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

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

This collection of worksheets provides meaningful and engaging practice with the simple past of the verb to be through the topic of emotions and feelings. Students will strengthen their understanding of was and were while expanding their emotions vocabulary with a variety of reading, writing, speaking, and grammar activities.

Each activity encourages learners to use grammar in context rather than through isolated drills.

Designed for Elementary ESL and EFL learners, these print-and-go worksheets are perfect for independent practice, partner work, literacy centers, homework, morning work, and grammar review lessons

Fill in the Emotions Worksheets

This Was–Were Fill in the Emotions worksheets help students build vocabulary. Learners look at each picture, identify the emotion, and write the correct word in the space provided. This simple activity reinforces spelling. The worksheets can be used for independent work.

Reading and Identifying Sentences in the Past

These Was–Were reading worksheets help students connect emotions and feelings with simple past sentences. Learners read each sentence, identify the correct picture, and write the matching number. This activity reinforces reading comprehension, emotion vocabulary, pronouns, and the correct use of was and were in affirmative, negative, and question forms.

The worksheets are perfect for independent practice, literacy centers, morning work, homework, and grammar review. They also encourage students to carefully read for meaning while building confidence with past-tense sentence patterns in a fun and engaging way.

Choose the Correct Verb: Was or Were

Learners look at the picture clues, read each sentence, and choose the correct form—was or were—to complete affirmative, negative, and question sentences.

This activity helps students strengthen their understanding of subject-verb agreement while reviewing emotions and feelings vocabulary. The worksheets are ideal for grammar practice.

Who? Reading and Answering Activity

 Learners look at the pictures and character names, then answer Who...? questions using the correct person. Students will build reading comprehension and sentence formation skills.

This engaging activity is perfect for literacy centers.

How Were You? – First Person Writing Practice

Learners look at each picture and answer the question "How were you?" by writing complete sentences in the first person using I was or We were.

Students will identify the emotion shown in each picture and answer the question How were you?

Use for  homework, or review lessons by having them connect emotions with real-life language.

Negative Sentence Practice

This worksheet helps students master the negative form of the simple past of to be by changing affirmative sentences into negative ones.

This engaging grammar drill is ideal for early finishers, or quick review activities. By repeatedly transforming sentences, ESL and ELL students build fluency with the simple past of to be and gain confidence using negative sentence patterns.

How Were You? Personal Writing Activity

This worksheet encourages students to connect grammar with their own experiences by answering the question "How were you?" in the simple past.  Students will read the time prompts and questions.

This meaningful activity promotes communication, creativity, and grammar accuracy.

WH Questions Practice with Was and Were

Answer WH questions in the simple past of the verb to be. Learners look carefully at the pictures, identify the characters and the situations, and answer questions using Who, Where, and When.

As students complete the activity, they practice using was and were in meaningful contexts while reinforcing emotions vocabulary and time expressions.

Color and Write Affirmative Sentences

This worksheet gives students the opportunity to practice the simple past of the verb to be by completing affirmative sentences with emotions vocabulary. This engaging activity is ideal for grammar review lessons for Elementary ESL and EFL learners.

Interview worksheet

Students walk around asking the question "How were you yesterday?" They interview a classmate, listen carefully to the answers, and write complete sentences about their partner's feelings and emotions in the simple past.

The interview worksheet is perfect for pair work and speaking centers.

After completing the interview activity, bring the class together to share their answers and create a tally chart on the board. As students report how their classmates were feeling, the teacher records the most common emotions using tally marks. This simple extension transforms individual interviews into a collaborative class survey.

This whole-group activity encourages speaking, listening, and critical thinking as students discuss the class data.

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Was Were with Emotions Small cards | 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 small cards are a versatile addition to your ESL classroom! They provide countless opportunities for hands-on practice with emotions, time expressions, and the simple past of was and were. Perfect for individual work, pair activities, learning centers, and small groups, the cards help students develop listening, English speaking, reading, and writing skills through interactive games and grammar practice. Their compact size makes them easy to prepare, store, and reuse throughout the school year, giving teachers a flexible resource for engaging and meaningful language learning.

Listening Activity: Listen and Find

Listen and Find is a simple and engaging way to develop students' listening comprehension. Place the emotions and the time expressions small cards on the table. The teacher says a sentence using the target grammar and vocabulary, for example:

Teacher: He was sick yesterday.

Students listen carefully, find the correct small cards (sick and yesterday), place them together, and repeat the complete sentence:

Student: He was sick yesterday.

Students become more confident, they can say the sentences for the classmates to find: She was happy at the party.

Sorting Activity: Positive, Negative, and Physical Feelings

Help students critical thinking skills by sorting the emotion small cards into three categories: Positive, Negative, and Physical feelings.

Spread the small cards on a table or place them in a pocket chart. Students work individually, in pairs,

Once the cards are sorted, encourage students to make simple past sentences using was and were: She was happy.

📖 Reading Activities

Read and Match

Sentence strips are provided to place along the small cards on the table. Students read each sentence carefully and match it with the correct emotion and time expression cards.

For example, students can match: He was embarrassed last Sunday.

After matching the cards, encourage students to read the complete sentence aloud and check their answers with a partner.

Reading Activity: Cut and Match

Add a hands-on reading activity to your Simple Past lessons by cutting the words from the small cards. Teachers separate the vocabulary words from the emotion pictures and mix them up on the table. Students read each word, find the matching emotion picture, and place the pieces together.

✍ Writing Activities

Write the Sentence

Put the small cards to work in a fun writing activity! Students pick one emotion card and one time expression card and use them to create a complete sentence using the simple past of was and were.

For example, a student may choose the cards worried and after school and write:

She was worried after school.

This hands-on activity helps students connect vocabulary with grammar while practicing sentence structure, capitalization, punctuation, and handwriting.

Story Building

Encourage students to become creative writers with this simple past storytelling activity! Students draw several emotion and time expression small cards and use them as prompts to create a short story. They can write about themselves, family members, friends, or imaginary characters while practicing the use of was and were.

Grammar Drill Writing Practice

Help students master the simple past of was and were with this structured grammar drill. Students use the picture prompts to write three different sentence patterns: an affirmative sentence, a negative sentence, and a question.

For example, with the picture hungry, students write: He was hungry.

This activity gives learners repeated practice with sentence structure while reinforcing emotion vocabulary. Students improve their grammar, handwriting, and punctuation skills as they transform the same idea into different sentence forms. Teachers can encourage students to read their answers aloud or create additional examples using different pronouns and emotions for extra speaking and writing practice.

Follow my Pinterest board for creative resources tailored for English language learners.

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