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

What is a verb/verb phrase?

Sentences in English are all about the verb: they are the ‘workhorse’ words of the sentence and tell us not only what is happening, but provide important information about when it happened and what sort of sentence type is being used.  They are so important that, to be called a sentence in English, a verb must be present.

Verbs fill the verb slot in a sentence, which usually follows the subject (although sometimes we change the word order in a sentence to create different effects).

Although in the majority of verbs describe an action, we must be careful not to use 'doing word’ with children to describe the verb, because it could also be a 'being' or 'having' word.  Let’s look at some sentences to consider these differences:

• The dog ran in the park.
• The boy jumps in the puddle.
• Mum drove to the shops.

The verbs in the above sentences all involve some sort of action and, in children’s minds, these are words which describe something being ‘done’.  They will often refer to these verbs as ‘doing’ words.  ‘Doing verbs’ is a better term.

• The princess was happy.
• Dad is in the garden.
• She seems cheerful.
• I feel hungry.

If children are used to using the term ‘doing word’ and you ask them where the verbs are in the sentences above, they will struggle.  They do not see forms of the verb ‘be’ (e.g. am, is, are, was, were) and other verbs such as ‘seem’ or ‘feel’ as an action, or something that is ‘done’.  They will often say that the verb is ‘happy’ or ‘hungry’.

• I have a headache.
• She owns a pony.

These verbs are also difficult to see as ‘doing’ words.  A better term is ‘having verbs’.

So, when starting to talk about verbs with children, it’s better to use the terminology ‘doing verb’ (e.g. jump, run, cook, drive), ‘being verb’ (e.g. am, is, are, was, were, seem, feel) or ‘having verb’ (e.g. has, have, had, own). 

Verbs are used in many different forms and tenses, some of which are listed below against a sentence exemplifying their use.  Children will learn the terminology for these forms at different points in their primary education, but they will already be using many of these in their everyday speech and writing. 

• The dog runs in the park.   (Present simple)
• The dog ran in the park.   (Past simple)
• The dog is running in the park.   (Present progressive)
• The dog was running in the park.   (Past progressive)
• The dog has run in the park.   (Present perfect)
• The dog had run in the park.   (Past perfect)
• Run in the park!   (Imperative form of the verb used in commands)

You will notice that some of these verbs consist of one word and some have two words. When a verb uses more than one word, we can call it a verb phrase.  The words are working together to fill the verb slot in the sentence.