Past Simple or Continuous

When the bell rang...

Ask the students what they were doing when the bell rang for the end of break time. Draw a table with two columns. In the first column write the sentence : When the annoying bell rang... and in the second column write down their answers. Ask them if they continued with their activity after the bell rang. Make them think about how the bell ring interrupted their activities. Underline the verbs and discuss tenses.

Mime Game
Make cards of activities and natural disasters that interrupted them. Divide the students in pairs. One student should act out the activity and the other should act out the natural disaster. The rest of the class is trying to guess what was going on and which natural disaster interrupted it (ex: while he was having a bath an earthquake struck) 1. have a bath- earthquake 2. cook- thunder 3. get dressed- hurricane 4. sleep- flood 5. drive a car- hail

Folding Stories
Ask students to finish your story by giving an ending to each of your sentences. After each verb they should fold the paper covering the part they had written and pass it on to the next student. At the end read the stories and find out what happened. The story Last night while I was ________ and I was _______ I saw _______ I didn't _________ but I was________ After I _______ I was ________ so I ______

When I first saw you

Ask students to think about their best friends and how they met. They should write sentences about the things their friends were doing when they first saw them.