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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Counting 1–20 Turkeys in the Oven | Numbers and Counting Activities for ELLs

  This resource (Counting 1–20 Turkeys in the Oven) is part of the House Furniture for Elementary ESL to prepare for your lesson plan , at my store:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/House-Furniture-unit-for-Elementary-ESL-3420723

ELLs benefit from concrete, colorful visuals. Seeing the turkey food piece in an oven next to a number gives them a clear representation of the math concepts. This resource connects math (counting and numbers), and language (speaking, listening, and writing numbers), making it a well-rounded tool for elementary classrooms. It can be used for Thanksgiving.

Counting to 120 turkeys. Place the turkey in the oven flashcards (quantity cards) on the table. Provide students with fun foam numbers and letters. Students will count the chickens and say the number out loud. Then, using fun foam numbers to build the numeral and spell out the number word.

Extend the flashcards into sentence practice, which really helps elementary English language learners connect numbers → vocabulary → full language structures.

Promote Number Recognition using the bingo grid. Students identify numbers from the flashcards displayed on the board and transfer them to their bingo grid, reinforcing numeral recognition. Learners choose 8 numbers from 1 to 20. When numbers are called out during the game, students must listen carefully, understand, and check their grids. Bingo allows multiple exposures to numbers without feeling repetitive or boring.

As students count the turkeys, they can also practice sentence structures like “There are eighteen turkeys in the oven,” promoting speaking and writing skills in context.  

Set up a pretend “kitchen” where students take turns being the cook and customer. The customer says, “I want sixteen turkeys,” and the cook finds the matching flashcard.

Having both quantity cards and numeral small cards helps students make the connection between the symbol (number) and the quantity.

Matching Game.  Students match the numeral card to the turkeys quantity card.

  Memory Game. Lay cards face down and play “Concentration” to find pairs (number + quantity).

Number Sequencing: Strengthens understanding of forward and backward number order.

Counting Worksheets.  Listen and color the turkeys in the oven to reinforce vocabulary recognition. Then, they will complete the color of each turkey on the other worksheet.

Read & Color the instructions on the worksheets.

Completing Number Sequences Worksheets that reinforces the idea of counting forward. Another worksheet is to unscramble the number words where students must use reasoning to put letters in order, building both cognitive flexibility and persistence.

Matching numerals to number words worksheets.

Write the number word by counting the turkeys in the oven.

 

Board game. Players must match their space to the correct small card or cards from the mat (numeral or oven quantity) before they can stay on it.

The matching mats supports number-word association and visual counting.

Play the Missing Piece Challenge. Students can place any piece on the mat wither the numeral or the word.

Students can play the classic match of numeral, words and quantity cards.

They can also order all the cards in a number sequence on the pocket chart if you have one.

There is a coloring the turkeys in the oven according to what the spinner lands on. Assemble the spinner using a butterfly fastener and a clip.

This is a make words game. There is a letter to place on each card to spell the number word and the word to add to simple number such as six to make sixteen.

Monsters in bed is also included in this resource, check the blog post:

https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/09/monsters-in-bed-prepositions-activities.html

Find more engaging ways to teach numbers to your English Language Learners.
Check out my Pinterest board for printable materials and creative activities!
 From flashcards to worksheets, you'll find tons of useful resources to make your lessons fun and interactive.
Visit the board here: https://www.pinterest.com/ei98srl/esl-numbers-and-math/numbers-1-to-20/

Used creative fabrica for the numbers! Here is my affliate link:   https://www.creativefabrica.com/product/orange-doodle-letters-and-numbers/ref/2670802/?sharedfrom=pdp

Monsters in Bed Prepositions Activities | ESL EFL Classroom Games & Worksheets

 This resource (Monsters in Bed – Prepositions of Place Activities for Elementary ESL/ELL”) is part of the House Furniture for Elementary ESL, at my store:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/House-Furniture-unit-for-Elementary-ESL-3420723

Students don’t just learn the names of furniture (like bed); they also practice prepositions of place (in, on, under, next to, behind), which are essential for describing real-life locations. Prepositions can be tricky for Elementary ELLs because they are abstract. Using fun clipart of a monster and a bed makes the concept visual, memorable, and easy to grasp with these printable activities.

 Story Chain with Flashcards of preposition of spatial relationship. Place bed and monster flashcards on the board. Start a story here. They must add sentences and write the story as students give more sentences. They draw what is being said and all the sentences for the story.

Mystery Bag Flashcards. Put flashcards inside an envelope or bag (glue the label included). Students pull one without looking, then describe it without saying the name (“The Monster in the bedroom. It’s not behind the bed.”). Class guesses the card.

Small cards are even more flexible than big flashcards, since they’re easy to handle, shuffle, and move around.

Picture-to-Word Match: Have students match pictures of furniture items to the corresponding word cards. Just cut the words out of each card.

Card Toss. Lay out small cards on the table. Students toss a beanbag or token onto a card. They must say the word or make a sentence with that card to “win” it.

Glue the printable onto a lunch bag and use for speaking!!

Cut and paste Monster Worksheet. Worksheet shows a bed). Give Instructions like: “The red monster is in front of the bed” This builds listening/reading comprehension and creativity.Label with the preposition words.

Build a bedroom. Provide the printable outline of a bedroom. Students place their Monster in the right spot bed, door, etc. Provide cutout monsters. Students cut and glue the monster in the correct place according to what you dictate. I opened the spaces before gluing the worksheets onto a colored paper.

Read & Color Worksheets. Students must both read and follow instructions carefully.

Fill in the Blank Worksheets. Sentences with missing prepositions.

Race Board Game. A board game with a path. Each space shows the monster in a different position. When students land, they must say a full sentence: “The monster is on the bed.”

Roll & Place.Students get a die with prepositions. They roll and move a monster cutout around a printed bed image: “The monster is behind the bed.”

Take a look!

Spin & Place Game. Ready the printable spinner with prepositions (on, in, under, next to, behind).  Students spin, then place a monster cutout on the correct position around a printed bed. Can be played individually or in pairs.

Cut-and-Play Matching Mats. Students cut out monster pieces and match them according to preposition. Reusable if laminated. Use the mats for early finishers.

This resource is also sold individually, here:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Monsters-in-Bed-Prepositions-Activities-ESL-EFL-Classroom-Games-Worksheets-14408783

Which preposition activity did your students enjoy the most? Let me know in the comments!

This resource is available individually, here:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Monsters-in-Bed-Prepositions-Activities-ESL-EFL-Classroom-Games-Worksheets-14408783

Help elementary ESL/ELL students count from 1 to 20 with fun turkey-in-the-oven flashcards, matching mats & board game, included inthis resource:

https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2025/09/counting-120-turkeys-in-oven-numbers.html

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loved  this alphabet divider using the alphabet clipart from Creative Fabrica. Here is my affliate link: https://www.creativefabrica.com/product/monster-alphabet-abc-letters-clipart/ref/2670802/?sharedfrom=pdp