Past tense classroom games.

Past Tense Games – Fun, No-Prep Activities for Class

Use these fun past tense games to make your grammar lessons more engaging and interactive. When students first learn how to change verbs into the simple past tense, they need lots of repetition and speaking practice. Games are a great way to help students practice and remember past tense verbs and sentence patterns in a fun, low-pressure way.

Below are three past tense games you can use in class. One is a simple guessing game to practice changing basic verbs into the past tense and making full sentences. One focuses on irregular past tense verbs. The third is a fun classroom team game where students can score points while speaking in the past tense. Read on to see the games, how to play them, and tips for using each one in your lessons.

Past Tense Guessing Game and Sentence Practice

This past tense guessing game is a fun way to get students thinking, speaking, and using past tense verbs in full sentences. It’s ideal for beginner ESL learners and works well as a warm-up or review activity.

How to Play

Play the video for your class. In each round, students will see a present and past tense verb, followed by a sentence with the object missing. A hidden image will slowly be revealed behind colored shapes. Students must guess the missing word and then use it to complete the past tense sentence. There are a few different ways you can use this activity in class:

  • Whole Class Activity: If using this as a warm-up or quick review, ask students to raise their hands as soon as they think they know the object. When someone guesses correctly, have them say the full past tense sentence. Then, have the whole class repeat the sentence together. With higher-level students, challenge them to create similar sentences. For example, if the sentence is “I went to the park,” they might also say “I went to the zoo” or “I went to school.”
  • Writing Activity: Turn this into a writing task by having students write their guesses. Pause the video after revealing just a few tiles, and ask students to write a full past tense sentence using their guess. Then, play the video to reveal the answer. Award a point for each correct sentence.
  • Team Game: Divide the class into groups and give each group a small whiteboard or piece of paper. Pause the video partway through the image reveal and have students write their full sentence. After each group shows their answer, press play to reveal the object and check answers.

Past Tense Mystery Box Game

This past tense game uses a fun mystery box format to help students practice making past tense sentences. In each round, teams create their own sentence using a past tense verb, then take a risk by choosing to keep or give away a mystery box that contains either good points or bad points. If your students enjoy this style of activity, you can make your own with our free Mystery Box Game Template.

How to Play

Start by dividing the class into two teams. Play the video and follow along as each round prompts students to make a sentence using a past tense verb. After forming their sentence, the team must choose whether to keep the mystery box or give it to the other team. Once a choice is made, the box is opened to reveal either positive points (e.g., +1000) or negative points (e.g., –1000). The team with the highest total at the end of the game wins. Here are some useful classroom tips to make sure the game goes smoothly.

  • Focus on practice, not perfection: The goal of the game is to give students repeated practice forming past tense sentences. If a student doesn’t know the past tense form, help them out and have them repeat it.
  • Set behavior expectations: Kids can get very excited, especially if one team is far ahead or behind in points. Before starting, remind students not to tease the losing team and to stay calm whether they win or lose. Remind them it’s just a game, and the main goal is learning.

Past Tense Irregular Verbs Game

This fun “Telepathy Game” helps students practice using irregular past tense verbs in full sentences. In each round, students will see two example sentences using different irregular past tense verbs. They must choose one, write it down, and then see if their guess matches the correct answer. If they guess correctly, they get a point.

How to Play

This game is called a Telepathy Game because students must try to “read the teacher’s mind” and guess which sentence the game will choose. In each round, students are shown two grammatically correct sentences using irregular past tense verbs. They must choose one and write it down. Then, the video reveals the sentence that was “chosen.” If a student picked the same one, they score a point.

Although it’s a game of luck, students are exposed to correct sentence structures using irregular past tense verbs, so every round reinforces useful language patterns in a fun, low-pressure way. Here are three ways to play this game in class:

  • Individual Play: Each student writes down their guess each round. After the reveal, students check and score themselves.
  • Team Game: Divide the class into small teams. Give each team a whiteboard and have them write their sentence choice before the reveal. Tally team points on the board.
  • Move and Guess: Assign one side of the classroom to each sentence. Students move to the side representing their guess before the answer is shown. It’s a great way to get students moving and make the game more interactive.

Other Past Tense Teaching Resources

Here are some more useful resources you can use in your lesson on the past tense in English:

All Activity Videos