Activity

My Funny Story (Past Simple Tense)

There are printable story cards. Students draw 4 random cards and they must make a story out of it (using past tense)!

There is:

1) an explanation powerpoint -> includes a little practice for changing verbs into past tense, and an explanation of how to make their funny story.

2) printable story cards -> There are 4 types and it is color-coded.
Types of cards include:
1. Where you went (yellow) - "I went to...."
2. What you saw (blue) - "I saw a...."
3. What you did (green) - "I (verb)..."
4. How you felt/What the thing did/said (pink)

~I made two copies of the cards in color and I laminated, cut them out, and separated them by color. You don't have to laminate them or print them in color, but it makes the whole process easier and you can use them many times.

3) handout -> students will put together their story on this handout.


Instructions:

1) First do the practice on the powerpoint (changing base form verbs to simple past tense)

2) Next, go through the steps of making a story which is also on the powerpoint.

3) Students have to choose 4 different colored story cards without looking. You can have students choose their story cards one at a time, but I think that will take a long time. So, to speed up the process, I put students into groups of 4-5 people.

~Groups will share envelopes with story cards in them. I separated the colored cards into small envelopes (or baggies). Each group gets an envelope/bag for each color, which is 4 envelopes/baggies per group. For a class of 38 or so, printing two copies of the story card document is enough.

4) They shouldn't look when they take the card, so it will be totally random... which is what makes it funny!

5) Step 1: They will write the verbs which are on their cards in the past tense. (on their handout)
Step 2: They will make 1 story event of their own. (on their handout)
Step 3: They will write the story in whatever order they like, and if there's time afterwards, they can draw a picture! (on the back side of the handout)

6) If there's any extra time, students can share their funny story with their group, or their friend. Or you can have them hand them in so you can look at them. You can even hang them up.


The card preparation process takes some time, but I think it will be a fun activity in the end!

Note: A lot of the art is from the Actions artwork/past tense artwork which was posted on this site!

-If the first cards that the students choose really don't make sense, you can tell them that they can change 1 card or something like that.

Files:
Small files
  • My Funny Story Handout.pdf (257 KB)
  • Medium files (requires an account to download) -
  • Story Cards.pdf (1.31 MB)
  • My Funny Story Presentation.pptx (10.7 MB)
  • 38
    Submitted by Celestar129 January 22, 2024 Estimated time: 40~50 minutes
    1. 2bfrank January 24, 2024

      This is pure genius, THANK YOU! Perfect timing for G1 next week...as always excellent ideas and materials!

    2. Celestar129 January 24, 2024

      @2bfrank Glad you like it! It was fun to see the stories and drawing the students came up with haha

    3. Sekaijin February 2, 2024

      This is incredible and I think my JHS 1st graders will love it! Thanks for sharing!!!!

    4. aishin10 February 8, 2024

      My kids loved this!! We had someone who took a person from a castle and someone who ate a doctor at a game center lol. I had several kids come up after class wanting to shuffle through all the yellow cards to see all the possibilities. Seriously well done materials, thank you!!

    5. Celestar129 February 13, 2024

      I'm glad everyone liked it! My classes an I enjoyed it as well! ^_^

    6. gyamfick February 14, 2024

      Absolutely incredible. My students are definitely going to enjoy this.

    7. kursed_kuromi March 14, 2024

      Looks great, not highlighting the text would be ideal as it makes it look bad if you print or photocopy in black and white (which is the only option a lot of the time)

    8. Chinny April 4, 2024

      This is great! Thank you.

    9. jiggswalsh August 29, 2024

      I did this yesterday and it went great. Could you also share the Word files so they are editable? I would like to add more of my own funny sentences...

    10. Joanne October 4, 2024

      This is brilliant but I really need an editable version for a low level grade 1 class...:) Could you put this on as soon as possible as I would like to use this on Wednesday 9th in my class.

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