Past Simple Affirmative Negative ESL Games, Worksheets & Activities

ESL Past Simple Affirmative and Negative Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Matching, Categorizing, Gap-fill, Rewriting Sentences In this insightful past simple worksheet, students practice regular and irregular past simple verbs in affirmative and negative sentences. First, students match regular and irregular verbs to pictures and write the verbs under the pictures in the past simple. Students then decide whether verbs are regular or irregular and write the past simple form of each verb under the appropriate heading. Next, students complete affirmative and negative sentences with the past simple form of the verbs in brackets. After that, students complete a text in the past simple using the verbs. Finally, students rewrite past simple sentences from the text in their negative form. show less

ESL Past Simple Affirmative Game - Grammar and Speaking: Sentence Completion, Guessing, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts In this entertaining past simple game, students complete affirmative sentences about classmates' recent activities and then ask 'Did you…?' questions to check their guesses. First, students read each past simple prompt and think about how they can complete it to be true for one student in the class. Students then complete each past simple sentence with the name of a student and their own idea using the verb in brackets in the past simple, e.g. 'Maria read a book last night.' Next, students go around the class asking 'Did you...?' questions to the people on their worksheet to see if their guesses are right or wrong, e.g. 'Did you read a book last night?' For each correct guess, students put a tick in the last column. For each incorrect guess, students put a cross. The student with the most correct guesses at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Past Simple Worksheet - Grammar, Reading and Writing Exercises: Identifying, Gap-fill, Writing a Short Paragraph In this free past simple worksheet, students read a text about Mark the Jogger and practice forming past simple affirmative and negative sentences using common regular and irregular verbs. First, students read about Mark's day and underline all the verbs in the text. In negative sentences, students underline both words, for example, doesn't have. Students then change the verbs from the text into the past simple to complete sentences about what Mark did and didn't do yesterday. Next, students write a short paragraph about someone they know and what they did yesterday using the past simple. Finally, students read their paragraphs to the class. show less

ESL Past Simple Worksheet - Grammar, Reading and Writing Exercises: Identifying, Categorising, Answering Questions, Gap-fill, Rewriting Sentences, Paragraph Writing In this productive past simple worksheet, students learn to use past simple affirmative and negative forms, including common irregular verbs, to talk about a holiday. 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, putting a tick next to the irregular past simple verbs. Next, students answer comprehension questions in sentence form about the story. After that, students complete sentences with the negative past simple form of the verbs in brackets. Students then rewrite present simple sentences in the past simple. Finally, students write about their last holiday using the past simple and then read their texts to the class. show less

ESL Past Simple Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Controlled Practice - Group Work In this enjoyable past simple game, students practice making affirmative and negative past simple sentences from subject and action prompts. In groups, students take turns picking up one action card and one subject card and reading them aloud. The student then makes an affirmative past simple sentence using the subject and action, changing the verb to the correct past simple form, e.g. 'I went to the beach yesterday.' If the other students agree that the sentence is grammatically correct, the student keeps the action card, puts the subject card back in the pile and scores one point. The student then makes a negative past simple sentence using the same subject and action, e.g. 'I didn't go to the beach yesterday.' If this sentence is also correct, the student scores an extra point. If the affirmative sentence is incorrect, the student returns the action card and scores no points. If the negative sentence is incorrect, the student keeps the action card, but does not score the extra point. At the end of each turn, the student returns the subject card. The game continues until there are no action cards left in the pile. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Past Simple Board Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Changing Verb Forms This engaging past simple board game helps students practice making past simple affirmative and negative sentences with time expressions. In groups, students take turns rolling the dice and moving their counters along the board. When a student lands on a square, they pick up a time expression card and make a past simple sentence with the verb phrase in the square and the time expression on the card. If the square begins with 'not', the student makes a negative sentence using didn't plus the base verb, e.g. 'not cook dinner' becomes 'I didn't cook dinner...' If the square doesn't begin with 'not', the student makes an affirmative sentence. If the group agrees that the past simple sentence is correct, the student stays on the square. If not, the student returns to their previous square. The first student to reach the finish wins the game. show less

ESL Past Simple Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work In this fun past simple game, students use past simple affirmative sentences and picture cards to talk about what they did yesterday. The first student lays down a picture card and makes a past simple affirmative sentence about what they did yesterday using the action on the card and one of these main verbs: play, go, do, have, get, read, or take, e.g. 'Yesterday, I went cycling.' The next student then lays down either another action card that uses the same main verb (e.g. Yesterday, I went shopping.) or a Restart card to change the main verb. If the student plays a Restart card, they must immediately lay down an action card and make a new sentence, e.g. 'Yesterday, I did my homework.' If a student is unable to make a sentence or use a Restart card, they miss a turn. The first student to lay down all their cards wins the game. Students play several rounds to practice talking about all the activities and actions in the past simple. show less

ESL Past Simple Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Gap-fill, Sentence Completion, Freer Practice In this fun past simple speaking activity, students complete affirmative sentences with true information about their past and then mingle to find classmates who did the same or very similar things. First, students complete sentences with true information about what they did in the past using the verb in brackets in the past simple form. Next, students go around the class trying to find people who did the same things as they did by reading their sentences and asking 'What about you?' If both students' sentences are the same or very similar, the two students write each other's names next to the sentence. Students then move on to speak to another classmate. When the students have finished, they tell the class who did the same things as they did. show less

ESL Past Simple Affirmative Negative Worksheet - Grammar and Writing Exercises: Gap-fill, Writing Sentences - Speaking Activity: Discussion - Pair Work In this holiday-themed past simple worksheet, students practice the past simple affirmative and negative forms of regular and irregular 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. Next, students answer questions about their last holiday, writing their answers in full past simple sentences. After that, students write a paragraph about their last holiday in the past simple using their ideas from Exercise C. Finally, students read their paragraph to a partner and discuss who had the best holiday and why. show less

ESL Past Simple Board Game - Speaking: Reforming Sentences, Freer Practice - Group Work In this amusing past simple board game, students practice past simple sentences with regular and irregular verbs by making excuses for arriving late to class. In groups, students take turns rolling the dice and moving their counters along the board. When a student lands on a blank square, they pick up an excuse card and make an excuse for being late to class by changing the sentence into its past simple form, e.g. 'Sorry I'm late. I missed the bus.' When a student lands on a square marked 'Sorry I'm late', they create their own excuse for being late in the past simple. If the group agrees that the excuse is grammatically correct and appropriate, the student stays on the square. If not, the student moves back two spaces. The first student to arrive at class wins the game. show less

ESL Past Simple Board Game - Grammar and Speaking: Impromptu Speech, Communicative Practice - Group Work In this free past simple board game, students talk for 30 seconds about everyday topics using the past simple tense as they move around the board. In groups, students take turns rolling the dice and moving their counters 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, uses the wrong tense, or stops talking before the 30 seconds are up, they go back two squares. The first student to reach the finish wins the game. show less

ESL Past Simple Activity - Grammar and Writing: Writing Sentences from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work In this memorable past simple activity, students invent answers to questions and build a collaborative holiday romance story using past simple sentences. In groups, students answer the first question on their worksheet by inventing details and writing the answer down in the form of a past simple sentence. Students then 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 turns reading their stories to their group, and the group chooses the best one. Finally, the groups read their chosen stories to the class, and the class votes for the best story. show less

ESL Past Simple Game - Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work In this engaging past simple game, students use verb and time expression cards to make believable past simple sentences about their own lives and build fluency with common regular and irregular verb forms. Players take turns turning over a time expression card from the pile and making a believable past simple affirmative sentence using one of the verbs on their cards and the time expression, e.g. 'I bought a sandwich yesterday.' If the other students agree that the sentence is believable and grammatically correct, the player discards the verb card. If not, the player keeps the verb card. The first player to get rid of all their verb cards wins the game. show less

ESL Past Simple Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Categorising, Gap-fill, Rewriting Sentences, Error Correction In this productive past simple worksheet, students practice using regular and irregular past simple verbs in affirmative and negative sentences. First, students categorise verbs as regular or irregular and then write the past simple forms of the verbs. Students then use the past simple verbs to complete affirmative sentences. Next, students rewrite sentences in their past simple negative form. Lastly, students correct mistakes in past simple affirmative and negative sentences. show less

ESL Past Simple Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Story Telling, Communicative Practice - Group Work In this imaginative past simple game, students collaboratively build a story using past simple affirmative and negative sentences while trying to include given verbs for points. In groups, one student starts the story by taking the top three cards from the pile and placing them face up on the table. The student then forms a maximum of three past simple sentences within 30 seconds using as many verbs on the cards as possible in the past simple (affirmative or negative). The group judges whether the sentences are correct. For every verb the student uses from the cards correctly, they keep the card, so in any one turn, a student can keep between one and three cards. The next student then picks up three cards and continues the story, and so on. The game continues until all the cards have been used. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Past Simple Sentence Building Activity - Grammar: Matching, Forming Sentences - Pair Work In this rewarding past simple activity, students race to build ten compound sentences by joining clauses with 'and' and 'but', making the final clause negative. In pairs, students race to make ten past simple compound sentences by joining three cards together to form 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. The first pair to lay the cards out on the table in the correct order and complete them with the right conjunctions wins. show less

ESL Past Simple Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, True or False, Asking Questions, Guessing - Group Work Here is a light-hearted past simple true or false guessing game that helps students practice past simple affirmative and negative statements using common time expressions and verbs. In groups, students take turns picking up a time expression card and a verb card and making a true or false affirmative or negative past simple statement about something they did or didn't do in the past using the words on the cards. Next, the other students ask three past simple questions to help them decide whether the student is telling the truth or not. The other students then say if they think the student is telling the truth or lying, and the student reveals the answer. Students who guessed correctly each score one point. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Past Simple Board Game - Grammar and Writing: Writing Sentences from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work In this creative past simple board game, students collect words and then use them to write as many past simple affirmative sentences as possible, paying attention to -ed pronunciation in regular verbs. Players take turns rolling the dice and moving their counters horizontally or vertically along the board, but not diagonally. 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. The game continues until all the words have been coloured in. Afterwards, players use only the words they wrote down to make as many past simple affirmative sentences as they can. Each collected word can only be used once in the students' sentences. 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. show less

ESL Past Simple Fluency Practice - Speaking Activity: Impromptu Speech, Communicative Practice - Group Work In this enjoyable past simple speaking activity, students use past simple affirmative and negative sentences to talk about personal memories. This activity is best suited for older students or adults and is effective in developing fluency. In groups, students take turns picking up a card from the top of the pile and talking about the topic on the card for one minute using the past simple. Each turn must include at least one negative past simple sentence. The other group members listen and ask the student questions to get them to speak for the full minute if needed. The next student then picks up a card, and so on. This process continues until all the cards have been used or time is up. Afterwards, students share what they found out about their group members with the class. show less

ESL Past Simple Game - Grammar and Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work In this free past simple game, students ask and answer 'When did you last...?' questions from picture prompts and try to give typical past simple affirmative answers using accurate time expressions. One student goes first by picking up a picture card and asking the person on their right any '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 typical past simple sentence using one of the time expressions, e.g. 'I went shopping two days ago.' If the group members agree that the sentence is typical, the student discards their time expression card. If the answer sounds unusual, e.g. 'I went shopping last summer,' the group members say 'Oh, really?' and challenge the student to explain. If challenged, the student may either admit it sounds unusual and keep the time expression card, or try to justify the answer by adding a short reason. If the group accepts the reason, the student discards the time expression card. 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. show less

ESL Past Simple Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Story Telling - Group Work In this imaginative past simple speaking activity, students use affirmative and negative past simple sentences to build short mini-stories in a group chain format. In groups, one student begins by picking up a card, reading the introductory phrase on the card and completing it with their own idea to start the story. Each group member then adds to the story in turn by saying one affirmative or negative sentence in the past simple. After everyone has spoken twice, the story ends, and the next student picks up a new card. If a student cannot make a sentence, the turn passes to the next group member. This continues until all the cards have been used or time is up. show less

ESL Past Simple Affirmative Negative Worksheet - Grammar, Reading and Writing Exercises: Changing Verb Forms, Gap-fill, Rewriting Sentences This past simple worksheet helps students practice affirmative and negative sentences with common regular and irregular verbs. First, students write the past simple form of the verbs shown. Students then complete a story in three parts with verbs from boxes in their past simple form. Next, students read another version of the story that contains mistakes. After that, students write two past simple sentences about each incorrect detail, writing one negative sentence about the mistake and one affirmative sentence with the correct information. Finally, students think of a moral for the story, e.g. 'A kindness is never wasted' or 'Even the smallest kindness brings its reward.' As an extension, students retell the story to a partner, changing some details, and the other student tries to identify the changes. show less

ESL Past Simple Game - Grammar and Speaking: Gap-fill, Guided Discussion, Guessing - Group Work In this intriguing past simple game, students complete statements with past simple regular and irregular verbs and then guess which statements are historical facts and which are myths. First, in groups (A, B and C), students complete ten statements by choosing verbs from a box and changing them to the past simple. Next, students form teams of three, comprising of a Student A, B and C. Students then read their statements to their team, discuss them and decide which are historical facts and which are myths, noting their answers on a card. When the teams have finished, they take turns reading three statements (A, B, C) to the class. Each team then says whether they think the statement is a fact or a myth, and the correct answer is revealed. Teams score one point for each correct guess. The team with the highest score at the end of the game wins. show less