30 Activities for Teaching Verb Tense (2024)

1. Build verb tents (get it?)

Set up “verb tents” to learn about verb tense. This smart play on words turns playtime fun into a learning activity.

Get tutorial: Verb Tents

2. Verb tense rainbows

Knowing proper tenses makes the world a more colorful place! Kids add sentences for the past, present, and future tense of any verb they choose.

Get tutorial: Verb Tenses Craft

3. Conjugate and move

As you go from one place to another (out to recess, down the hall to lunch), have students pick different movements to complete. Use those in sentences for practice: “We are going to march. We are marching. We marched to the playground.”

In the classroom, have students choose cards with past, present, and future actions on them and act them out.

Get tutorial: In-tense Fun

4. Sort sticky notes

Talking about verb tense endings or helping verbs? A simple sticky note sort is an easy way to give students hands-on practice.

Get tutorial: Verb Tenses

5. Identify incorrect usage

Sometimes it can be just as helpful to see and hear what’s incorrect as what’s correct. Try this sorting activity, or allow kids to come up with their own examples.

Get tutorial: Verb Tense Sorts

6. Match LEGO bricks

What kid doesn’t love an excuse to play with LEGO bricks? Use a marker to write irregular verbs and their corresponding past or future tenses on individual bricks. Then kids match them up for practice. Want other educational uses for LEGO bricks? We’ve got them!

Get tutorial: Irregular Verb Activity With LEGO

7. Link sentences with helping verbs

This is a terrific visual to show kids how helping verbs actually link sentences together. Cut strips of sentences and have students link two parts of a sentence with the correct verb tense.

Get tutorial: Linking & Helping Verbs

8. Time travel with verb tense wristbands

Fire up your imagination and take trips to the past, present, and future with these cute (and free) printable armbands. They’ll really help kids relate tenses to time.

Learn more: Verb Tenses Time Machine Armbands

9. Verb dice

Get some helping-verb practice by rolling these DIY cubes. Students roll the cubes, then write sentences with the correct verb tenses shown. Here are printable dice templates to use with this activity.

Get tutorial: Action and Helping Verb Cubes

10. Use timelines

Verb tenses and timelines are a perfect match! Timelines help kids visualize the concept, especially when you get to the more complicated tenses.

11. Form human sentences

Pass out cards with words, including verbs, on them and have kids line up to form a present-tense sentence. Then change the tense by switching a card (and student) to make a new sentence. You can talk about when we change the verb tense, what other parts of a sentence might have to change?

Get free printable: Regular Verb Tenses at Teachers Pay Teachers

12. Verb tense booklet

Give your students a booklet they can refer to as they practice verb tenses. Combine these booklets with the timeline activity to reinforce how verbs show when activities happen.

Get free printables: Teaching Simple Verb Tenses

13. Tap lights

Label tap lights with arrows indicating past, present, and future. Then, pull verb cards from a bag and have kids tap to turn on the correct tense light.

Get tutorial: Tap Light Ideas

Buy it: Tap lights for less than $25 at Amazon

14. Play Slap It! with verb tenses

Flip over a verb from the “present” pile, then start flipping cards from the “past” pile. When the correct match appears, slap it! The winner keeps the cards, and the play starts over. Get free printable cards to use for this game at the link.

Get tutorial: Slap It! Irregular Past Tense Verbs Game

15. Work with flash cards

Flash cards aren’t just for numbers! This set helps kids learn irregular verbs, regular past tense, and active and passive verbs.

Buy it: Junior Learning Verb Flashcards

16. Use stories

Have kids study a picture and tell a story about what they see. Set the story in the past, present, or future. Start with this story about people in a city talking about what they did yesterday.

Get printable: The Past Simple Tense With a Picture

17. Spin and write

Using a pencil and paper clip for a spinner, students flip a verb card, spin to see which tense they’ll use, and write out a sentence. Download the free printable at the link.

Get tutorial: Perfect Verb Tense Activity

18. Helping verbs song

Helping verbs are part of verb tenses, and this catchy song helps kids learn them. After you sing it, challenge kids to write their own song!

Learn more: Help, Help, Helping Verbs!

19. Verb shaker

This is a homemade version of an “I Spy” game. Bury verb cards in a plastic bottle filled with colored rice, then have students find verbs and use them in sentences or provide the different tenses.

Get tutorial: Verb Shaker

20. Color the tenses

We’ll take any reason to break out the crayons! Have students color stars different colors depending on the verb tense.

Get free printable: Verb Tenses Freebie at Teachers Pay Teachers

21. Display a chart

We often don’t realize how much it helps to know the names of the different tenses until we’re studying a new language and trying to conjugate its verbs. A chart like this one for English verbs can be very helpful in learning the concept.

Learn more: 12 Verb Tenses in English

22. Verb tense battleship

The beauty of this game is that you can play it over and over again using different tenses. Players plant their “ships” on the board. Each player takes turns saying a sentence using the chosen tense: “You will listen to music tomorrow.” The other player indicates hit or miss, just as in traditional Battleship.

Get printable: Verb Tense Battleship

23. Irregular verbs

Don’t forget irregular verbs. Help students use irregular verbs in writing assignments with an anchor chart or table students can keep in their binders.

Learn more: Tips for Teaching Verb Tenses

24. Use arrows

Use arrows to reinforce when in time verbs are referring to. This handy anchor chart can serve as a reference, or use the arrows to reinforce tense.

Learn more: Verb Tense Sorts

25. Create verb tense webs

Give students a topic, or have them brainstorm their own, then they think of verbs that go with that topic. Have students think of present, past, or future tense verbs to go with each topic.

Learn more: Identifying Verbs

26. Fill in the blank

Create stories that require students to fill in the blank with conjugated verbs (or download this free resource). It’s also an opportunity to build vocabulary and fluency.

Get free printable: Irregular Past Tense Verb Mad Lib

27. Verb tense four-in-a-row

Play a game of four-in-a-row with verb tenses. Students roll a di and complete the verb tense task. If they win the square, they win the square. When they have four in a row, they win the game.

Learn more: Verb Tense Connect 4

28. Verb sort

Once students are into independent practice, use a sorting activity to have them practice various verb tenses.

Learn more: Rainy Day Verb Tenses

29. Verb tense game

Have students practice choosing the correct verb tense with a game like this one from CSL on Teachers Pay Teachers. Or have students make their own verb tense game.

Buy it: Verb Tenses Game for less than $5 at Teachers Pay Teachers

30. Work with mini-books

Create a mini-book and use that as a reference for students as they learn and practice verb tenses. This is especially helpful for English language learners.

Buy it: Minibook for less than $5 at Etsy