Past and present tense: sorting and matching games

The table below can be enlarged, printed and cut up for two different activities.  The present tense cards use some present tense third person singular verbs.  The second half of the table includes a mix of irregular verbs, where the past tenses are not formed by adding –ed.

Sorting game (separate cards into past and present.)

Use the past and present cards as headings.  Shuffle the verb cards and put them in a pile.  As each card is turned over, players should decide which heading to place them under and create an oral sentence.  Don't let children forget the full stop.  They can say it or use an action to signal they are putting it at the end of their sentence.

Matching game (find pairs of past and present tenses)

Shuffle the verb cards and lay them out, face down, on the table (if you feel there are too many cards, remove some of the pairs).  Turn a card over, then turn a second card over.  If they match as a past and present tense of the same verb, the player picks them up.  (An extension would be to ask the children to create a sentence using one of the verbs.)  If they do not match, turn them face down again.  The players should try to remember the positions of the cards and collect as many pairs as they can.  When a pair is collected, ask the player which is the past tense and which is the present.  

This game can be played by one player, with adult encouragement, or against the clock.  Alternatively more than one player can play, changing turns each time someone fails to find a match.

present	past
try	tried
cries	cried
sketch	sketched
walk	walked
talks	talked
knock	knocked
skips	skipped
change	changed
hope	hoped
push	pushed
drop	dropped
have	had
do	did
see	saw
goes	went
is	was
are	were
writes	wrote
say	said
know	knew