All Past articles

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Young learner games: Racing past

A board game that helps students talk about past actions.

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Young learner games: Stop

A card game that helps students talk about the past.

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Father Christmas gets stuck

Three activies using a simple story about Father Christmas.

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Father Christmas's Journey (A board game)

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Cambridge English First: Use of English: Language focus: Time expressions

This lesson aims to help students prepare for the key word transformation section of the exam (part 4) by focusing on time expressions with the present perfect.

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Mingling activity: Irregular pasts

An individual and mingling activity to practise the irregular past simple.

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Finish the sentence: Past perfect continuous

A small-group card game to practise the past perfect continuous.

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Where were you? Could / Couldn't

A photo card guessing game, using forms of could.

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Last week: past simple

Students take part in a small group, information-gap and puzzle-solving activity to practise the past simple.

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100 years ago: Was / were

Students take part in a team competition to practise was, were, wasn’t and weren’t.

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Have we met? Present perfect and past simple

Students take part in a whole-class role-play to practise using the present perfect, then switching to the past simple.

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Evidence: Past modals

Students work together to decide who they think commited a burglary using evidence cards and practising past modals.

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The Prince and the Pauper: Chapter 1

An audio serialization of the elementary-level Macmillan Reader, The Prince and the Pauper , is told in sixteen chapters. Each chapter is accompanied by a comprehensive lesson plan written by Adrian Tennant, including teacher’s notes, with suggestions for extension activities, plus student worksheets and a full transcript and glossary. ...

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Explain! Past perfect continuous

A speaking card game at intermediate level to practise the use of past perfect continuous.

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Lesson Share: Grammar: Memories of the past

Simon Mumford wins the Lesson Share competition with a unique way to help students remember irregular past tense forms.

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Lesson Share: Grammar: The accident

Mandeep Locham wins the Lesson Share competition for a second time with a lesson that uses the subject of workplace accidents as a basis to revise the past tenses.

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Guessing game: Past continuous

An accuracy-based guessing game for pairs to practise What were you doing … ? , You were -ing , and I was -ing .

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Experiments: How strong is that wind?

In this experiment, pupils make a wind monitor from different weights of material. Students find illustrated objects in a wordsearch and understand the strengths of different winds before writing a report on the experiment. Key vocabulary and practical teacher’s notes are included.

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Bodies in orbit

What keeps the moon up in the sky? Why is Pluto no longer a planet? Students practise making notes based on a teacher-led listening and find the answers to questions through listening. A third activity on ‘Dwarf planets’ tests students’ ability to remember and interpret what they have heard.

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Lesson Share: Grammar: Murder mystery

Simon Mumford’s sinister winning lesson serves up a healthy dose of intrigue in order to revise the past tenses.