Explain that these sentences can be changed into the past by converting the verb 'to be' from the present to the past tense. Have the students read each sentence and identify the subject in order to select whether to use 'was' or 'were' in the new sentence.
10mins: Introduction - Beginner questions 'What's your name, how old are you, where are you from, have you got any brothers or sisters? What's your favourite day of the week? What do you usually do on this day? What's one thing you like? One thing you don't like? What's one thing you can do? One thing you can't do?
05mins: Review present continuous. Play 'you are verbING'.
05mins: Review: Was/were - the past tense of the verb 'to be'. Discuss which pronouns agree with which verb.
10mins: You were there! A game to practice was/were - Have all students except for one stand in a line. Let student 1 look at the line for ten seconds then close their eyes while the others scramble the line and take a new position. The student opens their eyes then has to put them back into the original order saying 'You were there, he was there etc'.
10mins: Worksheet: page 31 - 'was/were'.
15mins: Game: Apples to apples - The teacher will need two sets of help cards. One set which has 'I was (verbing) when...' using different pronoun and verb combinations. This set will be green. The second set of cards will 'continue' the sentence with the simple past. (E.g. it started to rain. I saw a monster. An alien arrived. Etc.) This set will be red. One student will begin as a reader. They will pick a card from the green pile and read it to the students. The other students will choose a red card to place face down and anonymously give to the reader. The reader will then read all the different options and choose the best one.
05mins: Warm Down: Goodbye, see you next time + points
1. We were happy because we were going to the circus.
2. Sammy and Jane were drinking coca-cola.
3. I was at the circus watching a magic show.
4. At half-past eight they could see the lions.
5. The show was finishing because it was ten o'clock.