Activities

Past Simple Board Game

Written by Keith Taylor
Last updated on 28 January, 2022

This is a downloadable ESL board game for communicative practice of the past simple.

Here’s some more info about the activity:

Aim	To practise the past simple tense and develop fluency.
Activity	Students ask and answer questions using the past simple in order to move along the board and reach the end.
Organisation	Group work
Preparation	Make a copy of the board game for each group of three or four students. Each player needs a counter and each group needs a dice.
What do I do?	Divide students into groups of 3 or 4. Give each player a counter and each group a dice. Students place their counters on START and throw the dice to decide who starts. Student A throws the dice and moves forward that number of squares. Student B asks Student A the question on that square. If Student A answers with the correct form, and the rest of the group agree that the answer is correct, Student A’s counter remains where it is. If the answer is incorrect, the counter returns to its original square. To develop fluency, encourage the group to develop a short conversation after each answer with follow up questions. Students take it in turns, repeating step 5 and moving around the board until one student reaches FINISH. This student is the winner.

Keith is the co-founder of Eslbase. He has been a teacher and teacher trainer for over 20 years, in Indonesia, Australia, Morocco, Spain, Italy, Poland, France and now in the UK.

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