Past Simple Wh Questions ESL Activities, Games & Worksheets

ESL Wh Questions with Did Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Matching, Gap-fill, Unscrambling, Writing Questions - Speaking Activity: Freer Practice - Pair Work This comprehensive past simple Wh questions worksheet helps students learn and practice Wh questions with 'did'. Students start by matching past simple Wh questions with answers. Next, students complete sentences and questions with the correct question words. Students then put words in the correct order to create Wh questions with 'did'. Students then move on to create past simple Wh questions with 'did' that match a set of answers. After that, students complete a dialogue with past simple Wh questions and then practice the dialogue with a partner. Lastly, students use the theme of the dialogue to ask their partner what they did last Saturday night. Students try to find out as much information as they can about their evening using past simple Wh questions with 'did'. show less

ESL Past Simple Questions Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Information Gap, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this free past simple information gap activity, students ask and answer Wh questions in the past simple to complete missing information in a chart. In pairs, students take turns using the prompts on their worksheet to ask past simple Wh questions to their partner. Students then write the missing information in the chart. When the students have finished, they compare charts to check their answers. show less

ESL Past Simple Wh Questions Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this enjoyable past simple speaking activity, students use Wh questions to find out about a classmate's last holiday. Students begin by creating past simple questions from the prompts on their worksheets. Students then answer the questions by completing information about their last holiday in the column marked 'Me'. After that, students ask and answer the past simple questions and complete the chart with information about a partner's previous holiday. When everyone has finished, students tell the class about their partner's last holiday. show less

ESL Past Simple Running Dictation - Grammar and Speaking Activity: Forming, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Table Completion - Pair and Group Work In this free past simple running dictation activity, students ask and answer past simple Wh questions about holidays. In pairs, one student is the writer and the other is the reader. The readers run to the text, read a sentence or two, and then return and dictate what they read to their partner, who writes it down. When the students have finished, they use prompts on a worksheet to create past simple questions about holidays. Students then use the questions to write notes about their own holiday in a chart. After that, students ask three classmates about their last holiday using the questions and complete the other columns in the chart. As a follow-up, students write a paragraph about their last holiday in the past simple. show less

ESL Past Simple Questions Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Questions from Prompts - Group Work In this entertaining past simple Wh questions game, students race to make past simple questions that elicit certain short answers. In groups, students take turns taking a short answer card from an envelope and reading it aloud to the group, e.g. a new phone. All the students then race to make a past simple Wh question to elicit the response using a question word from their card, e.g. 'What did you buy?' The first student to form and ask a suitable question takes the answer card and crosses off the question word on their card, e.g. what. It's then the next student's turn to take an answer card, and so on. The first student to cross off all the question words on their card wins the game. show less

ESL Past Simple Wh Questions Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming and Asking Questions from Prompts, Answering Questions, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this fun past simple questions game, students try to answer all their opponent's questions correctly. In pairs, Student B begins by rolling the dice and adding up the numbers rolled. Student A then formulates the past simple question that corresponds to the number on their worksheet. For example, if Student B rolls a two, Student A asks question two on their worksheet, i.e. 'What did you wear yesterday?' If Student B answers correctly, Student A crosses off the question. If Student B makes a grammatical mistake or is unable to answer appropriately, the question remains active and can be asked again, depending on the number rolled. This process continues with students taking turns to roll the dice and ask and answer questions. The first student to correctly answer all their partner's questions wins the game. show less

ESL Past Simple Wh Questions Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Controlled and Freer Practice - Pair Work In this insightful past simple Wh questions activity, students practice asking Wh questions and using the past simple tense with time expressions to talk about experiences earlier in life. In pairs, students take turns asking each other 'When was the first time...?' questions from the worksheet. Students write down their partner's response and then ask follow-up questions to develop a conversation about each event. When the students have finished, they tell the class what they found out about their partner. As an extension, students write a short biographical account about their partner's experiences. show less

ESL Past Simple Information Gap Activity - Grammar, Writing and Speaking: Information Gap, Writing, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts - Pair Work In this rewarding past simple information gap activity, students write and then ask past simple Wh questions in order to complete a text. In two groups, students write down the past simple Wh questions they need to find out the missing information in the text on their worksheet. Students then pair up with someone from the other group and take turns asking and answering questions in numerical order to find out the missing information. Students write the information in the blank spaces in the text on their worksheet. When the students have asked all their questions, they check their answers and spelling by comparing texts. show less

ESL Past Simple Questions Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Forming, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Controlled and Freer Practice - Group and Pair Work In this engaging past simple speaking activity, students practice forming, asking and answering past simple Wh conversation questions. To begin, in two groups, students complete each past simple Wh question with the verb 'to be' or 'do', 'you' or 'your', and the correct form of the verb in brackets where shown. Students then pair up with someone from the other group and take turns asking and answering the past simple conversation questions with their partner. Afterwards, students share what they found out about their partner with the class. show less

ESL Past Simple Wh Questions Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Matching, Categorizing, Error Correction, Writing Questions from Prompts In this useful past simple questions worksheet, students learn and practice past simple Wh question word order using the QuASI structure. First, students match questions with correct answers in order to practice question words. Next, students read about the QuASI structure and how it is used, to help remember the correct word order for Wh questions. Students then categorize words into a table to demonstrate the QuASI structure. Students then use the QuASI structure to rewrite questions, correcting the mistakes. After that, students use the QuASI structure to write questions for a set of answers. Lastly, students read a short passage and create past simple Wh questions about the story, beginning with the question words provided. As an extension, students practice asking and answering their questions about the story with a partner. show less

ESL Past Simple Questions Activities - Grammar Exercises, Writing Questions, Gap-fill - Speaking Game: Relay, Forming Questions from Prompts - Group Work In these productive past simple Wh question activities, students complete a worksheet to practice past simple verb forms and Wh questions. Students then play a relay race game where they make past simple questions that would elicit specific answers. First, students complete a verb chart with missing verbs. Students then write past simple Wh questions that would elicit a set of answers. Next, students complete gaps with question words to explain what each question word is used for. Afterwards, students play a past simple questions relay race game. Each team stands in a line, facing the board. Read the first answer to the class. The student at the back of each line thinks of a past simple Wh question that will elicit the answer and whispers it to the student in front of them. This continues down the line until it reaches the student at the front. The first team to have their student at the front make an appropriate question scores one point for using an appropriate question word and another point for making a suitable question. The team with the most points at the end wins. show less

ESL Past Simple Wh Questions Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Freer Practice This free past simple questions speaking activity helps students practice Wh questions and time expressions in the past. Students go around the class asking and answering the questions on the worksheet, e.g. 'When did you last watch a film?' Each time a student asks a 'When did you last...?' question, they complete the 'When' column with their classmate's answer and ask a past simple Wh follow-up question to find out more information, noting down the answer in the last column. When everyone has finished, students tell the class what they found out. show less

ESL Past Simple Wh Questions Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Forming, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts - Pair Work Here is an interesting past simple questions activity to help teach students how to ask and answer past simple Wh questions. In the activity, students interview each other about things they did in the past. First, students use verbs, picture prompts and question words to write down past simple Wh questions on their worksheet. Students then take turns asking and answering the questions with a partner about the last time they did the things on their worksheet. When the students have finished, they tell the class what they found out about their partner. show less

ESL Past Simple Wh Questions Activity - Grammar, Writing and Speaking: Writing Questions and Answers, Reading and Completing a Dialogue - Pair Work This memorable past simple holiday questions activity helps students ask and answer questions about their last holiday. Pairs begin by reading a conversation about Julia Robert's last holiday. Working alone, students then change the underlined parts of the dialogue with information about their last holiday. Students also add four more past simple Wh follow-up questions and answers to the conversation from a list on their worksheet. Finally, students practice the new dialogue with their partner and present it to the class. show less

ESL Past Simple Wh Questions Activity - Speaking: Role-play, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Guessing, Table Completion, Gap-fill - Group and Pair Work In this intriguing past simple Wh questions activity, students work together to solve a mystery about where different people went earlier in the day. In the activity, each student takes on the role of a person who visited a specific place earlier in the day. Their goal is to ask questions to gather information and determine where each person went. First, students look at a table on their worksheet and prepare the questions they need to ask. Next, students go around their group, asking and answering the questions to collect clues about where each person went, noting down the information in the table. After that, in pairs, students use the information to guess the place each person went and complete sentences with the names and places. Finally, review the correct answers with the class. show less

ESL Past Simple Questions Game - Grammar and Speaking: Gap-fill, Guessing, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts - Pair Work In this engaging past simple guessing game, students write, ask and answer a variety of past simple Wh questions with the verb 'to be' and 'do' about a partner's past. First, students write past simple Wh questions to ask their partner by filling in gaps in questions and creating questions of their own. Next, students guess their partner's answer to each question and write down their guess. Students then take turns asking and answering the questions on the worksheet to find out if their guesses were right or wrong. If a student's guess was the same or very similar to their partner's answer, the student puts a tick. If not, the student puts a cross. The student who guessed the most correct answers about their partner's past wins. show less

ESL Past Simple Wh Questions Activity - Grammar, Writing and Speaking: Completing and Answering Questions, Guided Discussion - Group Work In this inventive past simple questions activity, students review past simple Wh questions by writing questions for other classmates to answer. Students write their name at the bottom of the worksheet and then hand their paper to the person on their right, who completes the first past simple Wh question (What did...?) for the person whose name is at the bottom of the worksheet. The student also writes their name next to the question to show who wrote it. The student then folds the paper, so the question is hidden and passes it to the person on their right, who writes the next question and their name, and so on. When all the questions have been written, students hand the worksheet back to the person whose name is written on the sheet. Students then unfold their worksheets and read the questions. Finally, students find the person who wrote each question and answer it. show less

ESL Past Simple Wh Questions Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions, Controlled and Freer Practice Here is a past simple questions speaking activity to help students ask Wh questions and talk about past events. In the activity, students go around the class asking and answering the 'When did you last...?' questions on the worksheet, e.g. 'When did you last watch a movie at the cinema?' When a student asks a question to a classmate, they complete the 'When' column with their answer, ask for their name and write it under the 'Who' column, and then ask past simple Wh follow-up questions to find out more information, e.g. 'What did you watch?' 'Who did you go with?', noting down the answers in the last column. Afterwards, students share what they found out with the class. show less

ESL Past Simple Wh Questions Game - Grammar and Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions, Freer Practice - Group Work Here is a compelling past simple questions game to help students practice asking and answering Wh questions. Two team leaders take turns secretly choosing a past simple verb from a list. The leader then thinks of a past simple Wh question that will elicit a response using the chosen verb. The question is not allowed to contain any form of that verb. The leader then asks the past simple question to one of the students in the middle of the class. If the student answers using the verb in the past simple tense, they come over to the leader and join their team. Every time a student joins a team, they become the new team leader. The new and old leaders then work together to think of the next question. Teams take turns playing until there are no more students left in the middle of the room. The team with the most members at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Past Simple Questions Activity - Grammar, Writing and Speaking: Information Gap, Writing, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts - Group and Pair Work In this free past simple information gap activity, students write and ask past simple Wh questions in order to complete a text about Leonardo DiCaprio's life. In two groups, students read a text about Leonardo DiCaprio's life and write the ten past simple Wh questions they need to find out the missing information. Next, students pair up with someone from the other group and take turns asking and answering the questions in numerical order to find out the information missing in the text, writing their partner's answers in the spaces. When the students have finished, they compare their completed texts, which should be identical. show less