Grammar: Expressing How Past Actions Were Performed for Primary 2

Class: Primary 2
Term: First Term
Week: 4
Age: 7 years
Duration: 45 minutes
Subject: English Studies
Curriculum Theme: Grammatical Accuracy
Previous Lesson: Speech: Further Practice on What Things Are Made Of
Topic: Grammar: Expressing How Past Actions Were Performed
Subject Matter: Expressing how past actions were performed. Past action such as: “I walked to school yesterday”

Specific Objectives

By the end of the lesson, pupils/students should be able to:

Cognitive Domain

• Identify verbs that show past actions.
• State the simple past tense forms of common regular and a few irregular verbs.
• Construct simple sentences using the past tense of verbs.

Psychomotor Domain

• Write the past tense forms of given verbs.
• Produce their own sentences using past tense verbs correctly.

Social Domain

• Participate actively in class discussions and sentence construction activities.

Reference Materials

The following resources were used in planning this lesson:

• 2014 9 Years Basic Education Curriculum
• Relevant State Unified Scheme of Work
• FCT ERC/NAPPS Scheme of work

Instructional Materials

The teacher will teach this lesson with the aid of:

• Chart showing common verbs and their past tense forms
• Textbook
• Notebook

Rationale for the Lesson

Understanding how to express past actions is fundamental for clear communication. This lesson helps pupils accurately describe events that have already happened, improving their spoken and written English. It builds a crucial foundation for more complex grammatical structures in the future.

Prerequisite/Previous Knowledge

Pupils should be able to identify action words (verbs) and understand the concept of present actions.

Lesson Content/Board Summary

Grammar: Expressing How Past Actions Were Performed

What is the Simple Past Tense?

The simple past tense tells us about actions that happened in the past and are now finished. Words like “yesterday,” “last week,” “ago,” or “last night” often tell us an action happened in the past.

How to Form the Simple Past Tense

Most verbs form their past tense by adding ‘-ed’ to the end. These are called regular verbs.

Examples of regular verbs:

1. Walk → Walked
2. Play → Played
3. Jump → Jumped
4. Clean → Cleaned
5. Wash → Washed

Some verbs change their spelling in a different way. These are called irregular verbs. We just need to learn them.

Examples of irregular verbs:

1. Go → Went
2. Eat → Ate
3. See → Saw
4. Run → Ran

Examples of Past Actions in Sentences

Here are some sentences showing past actions:

1. I walked to school yesterday.
2. She played with her friends last Saturday.
3. They jumped over the rope.
4. My mother cleaned the house this morning.
5. We ate rice and stew last night.
6. He went to the market an hour ago.

Teaching Methods/Instructional Techniques

Discussion, Demonstration, Guided Practice, Question and Answer, Explanation, Individual Practice.

Instructional Procedures

Step 1: Introduction

Time: 5 minutes

Teaching Skill: Activating prior knowledge

Teacher’s Activity: The teacher greets the pupils and asks them to mention some things they did yesterday or over the weekend. The teacher writes a few of their responses on the board.

Pupils’ Activity: Pupils respond by mentioning activities they did in the past.

Learning Point: Recalling past actions

Step 2: Presentation of Past Tense Verbs

Time: 8 minutes

Teaching Skill: Explanation/Demonstration

Teacher’s Activity: The teacher explains that actions done in the past use special forms of verbs. Using the chart, the teacher presents common verbs in their present and past tense forms (e.g., walk-walked, play-played, go-went, eat-ate). The teacher demonstrates how to add ‘-ed’ for regular verbs and highlights a few irregular ones.

Pupils’ Activity: Pupils listen attentively and repeat the past tense forms after the teacher.

Learning Point: Simple past tense verbs

Step 3: Guided Practice – Sentence Formation

Time: 7 minutes

Teaching Skill: Guided practice

Teacher’s Activity: The teacher guides pupils to use the past tense of common verbs in simple sentences. For example, “I walk to school” becomes “I walked to school yesterday.” The teacher provides sentence starters and encourages pupils to complete them with past actions.

Pupils’ Activity: Pupils participate by forming sentences orally with the teacher’s guidance.

Learning Point: Forming past tense sentences

Step 4: Independent Practice – Writing Past Tense Verbs

Time: 7 minutes

Teaching Skill: Individual practice

Teacher’s Activity: The teacher writes a few present tense verbs on the board (e.g., jump, clean, see, run) and asks pupils to write their past tense forms in their notebooks.

Pupils’ Activity: Pupils reproduce in writing the simple past tense of the common verbs given by the teacher.

Learning Point: Writing past tense forms

Step 5: Application – Creating Sentences

Time: 6 minutes

Teaching Skill: Application/Creativity

Teacher’s Activity: The teacher asks pupils to produce their own sentences using the past tense of verbs they have learned. The teacher moves around to provide support and check their work.

Pupils’ Activity: Pupils produce their own sentences using past tense of common verbs in their notebooks.

Learning Point: Creating past action sentences

Step 6: Reinforcement/Correction

Time: 3 minutes

Teaching Skill: Feedback/Correction

Teacher’s Activity: The teacher reviews some of the sentences created by pupils, correcting any errors in verb usage or sentence structure on the board.

Pupils’ Activity: Pupils observe the corrections and make necessary adjustments in their notebooks.

Learning Point: Correct use of past tense

Step 7: Evaluation/Review

Time: 5 minutes

Teaching Skill: Questioning/Assessment

Teacher’s Activity: The teacher evaluates the learning by asking the following questions:

1. What is the past tense of “play”?
2. Change “I eat rice” to a past action sentence.
3. Mention one word that tells us an action happened in the past.
4. Give an example of a sentence showing a past action.

Pupils’ Activity: Pupils answer orally and in writing.

Learning Point: Understanding past actions

Step 8: Note-Taking

Time: 4 minutes

Teaching Skill: Guided Writing

Teacher’s Activity: The teacher guides pupils to copy the essential Board Summary notes on expressing how past actions were performed into their notebooks.

Pupils’ Activity: Pupils/students copy the notes carefully into their notebooks.

Learning Point: Recording past tense notes

Step 9: Conclusion

Time: 2 minutes

Teaching Skill: Consolidation

Teacher’s Activity: The teacher summarizes the lesson by reminding pupils that the past tense tells us about things that have already happened. The teacher encourages them to practice using past tense verbs in their daily conversations.

Pupils’ Activity: Pupils listen and acknowledge the summary.

Learning Point: Summarizing past actions

Continuous Assessment/Further Study

Type: Homework

Instruction: Complete the following sentences by writing the past tense of the verb in brackets.

1. My brother (play) football yesterday.
2. I (go) to the market with my mum.
3. She (clean) her room last Sunday.
4. We (eat) bread and tea this morning.
5. The dog (run) after the cat.

Lesson Keywords

• Past – Something that has already happened.
• Action – A verb or something someone does.
• Performed – Did or carried out.
• Tense – A form of a verb that shows when an action happened.
• Yesterday – The day before today.

Differentiation

For pupils who are struggling, the teacher will provide more one-on-one support, focusing on only regular verbs and providing flashcards with present and past tense forms. For advanced learners, the teacher will encourage them to use a wider range of irregular verbs in their sentences and to describe short past events in more detail.

Suggested Lesson Videos

Search on YouTube for “Past Tense Verbs for Kids Primary 2” or “Simple Past Tense English Grammar for Grade 2”.