Narrative Tenses ESL Worksheets, Activities & Games

ESL Narrative Tenses Activity - Grammar and Writing: Writing Sentences from Prompts, Story Writing, Acting - Pair Work In this engaging narrative tenses activity, students practice using narrative tenses to write a short story from prompts and then read it to another pair, who acts it 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. Finally, pairs take turns reading their story to another pair, with each student reading alternate sentences and then pausing, while the other pair listens and mimes the story, only saying a short line of dialogue if it appears in the story. show less

ESL Narrative Tenses Worksheet - Reading and Grammar Exercises: Binary Choice, True or False Reading Comprehension, Gap-fill In this useful narrative tenses worksheet, students read fairy tale stories and choose and write the correct narrative tense verb forms. Students begin by reading a short version of the fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk" and underlining the most appropriate narrative tense verb forms. Students then read six statements about the story and indicate whether they are true or false. Next, students complete a story with verbs in brackets in their correct narrative tense. Finally, students 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. show less

ESL Narrative Tense Games - Grammar: Matching, Gap-fill, Sentence Completion, Miming, Guessing - Pair Work Here is a fun set of narrative tense games to help students practice 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 miming the ending. Their partner has one minute to guess and say what the other student wrote. If they manage to do this, they score a point. The student with the most points at the end is the winner. show less

ESL Narrative Tenses Worksheet - Reading, Grammar and Writing Exercises: Binary Choice, Matching, Writing Sentences from Prompts, Gap-fill, Story Completion In this free narrative tenses worksheet, students practice four narrative tenses through a short story, matching, and guided writing tasks. Students begin 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. After that, 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. show less

ESL Narrative Tenses Activity - Grammar and Writing: Matching, Short Answer Questions, Guided Story Writing, Sentence Completion - Group Work This imaginative story writing activity helps students practice using narrative tenses by writing a collaborative circle story. First, students match forms of a verb 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. The student then writes the first sentence of their story using the narrative tenses in brackets and passes 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. So, each group member writes the first, second, third and fourth sentence of a different story. After the fourth sentence, each worksheet is returned to its owner, who writes the final sentence. Students then take turns reading their stories to the group, who choose the best one to be read to the class. show less

ESL Narrative Tenses Worksheet - Reading and Grammar Exercises: Matching, Gap-fill, Binary Choice - Speaking Activity: Guided Discussion - Pair Work In this engaging narrative tenses worksheet, students complete and discuss a short story to practise four past narrative tenses. Students begin by reading 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 tenses. Next, students read the next part of the story and underline the correct verb forms. After that, students discuss a question about the story with a partner. Students then read the next part of the story and complete it 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. show less

ESL Narrative Tenses Worksheet - Grammar and Reading Exercises: Identifying, Gap-fill, Matching - Speaking Activity: Story Telling - Group Work In this productive narrative tenses worksheet, students practice narrative tenses to talk about past experiences. First, students read a short story and underline all the past verb forms. Students then complete a story by changing the verbs in brackets into the correct narrative tense. Next, students complete another story with verbs from a box in their correct narrative tense. After that, students match each sentence to the correct narrative tense. Lastly, in groups, students talk for two minutes about a memorable experience from their past using prompts to help them and the four narrative tenses. show less