Grade 5 ESL Flashcards: Past Simple — was/were and Regular Verbs

How to Present

• Print on card if possible, cut along the dashed lines.
• Use for matching, sorting, snap and memory games (see the Teacher Resources).
• Display on the word wall during the unit.

Games & Speaking Activities

• Where Were You? (10 minutes, Whole class): Call a time: "Yesterday at 5 pm!" Students walk to a place card.
• Mime and Guess (10 minutes, Two teams): A player mimes the card. Their team guesses in the past: "You cleaned your room!"
• Find the Liar (12 minutes, Groups of 4): Each student writes 3 sentences about last weekend (one is false). The group asks "Did you…?" questions to check.

Teacher Tips

Start every lesson with "What did you do yesterday?" — real news makes the grammar meaningful. Keep a big time line on the wall with "yesterday", "last week", "a year ago".

Learning Objectives

• Use was / were / wasn't / weren't correctly with all subjects.
• Form regular past simple verbs and spell them correctly (-ed, -d, -ied, double consonant).
• Say the -ed ending as /t/, /d/ or /ɪd/.
• Make questions and negatives with did / didn't + base verb.
• Use past time expressions (yesterday, last…, …ago) to talk about finished events.

Differentiation

Support: Use the was/were table card on every task. Challenge: Write a diary entry for last Saturday (8–10 sentences). English language learners: Clap the -ed sounds: /ɪd/ adds an extra beat (want-ed, paint-ed).

Assessment

Exit tickets in each lesson. Teacher observation during the weekend survey. Worksheet Parts A–E with the answer key. Quick Quiz (11 marks) after lesson 2. Unit Test (30 marks) at the end. Performance task (rubric): "My Weekend" — tell a partner and write 6 sentences.

What's Included

• Activity cards: 8 cards
• Grammar cards: 4 cards
• Answer guide for matching and sorting

Additional Files

• Grade 5 ESL Flashcards: Past Simple — was/were and Regular Verbs (DOCX)

Teacher Reviews