Fact and opinion
A fact is something that can be checked and proved true or false. An opinion is what someone thinks or feels, and other people may disagree.
English · Ages 6–7 · 50 minutes
Verbs and tenses - past and present
Children identify verbs in sentences and change them between the present and past tense, including common irregular verbs such as run, eat and go.
Success criteria
- I can find the verb in a sentence
- I can change a verb from present to past
- I can keep my writing in one tense
Key vocabulary
- verb
- tense
- present
- past
- yesterday
- today
You will need
- action cards
- a large two-column chart headed Today and Yesterday
- mini whiteboards
- sticky notes
Curriculum links
- Year 2· England
- Grade 1· United States
Practice sheets
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Build a sentence
The Wonky Roti
Build a sentence
1.Starter
7 minutesAction freeze: call out actions: jump, clap, hop, wave, sit. Children do each action, then freeze.
"What are you doing?" "I'm jumping!" "Every one of those words is something you can do. They're called verbs: doing words."
Then ask, "What did you do at break time?" Take answers: played, ran, ate, talked. Write them up without comment. You'll use them in a minute.
2.Teach
12 minutesDraw the two-column chart: Today and Yesterday.
"Verbs can tell us when something happens. That's called the tense."
Write in the Today column: I jump. She plays. We walk. Then ask the class to tell you the Yesterday version. Write: I jumped. She played. We walked.
"What did we add each time?" "-ed!" "Most verbs take -ed to show the past. That's the past tense."
Now return to the break-time words from the starter: ran, ate.
"Hmm. Ran doesn't end in -ed. Nobody says 'I runned'. Some verbs change completely in the past. These are the rule-breakers."
Add them to the chart in a different colour: run → ran, eat → ate, go → went, see → saw, make → made, swim → swam.
