Update to Happy Families present and past progressive card game

Apologies to those of you who have downloaded the Happy Families game already.  I realised overnight that the singular past progressive cards needed to include 'I' as well as 'he/she/it'.  The cards are now revised.

Also, the final column should contain the words 'past progressive', not 'present progressive'.  I was a little over-enthusiastic with my copy and paste buttons when putting these together and will endeavour to proof read a little more carefully in future!

What are the present progressive and past progressive forms of verbs?

Progressive forms of verbs (sometimes referred to as ‘continuous’ forms) are used to indicate continuation of an action or state of being.

The present progressive shows that the action or state of being is continuing at the present time, e.g. He is running; she is getting stronger.

The past progressive shows that the action or state of being was continuing at the time being referred to, e.g. He was crossing the bridge; she was feeling sad.

Progressive forms are constructed by using a form of the verb ‘be’ + the present participle of a verb, which ends in –ing. 

The present progressive is detailed below, giving some examples of use with proper nouns (names), common nouns (the robot/the children) and pronouns:

• I am writing
• Jack/he is writing
• Amy/she is writing
• The robot/it is writing
• You are writing
• We are writing
• The children/they are writing

You can see that the form of the verb ‘be’ is different for ‘I’ (am), ‘he/she/it’ (is) and ‘you/we/they’ (are) so, when using the present progressive, children need to choose the correct form of ‘be’ to match the person or pronoun.

The past progressive is formed using the past tense of the verb ‘be’:

• I was writing
• Jack/he was writing
• Amy/she was writing
• The robot/it was writing
• You were writing
• We were writing
• The children/they were writing

With this form of the progressive, only ‘was’ and ‘were’ are used.

If we just write the present participle (-ing verb) in a sentence, we cannot tell whether the action is in the past or the present and the sense will not be complete, so it is the verb ‘be’ (am/is/are/was/were) that indicates whether we are writing in the past or present.

The dragon flying.  (doesn’t make full sense; we cannot say present or past tense)

The dragon is flying. (present tense) 

The dragon was flying. (past tense)

To use Standard English, children need to match the correct form of ‘be’ to the pronoun, so it is important to know when to use am, is, are, was, were.  The ‘Happy Families’ game (link below) helps children get used to the different forms of ‘be’ and how they should be used to make the present and past progressive.  The verbs are all used in the context of a sentence.  

Happy Families: present and past progressive card game

Happy Families: present and past progressive verbs

The object of the game is to collect as many families of progressive verbs as possible (groups of 5 cards that belong together because they have the same –ing verb).

You can enlarge and print the cards and cut them into sets.  If you want to add pictures to make the cards more appealing, use clipart before you enlarge them, but make sure all cards are the same size when cut so they can be shuffled and dealt easily.

• Deal all the cards so that each player gets an equal number of cards.

• The dealer starts by asking another player for a card needed to complete a family. If the other player has the card he must give it to the player asking.

• The player continues asking for cards until someone does not have a card to hand over. When that happens, the player who was asked for his card takes his turn to request cards.

• The new player can retake the cards taken in the previous round.

• When a player successfully collects a family, he must put the 5 cards on the table in front of him. The player who collects the most sets is the winner.  When laying the cards on the table, encourage your children to choose one of the pronouns and say a full sentence for their set, e.g. 'We were feeling happy.'

Using the template cards, children could make their own card games, with verbs and pictures selected to reflect their interests.

I am feeling happy. present progressive

He/she/it is feeling happy. present progressive

You/we/they are feeling happy. present progressive

I/he/she/it was feeling happy. past progressive

You/we/they were feeling happy. past progressive

I am going to the shops. present progressive

He/she/it is going to the shops. present progressive

You/we/they are going to the shops. present progressive

I/he/she/it was going to the shops. past progressive

You/we/they were going to the shops. past progressive

I am skating on ice.    present progressive

He/she/it is skating on ice. present progressive

You/we/they are skating on ice. present progressive

I/he/she/it was skating on ice. past progressive

You/we/they were skating on ice. past progressive

I am driving the bright red tractor. present progressive

He/she/it is driving the bright red tractor. present progressive

You/we/they are driving the bright red tractor. present progressive

I/he/she/it was driving the bright red tractor. past progressive

You/we/they were driving the bright red tractor. past progressive

I am reading a book. present progressive

He/she/it is reading a book. present progressive

You/we/they are reading a book. present progressive

I/he/she/it was reading a book. past progressive

You/we/they were reading a book. present progressive

I am eating cake. present progressive

He/she/it is eating cake. present progressive

You/we/they are eating cake. present progressive

I/he/she/it was eating cake. past progressive

You/we/they were eating cake. past progressive

I am sleeping. present progressive

He/she/it is sleeping. present progressive

You/we/they are sleeping. present progressive

I/he/she/it was sleeping. past progressive

You/we/they were sleeping. present progressive

I am smiling. present progressive

He/she/it is smiling. present progressive

You/we/they are smiling. present progressive

I/he/she/it was smiling. past progressive

You/we/they were smiling. past progressive

I am singing in the choir. present progressive

He/she/it is singing in the choir. present progressive

You/we/they are singing in the choir. present progressive

I/he/she/it was singing in the choir. past progressive

You/we/they were singing in the choir. past progressive

I am playing football present progressive

He/she/it is playing football. present progressive

You/we/they are playing football. present progressive

I/he/she/it was playing football. past progressive

You/we/they were playing football. past progressive

I am swimming in the pool. present progressive

He/she/it is swimming in the pool. present progressive

You/we/they are swimming in the pool. present progressive

I/he/she/it was swimming in the pool. past progressive

You/we/they were swimming in the pool. past progressive

Prepositions

Prepositions are words that express a relationship between things or beings in a sentence, very often relating to ‘where’ or ‘when’.  They are usually a single word, but sometimes consist of more than one word.

Some common prepositions are contained in the table below.

on	in	at	into
onto	over	under	before
after	between	beyond	because of
until	by	since	like
through	along	of	with
near	from	on top of	past
round	beside	for	towards
off	across	above	below
up	down	inside	about

Prepositions can be used with a noun or noun phrase to create a prepositional phrase:

• beyond England
• across the sea
• by teatime
• until 10 o’clock
• along the riverbank
• like a cheetah
• with a friend

These prepositional phrases can be used:

• to extend noun phrases, providing information after the main noun in the phrase (The small girl with the pigtails played the recorder.)

or

• to fill the adverbial slots in sentences, giving information about where, when, how or why things happen.  (The rabbit disappeared down the burrow.  At that moment the man slipped on the banana skin.  She shivered because of the cold.  The fish darted like silver arrows.)

Sometimes we use prepositions with verbs to extend or alter the verb’s usual meaning.  For example, the verb ‘take’ means something different to the verb ‘take off’.

Although children use prepositions and prepositional phrases from an early age to describe where, when, how or why things happen, they will not usually be taught the term ‘preposition’ until Year 3.  Children will be encouraged to create and use prepositional phrases in their writing to provide their readers with more detailed information.

You can use the following activity to help your child use prepositions to create prepositional phrases describing ‘where’ the action happens.

Make preposition cards from the table below.  Using this picture (or one of your choice) ask your child where a small character, like a mouse, could hide or run.  Turn the cards over and see if you can use each one to create a prepositional phrase.  You can provide part of the sentence at first, but encourage your child to experiment with different ideas, changing the character and actions. 

• The tiny mouse hid …  (inside the wall, behind the plants, up the chimney, etc.)
• The mouse ran … (over the wall, across the roof, through the drainpipe, etc.)
• The ant crawled …

on	in	onto	into
up	over	under	before
after	between	beyond	down
along	by	inside	through
off	near	of	across
above	beside	on top of	past
round	below	from	towards

You can discuss prepositional phrases that you notice when reading and also create them when you are out an about.  For example, past the shops, over the bridge, towards the church.  Try to remember your journey so that you can write these phrases down on strips of paper when you get home.  Children can then experiment with creating a prepositional poem, putting the strips of paper in the correct order.  

Here's my example of a sequential journey to give you the idea!

My journey to work

Down the lane,

Across the bridge,

Along the road,

Into the village.

Through the lights,

Past the church,

At the roundabout,

Out of the village.

Up the hill,

Under branches of trees,

Over the top

on Woodbury Common.

Between farm shop and fields

Beyond pubs, parks and houses,

Exeter!

It could be fun creating a poem of a shopping trip in the supermarket: above the sugar, below the carrots, behind the beans.  

Or alternatively, use a picture of a pirate map and ask children to describe their journey to the treasure!  Search 'pirate maps for kids' online for some great examples.