verb tenses activity

Here is a short activity that you can use for practising the past form of "to be"

Step 1:
Teacher sticks some pictures of object on board with blu tack. E.g., a picture of a house, a picture of a toothbrush etc.Firstly, teacher revises the vocabulary by saying: “Look at the board. There is a picture of a house. There are two pictures of toothbrush etc.

Step 2:
Teacher asks students to close their eyes. Meanwhile s/he removes one picture on the board. After this, teacher asks students whether they can remember what picture is missing. If they say:” Yes, the picture of the house is missing, teacher says: “Yeas, there was a picture of a house on the board but is gone now. Teacher repeats this procedure.

Step 3:
Lastly, teacher removes all the sentences and asks students to repeat some of the sentences that were presented and writes them on board. Teacher asks students what all the sentences have in common. “Forms of to be” has to be the answer. Teacher continues by asking questions like: “Why did we use “was, were” in all the sentences? “ to raise their awareness.

Variations:
This activity could also be done as a group activity. Groups write down the sentences like as follows: “There was a picture of a house on the board. If they have correct sentences, teacher gives one point for each correct sentence.