Unit 14: Past stories

Teacher’s notes
Aim
To practice telling stories in the past.

Language focus
Simple past, adjectives.

Materials and preparation

Each pair or group of students will need one copy of the page. Cut it along the dotted lines.
Students will also need a pen or pencil and paper.

Student organization
Pairs or groups of three students.

Suggested time
15-20 minutes.

Procedures
• Put students in pairs or small groups of up to three students. Give a set of the word cards
to each pair or group. Students should leave the cards in a pile facing down.
• Write the following sentences on the board:
1 He read the letter, then he left the house.
2 Larry opened the door and saw her.
3 It was all a big mistake.

• Explain to students that they are going to shuffle the set of cards and take ten words at
random from the pile. Then they should work together to create a story using at least eight
of those words. The story should be in the simple past, and should include one of the
sentences written on the board. The sentence can be used at the beginning, middle, or end
of the story. Students can use any other vocabulary they know to make a logical story.
• Set a time limit of 10-15 minutes and have one student in each group write down the story.
When the time is up, ask a student in each group to say which words they used and to read
their story to the class.
• You may want to ask the class to vote on the best story.

©2003 Oxford University Press ENGLISH KnowHow Opener

 Classroom communication activities
Unit 14: Past stories

busy delicious exciting loud

important fantastic long terrible

find write go meet

take have put want

throw read say return

lucky trip ocean hobby

©2003 Oxford University Press ENGLISH KnowHow Opener