Simple Past Tense Was and Were Games Activities for Elementary ESL Students

 Link to the complete resource: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Simple-Past-Tense-Was-Were-Activities-House-and-Family-ESL-Grammar-Unit-Flas-16778768

This Guess: Who Was Where Yesterday? board game is a fun and interactive way for students to practice was/were, rooms of the house, family members, and WH questions through speaking. As students move around the board, they observe the room illustrations, answer questions, describe locations, and use complete sentences in the simple past. The game encourages meaningful communication while reinforcing grammar and vocabulary in an enjoyable, hands-on activity. It is perfect for small groups, literacy centers, fast finishers, or whole-class review, giving learners plenty of opportunities to build confidence using was and were in real conversations.

A Detective Game for Practicing Was and Were

Objective: Be the first detective to discover:

Who was there?, Where were they?, Which item was with them?

Print all the materials

Game Setup

1. Shuffle the Suspect Cards.
2. Shuffle the Room Cards.
3. Shuffle the Item Cards.

Without looking, place: ONE Suspect card, ONE Room card, ONE Item card inside an envelope. These cards are the secret solution.

The remaining cards are shuffled together and dealt completely out to all players.

Mark your own cards off on your detective note slip since they cannot be in the envelope. 

All players begin at the START space.

Roll: Roll the dice and move your token into a room.

Suggest: Name a suspect, a weapon, and the room you are currently standing in. Use the small token cards.

ask questions in simple past, Examples: Was Sister in the bathroom with a clock?

Disprove: The player to your left must secretly show you one card from your suggestion if they have it.

Pass: If they cannot help, the next player must try to disprove your theory.

Log: Write down what you learned on your detective note slip.

Winning the Game is by Making an Accusation

When you think you know the answer, wait until your turn.

Say: "I think Grandma was in the bathroom with the lamp."

Open the envelope.

If correct...

🎉 You win!

If incorrect... Return the cards to the envelope. Continue playing, but you may no longer make another accusation. You can still answer questions from the other players.

 

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Simple Past Tense Was and Were Small cards Activities for Elementary ESL Students

 Link to the complete resource: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Simple-Past-Tense-Was-Were-Activities-House-and-Family-ESL-Grammar-Unit-Flas-16778768

These printable ESL House and Family Small Cards are perfect for teaching the Simple Past with was and were. Students can practice speaking, listening, reading, and writing while describing where family members, pets, and objects were in the house. The small cards are ideal for pair work, grammar practice, vocabulary review, dictation activities, games, and sentence-building tasks for elementary English language learners.

Who Was Where? Writing

Provide a meaningful writing activity for practicing the simple past tense with was and were. Students observe the pictures and write sentences about where family members were in the house. For example, they can write: Father was in the bathroom or Brother was in the tub. This activity helps reinforce sentence structure, room vocabulary, family member vocabulary, and the use of was/were in context while developing writing skills.

 

Write Two Sentences

Using the small cards, students write one affirmative sentence and one negative sentence about the picture. This activity helps reinforce the use of was, were, wasn't, and weren't while developing writing skills. For example, students can write: My sister was on the bed and My cousin wasn't on the bed.

Describe the Picture

Using the small cards, students carefully observe the picture and write as many sentences as possible using was and were. They can describe family members, pets, furniture, objects, and locations in the house.

This writing activity helps ESL and EFL learners expand vocabulary.

WH-Question Writing

Using the small cards, students practice writing WH-questions in the simple past with was and were. Learners observe the picture and create questions about the people, objects, and locations shown in the house.

This writing activity helps ESL and EFL students develop question formation skills.

Label What You See

This vocabulary-building activity helps students identify and label the people, rooms, and objects shown on the small cards. As they label the images, they strengthen vocabulary recognition.

Dictation Draw or Write: Where Was It?

One student receives the house image or the separate small cards, while the other student writes a short text describing where family members, pets, and objects were in the house.

The student with the text reads the sentences aloud, and the other student listens carefully and draws or writes the people and objects in the correct rooms of the house. For example: Mother was in the kitchen. The dog was in the living room. Brother and Sister were in the bedroom.

Students can switch roles and complete the activity again with a different text for additional grammar practice.

Sentence Association Game

These printable sentence strips provide meaningful reading and grammar practice with the was/were simple past. Students read each sentence and match it to the correct small picture card by identifying the people, animals, objects, and locations in the house. This engaging ESL activity strengthens reading comprehension, vocabulary, sentence recognition, and understanding of affirmative was/were sentences, making it perfect for literacy centers, partner work, and grammar review.

 

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Simple Past Tense Was and Were Flashcards Activities for Elementary ESL Students

 Link to the English activities for Primary Students: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Simple-Past-Tense-Was-Were-Activities-House-and-Family-ESL-Grammar-Unit-Flas-16778768

Teach the simple past tense with visual aids and hands-on activities!

This resource combines family members and rooms in the house to help elementary ESL learners practice grammar of simple past tense through engaging flashcards, crafts, games, and speaking activities.

It is ideal for elementary ESL, EFL, and homeschool classrooms looking for engaging simple past tense activities.

Using flashcards is an effective way to teach the simple past of was and were to elementary ESL students. The colorful house with family scenes provide meaningful contexts for children to describe where people were, ask and answer questions, and practice affirmative, negative, and interrogative sentences.

Draw a house on the board and place the different rooms without people flashcards to review the rooms of the house vocabulary.

Students: That’s the bedroom!

Review the simple present tense

Display the house flashcards with family members on the board and invite students to take turns following your instructions.

Say, "Point to the living room!" Then, ask, "Who is in the living room?" The student answers, "Grandma! Grandma is in the living room." 

Introduce the past

Introduce the Simple Past using the word yesterday and an arrow as a time marker, to help students understand that the events happened in the past. Explain that the arrow is a symbol for going back in time and that everything in the house happened yesterday.

Display the house scene on the board. Ask questions such as, "Who was in the bedroom yesterday?"

Students: "Grandma was in the living room."

Simple Past craft stick puppets

Prepare the was and were signs ahead of time by attaching the printable words to large craft sticks.

Students can create their own was and were craft stick puppets to use as a grammar aid during the lesson. After cutting, and assembling the puppets, children can hold up the correct word when needed.

Affirmative statements

Use the was craft stick puppet. Display the kitchen flashcard and hold up the was puppet as you model complete sentences such as, "Brother was in the kitchen." The puppet provides a visual cue that helps students recognize the past tense form of the verb to be.

Display another house room flashcard, such as the bathroom, and invite a student to come to the front of the classroom. The student holds the were craft stick puppet, points to the people in the picture, and says, "Brother and Father were in the bathroom."

Using the were puppet provides a visual cue that helps elementary English language learners understand that were is used with two or more people in the past.

Fast Switch Activity

This is an interactive whole-class activity using house flashcards. Display the large house scene on the board. The teacher points to a room and says, "Bedroom!" Then, the class responds with a complete sentence, such as, "The sisters were in the bedroom!"

The activity can be repeated with the other rooms of the house.

Add a personal touch to your ESL lessons by having students and the teacher make craft stick puppets with their own pictures. These easy-to-make puppets can be used for speaking activities, role-playing.

Place the puppet in one of the house rooms and ask, "Where was I?" Students look at the house flashcards and answer with complete sentences, such as, "You were in the bathroom!"

Negative statements

Give students a sentence that is not true! Show a house flashcard and say, "My cousin wasn't in the bathroom!" Students look at the picture and correct the sentence: "My cousin was in the garage!".

Yes/No questions

Help students master Simple Past questions with an engaging classroom activity using house flashcards! Give students a room flashcard and ask questions such as, "Were you in the kitchen?" and "Was he in the garage?" Students answer in short form: Yes, you were!

WH questions

Help students develop WH-question skills in the Simple Past tense with house flashcards! Display a room and ask questions such as, "Who were in the living room?" "When were Grandma and Grandpa in the living room?" "What was in the living room?" and "Where was the cat?"

 Teach wasn't and weren't with a hands-on contraction puzzle!

Students can see how was + not = wasn't and were + not = weren't by putting the puzzle pieces together. This simple ESL grammar activity provides a visual way to introduce simple past negative contractions.

This cut-and-paste grammar activity helps elementary English learners understand how the simple past negative contractions are formed. Students cut out the puzzle pieces and glue them into their notebooks to create a permanent grammar aid: was + not = wasn't and were + not = weren't. Keeping the completed puzzles in their notebooks gives children a visual reference they can use during speaking, reading, and writing activities throughout the simple past tense unit.

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Was Were with Emotions Games | Simple Past Grammar for ESL ELL

 This resource is found here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Was-Were-with-Emotions-and-Time-Expressions-Activities-Simple-Past-Grammar-for-16709587

These printable games provide a fun and interactive way for students to practice emotions vocabulary and the past tense of the verb to be. Through bingo games, spinner activities, matching challenges, and board games, learners review emotion words while building speaking, listening, reading, and sentence-building skills. These hands-on activities encourage participation, repetition, and meaningful language practice, making grammar review enjoyable and memorable for elementary English language learners.

Games Spin and Say

Spinner and Say Game

 Students use two spinners: one spinner contains the pronouns (I, You, He, She, We, They) and the other spinner contains the emotion vocabulary. Students spin both wheels and use the results to create a sentence using the simple past of the verb to be.

For example, if the spinners land on You and thirsty, the student says: “You were thirsty.”

This activity provides meaningful practice with affirmative sentences while reinforcing emotion vocabulary. You can also encourage students to produce negative and question form.

For additional writing practice, students can record the sentences they create on a notebook or worksheet.

Board Game: Match the Emotion

Students take turns moving around the board. When a player lands on an emotion word, they must look through the emotion cards and find the picture that matches that emotion. If they find the correct card, they keep it.

For example, if a student lands on hungry, they look for the card showing a hungry person and add it to their collection.

The game continues until all the cards have been collected. At the end of the game, students count their cards. The student with the most emotion cards is the winner.

For additional practice, students can use the cards they collect to create sentences using was and were, such as:

He was hungry.
She was worried.
They were excited.

This game encourages vocabulary recognition, speaking practice, and sentence building in an engaging and interactive way.

Bingo

The teacher uses the Bingo Teacher’s Panel and the calling cards (print and cut the panel) to call out emotions in the present tense, past tense, or a mix of both forms.

Students receive one bingo strip with five emotions. If you have a small class, you can give each student two bingo strips to increase participation and challenge. As the teacher calls sentences such as He is happy, She was worried, students listen carefully and look for the matching emotion on their bingo strips.

When students hear an emotion that matches one on their strip, they can cover that emotion. The first student to identify all five emotions on their strip and call out “Bingo!” wins the game.

This activity provides excellent listening practice while reinforcing emotions vocabulary and the use of am, is, are, was, and were in meaningful contexts. It is easy to prepare.

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