This week in the Spotlight, we’re featuring a lesson from our Library on the Past Progressive. An easy way to start practicing the past progressive is with clock times. Kids love talking about themselves and their lives outside of the classroom. Try this activity after you’ve reviewed the structure of the past progressive.
Preparation: Print and Cut
Print this FREE 3-page PDF to use with the “What were you doing?” activities below.
Page 1: Print as many copies as you need of the Time of Day sheet. Cut the clocks out, and give each student one or more clocks to fill out. Have an envelope or container handy to put the clocks in after students write times on them.
Page 2: Print one page of Days of the Week strips for the class and cut them into strips. Place them in an envelope or container.
Page 3: Print one Day Planner page for each student for the Personal Assistants activity.
What were you doing? (Time)
First, give each student a blank clock to fill out. Tell your students to choose a time of day when they are awake. They should circle a.m. or p.m.
Next, collect the filled-out clocks and place them in a container or envelope.
Now, walk around the room and have students take turns picking out one clock from the container. The student who picks a clock will look at the time of day and ask another student a question: “What were you doing at ___________ o’clock yesterday?” Remind your students that they should answer by using the past progressive. (You may want to put a sample question and response on the board. Erase it after a few turns.)
Jack: [Chooses a clock that shows five o'clock p.m.] Nina, what were you doing at five o’clock in the afternoon yesterday?
Nina: I was having dinner at five o’clock in the afternoon.
Nina: [Chooses 9:30 a.m.] Angelo, what were you doing at nine thirty in the morning yesterday?
Angelo: At nine thirty in the morning I was singing the national anthem at school.
Remind your students that the past progressive doesn’t always go at the beginning or the end of the sentence.
What were you doing? (Day)
After a few turns, introduce the Days of the Week strips. Now when a student chooses a clock, he also chooses a day of the week.
Ella: [Choose 2:00 p.m. | Tuesday] Nikola, what were you doing at two in the afternoon last Tuesday?
Nikola: I was eating lunch on Tuesday at 2:00 p.m.
Add Some Make-Believe
After all of the students have had a chance to talk about themselves, encourage your students to make something up instead of responding with the truth. You could also tell them to do this if they don’t remember what they were doing on a certain day at a certain time.
Nikola: [Chooses 8:00 p.m. | Sunday] Mario, what were you doing at 8:00 p.m. on Sunday?
Mario: Oh, that’s easy. On Sunday at 8:00 p.m. I was riding an elephant.
What was he/she doing?
To make this even more fun, add a third container and fill it with random names of Famous People (or characters). Now students have to make predictions about what these people were doing at certain times. If your students are ready, help them learn how to use “probably” or “likely”.
Mario: [Chooses Barack Obama | 3:00 p.m. | Wednesday] Linda, what was Barack Obama doing on Wednesday at three o’clock in the afternoon?
Linda: Barack Obama was probably playing basketball on Wednesday at three o’clock in the afternoon.
Personal Assistants
Now put students in pairs. Tell them they are going to pretend to be the personal assistant of a famous person or character. Each pair should write a page (in point form using base verbs) of a Day Planner (Page 3) for a famous person or character. (Example: A day in the life of Queen Elizabeth.)
6:00 a.m. have breakfast
8:00 a.m. meet the prime minister
11:00 a.m. take a nap
After the pairs have filled out the Day Planner, have them split up to meet the rest of their classmates (the other assistants). They will ask each other questions about what their famous person was doing yesterday at certain times of the day.
A: What was Queen Elizabeth doing at 4:00 p.m. yesterday?
B: Queen Elizabeth was having a meeting with Prince Harry. What was Oprah Winfrey doing?
A: Oprah Winfrey was walking her dog at four in the afternoon.
The Next Step
When your students are comfortable using the past progressive with clock times and days of the week, practice using the past progressive to talk about continuous actions that occurred in the past. Remind your students to use the time markers “when” and “while”. Have your students come up with their own questions.
What were you doing when the storm hit?
What were you doing when I called?
What were you doing while we were at the soccer game?
Related
Find this week’s related lesson in the Library – Past Continuous Stories.
Purchase a subscription to access all our Young Learner resources. Only $7 a month.
