Verb to be ESL Games, Activities & Worksheets

ESL Verb to be Game - Grammar: Sentence Building - Group Work In this free verb 'to be' game, students practice building short affirmative and negative sentences with 'am', 'is' and 'are'. In groups, players take turns making a sentence with their cards by putting three cards face up in a row on the table (subject + verb 'to be' + ending) and reading it aloud, e.g. 'I am a student.' If the sentence is grammatically correct, the player scores one point, puts the three used cards into a discard pile and takes three cards from a draw pile. If a player cannot make a sentence, they take a card from the top of the draw pile, put one of their cards at the bottom and miss a turn. The game continues until players cannot make any more sentences. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Verb to be Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Role-Play, Writing, Asking and Answering Questions, Controlled Practice - Pair Work In this useful verb 'to be' role-play activity, students take on the role of Aiko or Richard and ask and answer simple personal information questions with the verb 'to be' to complete a profile. Working together in two groups, students look at information in a table and write a question for each prompt using the verb 'to be'. Students then pair up with someone from the other group. Next, students take turns asking and answering the questions in character, and completing the table with their partner's answers. Finally, students check their answers by comparing worksheets. show less

ESL Verb to be Game - Grammar and Speaking: Bingo, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Controlled Practice In this engaging verb 'to be' game, students race to complete a bingo card by finding classmates who answer 'Yes, I am.' to 'Are you...?' questions. Students go around the class asking 'Are you...?' questions from the squares on their bingo cards, e.g. 'Are you good at dancing?' If a classmate answers 'Yes, I am.', the student writes the classmate's name at the beginning of the sentence in the square. Each time a student speaks to a classmate, they are only allowed to ask one question and then must move on to speak to another student. The first student to get five names in a row shouts 'Bingo!' Check the student's answers by confirming the information with the named students. If the answers are right, the student wins the round. If not, the students continue to play. Play several rounds, ensuring that students receive a different bingo card each time. You can also have the students win by completing the entire card with names. show less

ESL Verb to be Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Information Gap, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Controlled Practice - Group Work In this productive verb 'to be' information gap activity, students find out personal information about four people and practice Wh questions and answers with the verb 'to be'. First, students take on the role of the person in their chart and read through their information. Students then go around their group asking and answering questions in character and completing the chart with the corresponding information. When the students have finished, they check their answers by comparing charts. Finally, review the answers as a class by asking students about the four people, e.g. 'What is Jack's last name?' show less

ESL Verb to be Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts - Group Work In this enjoyable verb 'to be' activity, students practice exchanging information about different people living on a street. First, students take on the role of the person on their card and write their own details from the card in the matching house box on the worksheet. Students then find out who lives in the other houses on Park Street by asking and answering questions with the other students in their group, using the verb 'to be' and writing all the details on the worksheet. Finally, check the answers by asking students to read information about the people who live on the street. show less

ESL Verb to be Game - Grammar: Snap, Matching - Pair Work In this fast-paced verb 'to be' game, students race to match yes/no questions with short answers. In pairs, both students turn over a card from their pile at the same time and place them on the table next to each other. If the yes/no question and short answer match, the first student to say 'Snap' scores a point. If the question and answer don't match, students continue turning over cards until a matching pair comes up. If a student says 'Snap' when the question and answer don't match, the other student scores a point. After each point, students pick up their own cards, shuffle them and start a new round. The first student to score 15 points wins the game. As an alternative or extension, students can play a pelmanism game with the cards. show less

ESL Verb to be Board Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences and Questions from Prompts, Controlled and Freer Practice - Group Work This enjoyable verb 'to be' board game helps students practice making present simple affirmative and negative sentences and questions with the verb 'to be'. In groups, players take turns rolling the dice and moving their counters along the board. When a player lands on a square with a sentence beginning or ending, they use the beginning or ending to make an affirmative or negative sentence with the verb 'to be', e.g. 'I am not at work.' If a player lands on a 'Question' square, they pick up a card and use the prompt to form a question with the verb 'to be'. The player then asks the question to another student, who answers it. If a player forms a sentence or question correctly, they stay on the square. If not, the player moves back two squares. The first player to reach the finish wins the game. show less

ESL Verb to be Worksheet - Reading and Grammar Exercises: Identifying, True or False, Gap-fill - Speaking Activity - Asking and Answering Questions In this free verb 'to be' worksheet, students practice the present simple of the verb 'to be' in sentences, questions and short answers. First, students read a text about a family and underline all the examples of the verb 'to be'. Students then read sentences about the text and mark them true or false. Next, students complete affirmative and negative sentences with the verb 'to be'. After that, students complete questions and answers with the correct form of the verb 'to be'. Students then complete mini-dialogues using am, am not, is, isn't, are, and aren't. Finally, students take part in a 'Find Someone Who' activity where they go around the class asking classmates yes/no questions with the verb 'to be'. When a classmate answers yes, students write their name in the 'Name' column. show less

ESL Verb to be Game - Grammar, Speaking and Writing: Forming and Writing Sentence, Memorising In this rewarding verb 'to be' game, students use the verb 'to be' to talk about cities and nationalities and then test how much information they can remember about their classmates. First, students imagine that they are from the city and the country on their card. Students then go around the class using the verb 'to be' to tell their classmates the city they are from and their nationality, e.g. 'I am from Tokyo. I am Japanese.' The students' task is to listen and try to remember which city each student is from and their nationality. Next, in pairs, students write down where each person is from and their nationality using the verb 'to be', e.g. 'Max is from Tokyo. He is Japanese.' Afterwards, go through the answers with the class by asking the students to say the city they are from and their nationality. Pairs score one point for every correct sentence. The pair with the most points wins the game. show less

ESL Verb to be Worksheet - Grammar and Writing Exercises: Gap-fills, Writing Answers from Prompts, Binary Choice, Writing an Email This insightful verb to be worksheet helps students practice the past and present simple of the verb to be: am, are, is, was and were as well as their negative forms. First, students complete a text with am, is, are, isn't or aren't. Students then complete another text with was, were, wasn't or weren't. Students then move on to answer comprehension questions about the two texts using the verb 'to be'. Next, students complete another text with the correct form of the verb 'to be' in brackets. Lastly, students write an email to one of the people from the texts using the verb 'to be' forms from the worksheet. show less

ESL Verb to be Game - Grammar and Speaking: Writing, Asking and Answering Questions - Pair Work In this entertaining verb to be guessing game, students ask yes/no questions with the verb 'to be' in order to find out a partner's secret identity. First, students circle the questions they would like to ask in questions 1 to 10 on the worksheet and complete questions 11 to 20 with their own ideas. Next, in pairs, each student imagines that they are a famous person or character and answers their partner's questions as if they were that person. One student goes first and asks the questions they have prepared to their partner who responds 'Yes, I am' or 'No, I'm not' accordingly. When the student thinks they know their partner's secret identity, they can make a guess. If the guess is correct, students swap roles. If not, the student continues to ask questions and make guesses until the last question has been asked. Afterwards, there is a class feedback session to find out who asked the most and least questions. show less

ESL Verb to be Activity - Grammar and Speaking: Information Gaps, Completing, Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Matching - Pair Work In this comprehensive verb to be information gap activity, students practice asking and answering questions with the verb 'to be'. First, students complete present simple Wh questions with words from a box on the worksheet. Next, students use the questions and answer structures from the first exercise in an information gap activity about four people who have lost their dogs. The students' task is to complete descriptions of the dogs by asking and answering questions with their partner and completing the missing information in the chart. Students then move on to practice yes/no questions with the verb 'to be' in a second information gap activity where the four people want to find out if their dogs are at an animal shelter. Students use yes/no questions from the worksheet to ask about dogs in six cages in the animal shelter. Students complete the missing information in the chart with the answers. Students then look at the information in the chart and match the people with their dogs. show less

ESL Verb to be Game - Grammar and Writing: Writing Questions and Answers, Guessing - Group Work In this creative verb to be game, students write and respond to questions with the verb 'to be'. First, students think of a personal information question beginning with the word on their question slip and write down the next word in the question. Students then pass the slip to the person on their right, who writes the next word and passes it on. The student who writes the last word in the question adds a question mark and hands the question to the next person, who writes an answer underneath, puts the slip in an envelope and takes another slip. This continues until all the slips are complete. Students then take turns taking a slip from the envelope and reading the question and answer to the group members, who each guess which student answered the question. The student who wrote the answer bluffs by guessing another student, but once all the group members have guessed, they reveal it was them. For each correct guess, students score a point. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less