This activity helps students practise narrative tenses through creative writing. It encourages the use of the past simple, past continuous, and past perfect while writing a story that incorporates a set of random words. This kind of task works well to consolidate tense use and develop fluency in storytelling.
You can use this activity to revise narrative tenses or as a fun challenge at the end of a lesson or week. Students enjoy the randomness of the vocabulary – it sparks creativity and often leads to imaginative, surprising stories.
Activity Overview
- Level: Intermediate and above
- Target language: Narrative tenses (past simple, past continuous, past perfect)
- Time: 30–40 minutes
- Group size: Pairs or small groups
What you need
- One set of random words for each group (download here)
How to use the activity
- Divide students into pairs or small groups.
- Each group picks five words at random from the set.
- Groups then write a story using those five words and at least three different narrative tenses.
- Optional: Provide a starting or ending sentence to help them get going (e.g. “It was a cold, stormy night…” or “They never saw her again.”)
- Groups read their stories aloud or swap with another group to read and give feedback.
This activity is a useful way to assess students’ ability to use narrative tenses naturally in context. You can incorporate work on sequencing words and connectors.
Related grammar links
- Past simple guide – Learn how to form and use past simple.
- Past continuous guide – Learn how to form and use past continuous.
- Past perfect guide – Learn how to form and use past perfect.
