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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