Do your students like learning English? Do they like to study grammar? Gerunds and infinitives can be tricky for students to learn and remember! This week’s Spotlight lesson is Being Brave – Gerunds and Infinitives from our Grammar School section.

Students can practice gerunds and infinitives through a variety of tasks in this lesson. Activities include a pre-reading discussion, a short reading, comprehension questions, two grammar exercises, a writing exercise, and a fun word search.

The short story in this lesson is about bullying, a very important topic that should be discussed in class. (more…)

Which animal is the furriest? Our brand-new Superlative Adjectives lesson gives young learners a lot of practice comparing groups of people, places, and things.

This colorful, eight-page lesson starts off with a simple explanation that reviews the form and function of the grammar target. It is followed by a variety of activities such as a fill-in-the-blanks exercise, a spot-the-errors exercise, and a group work exercise that are sure to engage your students. There is also a bonus page on spelling rules for adjectives ending in -est that you can hand out and review with your class if needed. (more…)

The past progressive (or past continuous) is an English verb tense that’s not used very often, so students are usually unclear about when to use it or how it compares to the simple past. Seeing the simple past and past progressive together in the same text really helps students figure out when to use each one. This week’s Spotlight lesson, UFO Report, features a reading and exercises that compare both tenses. (more…)

The differences between the present perfect and the present perfect progressive can be subtle, and many students aren’t sure when to use each one. Luckily, both are correct in most cases, but students still want to understand why there are two tenses with such similar uses.

The worksheet below has charts and examples so students can compare these two tenses side by side. For the other use of the present perfect and to compare it with the simple past, see Teaching the Present Perfect. (more…)

“Every family tree produces some lemons, some nuts, and a few bad apples.”
– Wise Author Unknown

Sprout English’s NEW Comparative Adjectives lesson plan for young learners covers everything from the basic grammar explanation to spelling rules and exceptions. After your students learn the rules and practice making comparisons of people, places, and things on paper, be sure to do some oral practice off the page!

Here is a fun activity you can do with your young learners. This Family Tree Craft will help your learners review English vocabulary for members of the family while also practicing comparative adjectives for describing people.

Family Tree Craft

1. Give each student a copy of Tanya’s handy list of Comparative Adjectives for Describing People.

2. Print a Family Tree worksheet for each student.  (more…)

Is sushi tastier than pasta? Our brand-new Comparative Adjectives lesson gives young learners a lot of practice comparing people, places, and things.

This colorful, eight-page lesson starts off with a simple grammar explanation. This is followed by a variety of activities such as a fill-in-the-blanks exercise, a spot-the-errors exercise, and a pair work exercise that are sure to engage your students. There is also a bonus page on spelling rules for adjectives ending in -er that you can hand out and review with your students if needed. (more…)

Time flies when you’re having fun! When you enjoy blogging about grammar, teaching, and the English language as much as I do, a year of weekly blog posts goes by just like that! Our goal at Sprout English has always been to provide quality educational materials to English teachers and students, and my personal wish is that teachers and students will continue to learn from and use our free blog materials. We love helping young learners grow their English skills!

I thought it would be helpful to organize all the articles I’ve written so far into a list that’s easily accessible. (Some articles are included twice if they belong to more than one category.) I hope you find this resource list useful! (more…)

Students learn the simple present and present progressive verb tenses early on in their English language studies. The problem is that most textbooks don’t present these tenses together! It’s easy enough to remember the conjugation of one tense and practice it over and over. It’s quite another when both tenses appear in the same context—that’s when students really have to understand the differences in order to use the correct tense. Our Spotlight lesson this week, Pako – Simple Present / Present Progressive Reading, uses both tenses in the story so that students can see them compared and contrasted.

We’ve got many resources to help your learners figure out the differences between these tenses. Go over our free, printable grammar chart on the simple present vs. present progressive with your students, then print out the worksheet below and see how they do. If they are still confused, try some of our other resources at the end of this post!

Download the grammar worksheet PDF (more…)

The present perfect is a very common verb tense in English, but it can be confusing for students to learn because it has two main uses that are quite different from one another. Adding to the challenge is the present perfect’s similarity to the simple past and the present perfect progressive. In my experience, most textbooks teach the two main uses separately, and some students never realize that this verb tense can do two different things.

Also, most textbooks don’t include an exercise that combines the present perfect and the simple past. It’s easy enough to produce have + past participle over and over in a written or spoken exercise—the real challenge lies in recognizing the difference between the present perfect and the simple past and being able to produce the correct tense.

Below is a grammar explanation that highlights the two main uses of the present perfect. The simple past and present perfect progressive are also discussed, and a worksheet comparing the present perfect and simple past is available on page 3 of the handout. We hope this handout helps your students understand and use this common tense! (more…)

Getting ready to go back to school? This week’s Spotlight lesson, The Test, features a dialogue between two friends about typical school subject: exams! It’s a great lesson to use at the beginning of a new school year. Students can practice the simple future using be + Ving and be going to + V, both of which are natural to use when planning out goals for the year.

This lesson includes a short reading, comprehension questions, a be going to grammar chart, sentence puzzles, and a group discussion activity.

All of the readings in our Library section have a digital component, so teachers and parents can choose how to present the reading and comprehension questions—either on paper or online!

Sprout English has many simple future resources: (more…)