Present Tense

General Routines

My day/ My week: Activity for beginners.

Daily routines: Questions and answers domino  race:

In order to practice talking about daily routines and asking questions about daily routines I like to use the game “domino race”. The kids need to hear the forms many times in order to form patterns in their brains.

The game “domino race” does this beautifully. Cut the cards (column 1+2  and columns 3+4 must stay together). Distribute the cards (one per student — two for volunteers if you have more cards than students). Give the kids some time to read their card and make sure they understand the sentences and can pronounce them.

Set a stopwatch timer on your phone or online. At your cue the first student reads out a QUESTION. The student with the matching answer reads the answer, and then reads out the question on their card. The students try to do this as quickly as possible. 

After the first round, mark the time they needed to complete the game on the board. Play the game again at the beginning of the next lesson and encourage the kids to get faster and beat their record. Do this 3-4 times at the beginning of your lessons.

You can use this game for all kinds of vocab and grammar. It’s a perfect communicative drill.

 

Present Activities: What’s going on around you?

The Peep-show tense:    

Make a spy-glass from a toilet paper roll. Decorate it nicely.
Look out of the window. Look around in our classroom. What do you see?  What is happening around you? What are all the people doing right now?

Eavesdropping:
Listen at some classroom doors. What do you hear? What are they doing in there?

Find a rule:
Work with a partner. Explain the use of the simple present (I get up, I have breakfast, I leave the house…) and the use of the present progressive (I am thinking about these tenses, he is chatting with his friend…)
How can you explain this to your mom or dad or to the students of 1a?

These are some of the examples that year 1 leaners have come up with: Click on the pictures to view them in full size.

 

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