The group members then decide if the answer is acceptable or not. If the answer is believable, the student discards their time expression card. If the answer is unlikely, e.g. 'I went shopping last summer', the group members challenge the student. The student then chooses to either tell the truth and keep the time expression card or try to convince the group that the answer is true. The final decision lies with the group. It's then the next student's turn to pick up a picture card and so on. The first student to get rid of all their time expression cards wins the game.
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One Day...

ESL Past Simple Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Story Telling - Group Work - Intermediate (B1) - 30 minutes

This inventive past simple speaking activity gives students practice at using past simple affirmative and negative sentences to tell stories. This activity is similar to a chain game. One student starts by picking up a card, reading the introductory phrase on the card, and completing it with their own idea to start the story. Then, in turn, each member of the group continues adding to the story by saying a sentence in the past simple tense. The story is about the first student’s introductory sentence so all of the following sentences must be based on that plot. When the story hits a dead end, the next student starts over with a new introductory phrase and so on.
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Sentence Building Race

ESL Past Simple Sentence Building Activity - Grammar: Matching - Pair Work - Intermediate (B1) - 20 minutes

In this rewarding past simple activity, students race to make past simple affirmative and negative compound sentences. In pairs, students race to make ten past simple compound sentences by joining three cards together for each sentence. Students join the second clause to the first clause using the conjunction and. Students add the third clause using but. The third clause is negative. Students must write and and but in the spaces provided and lay the cards out on the table in the correct order. The first pair of students to complete all the sentences correctly wins.
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The Lion and the Mouse

ESL Past Simple Affirmative Negative Worksheet - Grammar and Reading Exercises: Word Search, Gap-fill, Rewriting Sentences - Speaking Activity: Guided Discussion - Intermediate (B1) - 35 minutes

This free past simple worksheet helps students to practice affirmative and negative sentences as well as a variety of regular and irregular past tense verbs. Students begin with a word search exercise where they find and circle the past tense form of verbs, relating to a story they are going to read. Next, students read the story in three parts and fill in gaps with suitable verbs from boxes in the past simple. After that, students read another version of the story that contains mistakes. Students then write past simple affirmative and negative sentences about the details that are incorrect. Finally, there is a class feedback session where students think of a moral for the story.
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MythBusters

ESL Past Simple Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Gap-fill, Changing Word Forms, Guided Discussion, Guessing - Group Work - Upper-intermediate (B2) - 45 minutes

In this intriguing past simple activity, students complete statements with past simple regular and irregular verbs and then guess which statements are historical facts and which are myths. In groups (Student A, B and C), students complete ten statements with regular and irregular verbs in their past simple form. Next, students form new teams of three, comprising of Student A, B and C. The students' task is to read the statements together, discuss them, and decide which are historical facts and which are myths. When everyone has finished, teams give their answer for each statement in turn, justifying their response when possible. Teams score one point for each correct guess. The team with the highest score at the end of the game wins.
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