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Regular and irregular verbs and how to let your students learn about them on their own 😀

Updated: May 3, 2019


So I went away for a week and my kids were left without their very demanding English teacher 😅 So you'd think they got a week off English ... think again! Haven't I just said I'm demanding 😝

They knew it was coming. Last year when I left them for a week to attend the IATEFL conference (read about it here and here) I left them with a whole set of tasks to make them study countable and uncountable nouns (and you can read all about it here). So this year when they saw me entering the classroom with a big pile of folders on the day before I was supposed to leave they knew ... there was no escaping it 😂

This year I wanted them to study regular and irregular verbs so I've prepared a set of tasks and materials on that topic. Here's what I did:

Task 1: Hello, it's me!

A couple of days before I left I recorded myself giving them a very short lesson on what the difference is between regular and irregular verbs. I hid the film in a QR code. Their task was to watch the film and make a note in their notebooks of what the difference is. They're 21st century kids but they still love it when I pop up on video when I'm not physically there with them 😅

Task 2: -ED suffix colouring

So now that they knew that regular verbs are the ones that take -ed- , their next task was to work out the spelling rules of adding this suffix. I gave them this:


If you read my blog before you might recognise this activity. I used it many times with my students and one of those times was here. The activity is very easy - they colour in the same letters in each pair one colour and then the differing letters another colour. I don't have this set coloured in but this is what it looks like with -er- ending:

They cut up the table into separate boxes and group them trying to work out what the rules are. Once they worked out the rules their task was to create another note in their notebooks.

You can download this activity when you click on the picture above. There are two identical tables on one page so cut it in half before giving to students.

I also had a plan B for students who might need more help to get the rules. Some time ago I made a Keynote presentation with all the rules. I hid it in a QR code as well and told them to watch it if they still had problems with understanding the rules:


Task 3: Use what you've just learnt

This time their task was to fill in a simple handout. They had to add -ed- to a list of words and then check their own work. The answer sheet was, again, hidden in a QR code (do I have a problem? am I addicted to QR codes? 😂).

And the answers are hidden in the code below:


Activity 4: Time for some irregular verbs fun

I found this useful video on YouTube:


Maybe the video is not the most riveting thing to watch for an 11-year-old but it has nice graphics, example sentences, and pronunciation. But! It turns out that woodward english are selling the flashcards they used in the video! You can get them here! That's $5 that I'll never see again 😂

So on top of telling my students to watch the video, I printed out the flashcards, laminated them, separated them into 5 sets, and put PenPal stickers on them to record the pronunciation 😁 (If you don't know what PenPal is (and you want to, believe me) I wrote a little bit about it in the middle of this post).The task was to simply practise irregular verbs as much as possible when they had time.


Sidenote: I feel like I should write a separate post on what PenPal is. I also think that Mantra Lingua should be sponsoring me 😂 😂

Activity 5: Leave a trace in your notebook

I wanted them to have a list of irregular verbs in their notebooks as well so that they could use it whenever they needed it. I asked them to make a list of 32 verbs: infinitive + past simple + the meaning. I gave them a list of infinitive forms and asked them to use these cards, which I bought form Lindy du Pleases on Teacherspayteachers.com to find out what the past forms are.


They had to use dictionaries to find out the meaning of the words they didn't know.

Activity 6: Sing your heart out!!

By far my favourite task 🎧 When I found this song on YouTube I thought it was soooo cheesy 😂 But oh my god! It gets stuck in your head for ages 😍 And that's the point, right?


The task: learn the song 😀

Now I know that there should be a handout with it: fill in the missing words kind of thing. My kids will get it tomorrow but I can share it with you now 😉 you know ... cause I like you so much 😅

Here you are. Dare I say I flipped the classroom? I think I did 😊 My kids managed to do most of the tasks. They're still learning the songs, mostly trying to remember the order the verbs come in, that's why I need the handout with the lyrics.

If you'd like to read my other posts about irregular verbs you can find them here and here. The second one is available only in Polish but you'll get the idea just by looking at the pictures.

Have fun creating,

Ewa ;)

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