Teach the Simple Past Tense - Guide and Exercises

Form the simple past tense of regular verbs using the '-ed' ending and applicable spelling rules.

Recall and correctly use common irregular past-tense verb forms.

Form negative and interrogative simple-past sentences using 'did' plus the base verb.

Distinguish between the simple past and past continuous tense in context.

Work through the explanatory guide's numbered sections before assigning exercises, since later exercises assume the spelling and irregular-verb rules have already been taught.

Use Exercise 5 ('Correct the Mistakes') as a quick diagnostic to see which common errors (e.g., 'goed,' 'writed') students are still making.

Reserve the open-ended story and dialogue exercises (19-20) for after students are comfortable with the drill-based exercises.

Simple past tense formation — students conjugate regular and irregular verbs correctly in the simple past.

Negative and question formation — students build simple-past negatives and questions using 'did.'

Tense discrimination — students choose between simple past and past continuous forms in context.

Narrative writing in past tense — students write a short story and dialogue using simple-past verbs.