Identifying Irregular Past Tense Words
From FreeReading
| Activity Type: Introduce |
| Activity Form: Peer |
| Grade: 3 |
| Group Size: Pair, Whole Class |
| Length: 20 minutes |
| Materials: Decodable Passage: |
| Goal: Students will practice recognizing words that have an irregular past tense. |
| Items: Past tense words: felt, left, crept, fled, felt, cast, was |
What to do
- Welcome class!
Today we are going to look at a short story and find all of the words that are in past tense. Then, we will compare them to the way they are written in present tense. You will see that the past tense forms are mostly a bit strange or, as we call them, irregular.
Finally, you will try to think of other words that have an irregular past tense.
- Let's look together at the story, "Gus and the Goblin." We'll practice together finding past tense words.
- OK, does anyone notice a past tense word?
(Solicit one response from a student.) Great! Can anyone tell me the present tense form of this word? (Solicit a response from a student.) Great! Is this past tense word similar to, or different from, other ones that we've learned?
- OK, now I'm going to ask you to work with a partner to find all of the past tense words in this story. You will make a T-chart to compare the past tense forms to the present tense forms.
- (Allow students 15 minutes to complete tasks mentioned in step 4. Then, gather class together to compare results. Use your own T-chart to record their results. Finally, ask the students if they can think of 2-3 more examples of irregular past tense words.)
- Great job! Now you are "Irregular Words Detectives"!
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About this activity
This activity is designed to support students in identifying irregular past tense words, in general, and in becoming more familiar with a few particular irregular past tense forms.