I didn't do it, Pac-Man did!

When I was a little girl, I played a lot this game called Pac-Man. Luckily, I am not the only one who did so. You might even be shocked, but even my younger students know the game quite well. This helps me a lot when I explain the form of the verb after the auxiliary DID.

You see, the very first time I had to explain Past Simple to my younger students I had a brainwave. I realised that DID "eats" all the "-ed" endings and irregular forms (extra points!!!) just like Pac-Man eats all the dots on its way.

Since then, I always refer to Pac-Man when I explain Past Simple, I do it to such an extent that my students use Pac-Man more often than DID, for example:

"Did Lisa go to the supermarket yesterday?"

When I ask my students why we don't say "Did Lisa went to the supermarket yesterday?" They simply answer "Because, Pac-Man!" It's all as simple as that. What I am glad about is the fact that they remember to use infinitive without to after DID.

I think using Pac-Man is an entertaining way of explaining how DID works. If your students don't know the game (Poor them!) you can always find an online game on the Internet and play it to show them or you can play it as a reward at the end of the grammar lesson.

I hope you'll enjoy your next grammar lesson with this trick!

P.S. Pac-Man/DID explanation is also compatible with adult learners - we're never too old for a little bit of fun!!!

Past Tenses Quiz

This quiz can be used for a quick revision of the uses of different past tenses. The chart can be used for sentence analysis or to help students use the correct tense.

In the first case, the students have to analyse a sentence asking a series of "Yes or No" questions. For example, if your sentence is: "I had a dog when I was four years old", you have to answer the following questions:

• Did it happen in the past? - YES
• Do we know when of where it happened exactly? - YES
• Had it happened before another action in the past? - NO
• Was the action completed? - YES

The tense used in the sentence: PAST SIMPLE, we use it to talk about actions completed in a specific moment in the past.

Following the same steps, we can ask students to choose the correct tense. For example, "I ________ (be) to London three times".

• Did it happen in the past? - YES
• Do we know when of where it happened exactly? - NO
• Additional questions: Is it experience you have? - YES.

The tense used in the sentence: PRESENT PERFECT, we use it to talk about actions that happened in the past but we do not know exactly when. Also we use it to talk about experiences.

Past Simple Monster

Have you ever wondered how to teach Past Simple to a group of eight year olds? Maybe you've already faced the challenge and found your way of doing so. So have I. Today, I am going to share with you an idea that came to me while I was preparing my lesson for a lovely group of very talkative and (hiper)active kids.

In my opinion, teaching grammar to young learners always is a little bit about thinking outside the box. The idea of creating a Past Simple Monster came from the fact that whenever I say the word grammar (it should be banned) my student's are at least puzzled and even scared. And so, two weeks ago, without any introduction, I just asked my students to take out their crayons, listen to my clues and draw a monster.

We drew monster's head with mouth that was a vertical DID. Above the monster's mouth we drew a nose that looked like a question mark, and "ed"-looking hair on the monster's head. We wrote "PAST" on the monster's belly and we went on to draw two arms, a straigh=regular one and a curvy=irregular one. The regular arm ended with two hands that resembled letters E and D, with some examples of regular verbs and the irregular arm ended with a hand made of such irregular verbs as was, were, went, ate or could. We also drew monster's feet labeled as LAST and AGO.

I'm sure you're curious what the final effect was. Well, my student's were happy that they could draw and did not have to listen to any boring grammar explanation. What is more, they learnt all the important information about the Past Simple Tense I wanted to teach them. Mission completed succesfully!