1.

Past Continuous Accusations This is not only a classic activity for the Past Continuous, but also an all time classic TEFL game. Students are given a list of strange actions and ask their partners to come up with innocent reasons why they were doing those things, e.g. When I saw you, you were painting over your windows. Why were you doing that? I was turning my whole house into a big flag to celebrate Independence Day. It is important that they say the When I saw you part each time, to make the use of the Past Continuous realistic. 2. Past Continuous Alibi Game This is another all time classic TEFL game. Students are divided into suspects and alibis and they have to concoct a story of where they were together at the time of the crime. They are then questioned separately, and too many differences between their stories mean that the suspect is guilty. You can make this more specific to Past Continuous by only allowing the detectives to ask questions about the time of the murder, e.g. What were you talking about? and Where was the waitress standing? 3. Green Card A more romantic version of The Alibi Game is to get students to pretend to be a couple and make up the story of when they first met. The other students then question them separately on the details of that first moment, e.g. what perfume she was wearing and who was standing near them. 4. Past Continuous Mimes Students mime an action and when their partner is sure what it is they shout Stop! They then guess the action with the sentence When I shouted stop, you were + ing, e.g. When I shouted stop, you were polishing your fingernails on your shirt to show how proud you are. It is important to use the When I shouted stop part of the sentence each time to make this the right tense, as otherwise You polished your fingernails is more natural. 5. Random pelmanism Students take two cards at random and try to make a sentence including those words or expressions with the Past Simple and Past Continuous. For example, if they pick the words alligator and wallpaper, they could say When I was covering my sons bedroom with teddy bear wallpaper, he suddenly came in and said he wanted alligator patterns instead. 6. Past Continuous Things in common

Students try to find times when they were doing the exact same thing, e.g. What were you doing at 7 oclock this morning? I was taking a shower So was I! They cant use the same action more than once, e.g. only one sentence about sleeping! 7. All kinds of actions Put a list of actions on the board, e.g. tapping your fingers and yawning. Ask students to do any of the actions in any order they like and at some point shout Stop! The students then test each other on what their classmates were doing at the time the teacher shouted stop with questions like Who was polishing her fingernails? and What was Juan doing? 8. Past Continuous picture memory Give students a picture that shows lots of people doing different actions, e.g. a page from Wheres Wally? (=Wheres Waldo?) When they turn over the picture so that they cant see it, test them on what people were doing with questions like What was the old lady doing?, How many people were smoking? and Who was standing next to the counter? You can make the use of the Past Continuous more natural by using a picture with a clock in or by making it a situation that people might really be asked these questions about, e.g. the moment before a bank robbery. 9. Past Continuous memory challenge Students try to ask each other What were you doing when you first/ last? questions that their partners cant remember the answer to, e.g. What were you doing when you first tasted wine? or What were you doing when you last saw a double-decker bus? You can also make this into a bluff game by asking students who dont remember to make something up, e.g. I was cleaning up after my parents birthday party or I was flying low over London. Their partners then guess whether the answer is true or not. 10. Past photos Students pretend that a blank piece of paper is an important photo of theirs and describe it to their partners. As it is just as natural to use the Present Continuous to describe the actual actions in the picture, they should also describe what they were doing when the photo was taken (e.g. having their honeymoon), what people in the photo were doing at that time (e.g. studying at university), what was happening outside the frame of the photo, etc. 11. Continual nagging

Students take turns complaining that they did all the work to prepare for something like a party or presentation, e.g. While I was making the sandwiches you answered your mobile three or four times or While I was cleaning the tables you were staring at pretty women out of the window. The other person should also say they their action was more useful than it seemed, e.g. Actually, I was waiting for the delivery van to arrive so that I could bring the paper plates upstairs, or retaliate with a worse accusation like While I was typing up the Powerpoint document, you were playing poker on your computer. 12. Who was doing that? Students make true sentences about what someone was doing when they saw that person, and the other students guess who it was, e.g. He was pulling across two lanes of traffic for a taxi driver or She was writing something down in a notebook for a traffic warden. 13. Video task 1 When the screen went blank While students are watching a video, the teacher suddenly presses the stop button. Students have to describe what was happening in as much detail as they can, and then check when the teacher presses play. 14. Video task 2 Detailed viewing When students have finished watching a short clip, test them on things that were happening in the background, e.g. What was the window cleaner doing when the hero was taking out his walkie talkie? 15. Video task 3 Complicated cutting Every time a character reappears on the screen, pause the video and test students on what that person was doing last time we saw them.

Fill in the spaces with the correct form of the past continuous. 1. I (sleep) when you called me. 2. They 3. Rita (eat) dinner when you arrived. (walk) when it started to rain. (take) their dog for a walk when it started

4. Rick and Sue to snow. 5. While you 6. The children 7. It 8. He 9. They

(clean), I was watching television. (laugh) through the movie.

(rain) all day yesterday. (run) while she was riding her bicycle. (jog) while I was sleeping. (work) when the fire alarm rang.

10. The women

Fill in the spaces with the correct form of the past continuous. 1. Richard (drive) very fast when the police stopped him. 2. The bird 3. The boys 4. I (sing)when the cat attacked it. (play) when the teacher told them to stop.

(watch) a movie when you called. (do) their homework when the

5. Sharon and Susan professor arrived. 6. While you 7. They 8. She 9. Jim 10. I

(complain), I was working. (listen) to music while they were studying.

(wash) her car when it started to rain. (water) the plants while I was cutting the grass. (pay) attention while the man was speaking.

Adjectives

Opposites

Fill in the spaces with the simple past or past continuous form of the verb in brackets. 1. I (work) when she called me. 2. She was cooking when we 3. Gregory 4. The children (arrive).

(swim) when it started to rain. (play) outside when it started to snow. (go)

5. Heather was listening to music when the power out. 6. The dogs 7. My laptop 8. She (be) born in 2004. (stop) when the battery ran out.

(sing) after the music started. (talk) while the movie was playing. (begin) to speak.

9. Dina and Lisa

10. The telephone was ringing when she

alive

dead

beautiful

ugly

big

small

bitter

sweet

cheap

expensive

clean

dirty

curly

straight

difficult

easy

good

bad

early

late

fat

thin

full

empty

hot

cold

happy

sad/unhappy

hardworking

lazy

modern

traditional

new

old

nice

nasty

intelligent

stupid

interesting

boring

light

heavy

polite

rude/impolite

poor

rich

quiet

noisy

right

wrong

safe

dangerous

short

long

small

big

soft

hard

single

married

true

false

well

ill/unwell

white

black

It's late in the evening; she's _________ what clothes to wear. She puts on her make-up and brushes her long ______ hair. And then she asks me, "Do I look all right?" And I say, "Yes, you look wonderful tonight." We go to a party and _________ turns to see This beautiful lady that's walking ________ with me. And then she asks me, "Do you feel all right?" And I say, "Yes, I feel wonderful tonight." I feel wonderful because I see The love _______ in your eyes. And the wonder of it all Is that you just don't ________ how much I love you. It's time to go home now and I've got an ________ head, So I give her the car keys and she helps me to _______. And then I tell her, as I turn ______ the light, I say, "My darling, you were wonderful tonight. Oh my darling, you were wonderful tonight."