EFL Elementary Teachers: Was Were with Emotions Games

domingo, 21 de junio de 2026

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.