Lesson video

Hello, welcome to this lesson on the past simple tense.

You are going to need three important things today, a pen or a pencil.

So something to write with.

Piece of paper, something to write on, and also, perhaps most importantly, your brain.

So we are going to do some interesting work today.

And I think it's really important that you can try and clear away any distractions that might be around you.

And if possible, try your best to find a quiet place to work on during the lesson.

And then when you're ready, let's begin.

So I'm just going to give you another opportunity to grab what you need.

So a pen, a paper, switch your brains on, get warmed up.

Let's get ready to go.

Pause this video here if you need some more time to just get settled.

And then just press play when you're ready to go.

Great, let's get started.

As you can see on the screen in front of you, there are three boxes.

And we're starting off by reminding ourselves what a sentence actually is.

So how do we know a piece of writing makes up a sentence? Now to remind you of what that looks like and what a subject and a verb is, there are some examples on the right-hand side of the screen.

Your subject is in green, and your verbs are underlined.

For example, we have, she danced, the dog barked and the table creaked.

Now we've refreshed what a sentence should include.

Just a really quick activity for you guys to start off with, is to have a look at the screen now and there are four sentences.

I've labelled them A, B, C and D.

Your job is to choose the two correct sentences.

So two of them are correct.

Two of them are incorrect.

I'd like you to pause the video, I'll read them out for you first of all, then your pause the video, and your write down either the two letters for the correct sentences, or you can write down the sentences themselves.

So we have A, the cat saw the mouse.

B, the mouse ate the piece of cheese.

C, the cat jumped on the mouse, and D, the mouse squeaked.

So have a look and choose the two sentences which you think have been written correctly.

Brilliant.

Well done.

If you chose B and C, or B or C, they are the two correct sentences.

The mouse ate the piece of cheese and the cat jumped on the mouse.

Absolutely brilliant for getting those correct.

If you selected A or D, I'll just quickly run through why they are not correct.

So for A, the cat saw the mouse, the verb saw has a capital letter, we've got a capital S there, that's not necessary.

We do not need that capital letter.

And then in option D, the mouse squeaked.

We do need the capital letter on the because it starts off the sentence.

So we should have had a capital letter there.

Now we'll move on to look at the past simple, which is the purpose of our lesson together today.

The rule when we're thinking about the past simple, is that when you put actions in the past simple, you say what happened, not what was happening.

So you can see that I've underlined the E-D on happened, and I've also underlined was and the I-N-G.

The reason I've done that is to draw your attention to what we should be seeing when we're writing the past simple.

So you should be seeing an E-D on the end of your action.

You're talking about what happened.

Rather than what was happening.

Let's have a look at what I mean by that.

So here we've got our first example as Amelia played lots of football.

So I've highlighted again that E-D for you to show that in the past simple, our actions need to talk about something that's happened.

Amelia played football.

Rather than Amelia was playing lots of football.

She played lots of football.

It's happened.

Exactly the same for the next three examples.

We've got the road looked bumpy.

They danced for hours, and the students worked hard.

So here, I'm just going to go through how we can make sure our writing is written in the past simple when we need it to be.

So I've got a reminder of the rule at the top of the page for you.

And then I've given you a breakdown of how exactly we get there.

So my top example, the students were working hard, which I am sure you are all working very hard while you're listening to this.

That can turn into the students worked hard if you want it to be in the past simple.

So we move from using were and the I-N-G on the end of your verb and we take out the were and we add an E-D instead of the I-N-G.

So we have the students worked hard.

It is something that happened.

They worked hard.

It's not something that was happening.

Now it is your turn.

So there are three sentences that you can see on the screen.

I've got a reminder of the rule there as well in green just to make sure that you can refer back to that if you need it.

And you are going to write the following sentences, all in the past simple.

So as you can see, for number one, the sentence is the event was starting at 9:30 AM.

You need to change that into something that happened, not something that was happening.

So think about how we just did it on the previous part of the video.

You can rewind a little bit if you need to, to refresh your memories.

But you need to choose a word from the bottom that you think might replace was starting.

Some of you might not need the words at the bottom at all.

You might be able to fly through these three sentences all by yourself which is incredible and some others might need the little prompt at the bottom with those verbs with E- D.

So if you'd like to use the words at the bottom to help you, that's fine.

If not, they're there just in case.

So if you pause the video on here, on this part, complete the activity and then press play when you're ready to get going again.

Good luck.

Okay, brilliant.

Well done.

Here are the answers for you.

So for number one, we go from the event was starting at 9:30 to the event started.

So hopefully you will have taken away the was starting and replaced it with your E-D verb, started.

Secondly, they wanted to see the film tomorrow.

And thirdly, celebrations happened all over the town.

Some of you may not have got all three, which is fine, you can go back and have another go, and maybe watch a few minutes of the video prior to this again if you want to.

But we are going to do some more practise anyway.

Now just to add a little bit extra into the mix, hopefully it won't confuse you too much.

But this is just another rule that we need to remember.

So usually in the past simple, we have verbs ending in E-D, because we're talking about something that happened, rather than something that was happening.

So the natural thing for us to do is to take away our I-N-G and throw on an E-D.

However, that is not always the case.

So there are some verbs, some actions that we do not need the E-D, and what happens is that the word changes.

So let's have a look at this.

My example at the top.

The teacher was bringing the class a treat.

Now remembering the rule, we talk about something that happened, not something that was happening, your natural reaction at this point, if I were to ask you to change this sentence might be to say, the teacher bringed the class a treat.

And that would be completely understandable.

Okay, so if that is what you would naturally go for, that does make sense because of the rule that we've been following.

However, as I just explained, there are some words, some verbs actions that are slightly different.

Here, I'll give you the correct answer.

So rather than bringed, you have the teacher brought the class a treat.

So it's still doing the same thing.

It's still telling us that something has happened, rather than was happening but it doesn't use E-D, it's a different word.

You're going to now have a go at one of the following sentences.

So we have rain was beginning to fall, or we have my sister was teaching me how to play the piano.

What I would like you to do is choose one of those sentences, and then underline the action in the sentence, which needs to be changed to the past simple.

If you would like to, you can rewrite the sentence with the correct action or verb in the past simple.

However, if you're not too sure on what that is, I would like you to simply underline the bit that you would change.

So pause the video here, copy down one of the sentences.

And then first of all, underline the part of the sentence which needs to be changed to the past simple.

And then if you would like to rewrite the sentence with the correct word.

Absolutely brilliant.

Well done.

So I'm going to give the answer for both of the sentences because I don't know which one you chose.

Some of you superstars might have had to go both, which is great.

Now, rain was beginning to fall.

We've underlined was beginning, because we know that we don't want to talk about something that was happening.

We want to talk about something that happened.

So the action, the verb, changes to began.

Rain began to fall.

Not begined.

I think most of you would know that, that sounds a bit funny, begined.

It doesn't really sound right.

That's because it's irregular and we use rain began to fall.

Secondly, we have my sister was teaching me how to play the piano.

That gets turned into my sister taught me how to play the piano.

So, this one is probably more likely to be one that could be confusing.

You might automatically want to say my sister teached me how.

However, the verb, the action teach, the simple past for that verb is taught.

We don't have the E-D, we change it to taught.

So another quick activity for you.

There are three sentences on the screen.

And I would like you to choose which one of these sentences is written in the past simple tense.

So we have, she was going home.

She had gone home, and she went home.

One of these sentences is written in the past simple tense.

So I'd like you to pause the video if you would like and choose which sentence is written in the past simple tense.

Excellent.

Really, really well done.

It's she went home.

So the green box.

Now you might notice yet again, we don't have an E-D here, and that's just because the past simple way to use go, it turns into went.

You wouldn't say I goed to the cinema last week.

You would say I went to the cinema.

So it's similar to those irregulars that we just looked at, the taught and the began.

Go is similar, it turned into went, we do not say goed.

So now is completely over to you really, you are going to practise everything that we've just gone through.

You've done some great work already with the short activities and this activity is a little bit longer.

So to warm you up for the activity, there is a very quick activity that you need to do.

So you can see a picture on the right-hand side.

There are three people in the picture with a car.

I would like you to pause the slide, pause the video here and just comment on what you can see in one sentence.

So if you're working by yourself, you can write it down or you can just say it aloud.

If you're working with other people, then just say it to one another, one sentence about what you can see.

And then once you've done that, you can press play again.

Okay, brilliant.

So that's got you warmed up, you know what's in the picture.

You know what you need to do for the past simple tense.

So you're going to think about those things to complete this task.

You need to write down four sentences, which describe the picture from the previous slide.

Okay.

I will put the picture up again very shortly.

So when the picture appears on your screen next, you will hit pause, and then you will write down four sentences that describe the picture.

Those four sentences do need to use the simple past.

So you need to talk about what happened in the picture, not what was happening.

So you need to write down four sentences about what happened.

When you have written your four sentences, you are going to underline the actions or the verbs in the past simple from your own sentences.

So when the next part of the video appears, and you can see the picture again, just hit pause, complete the activity, and then press play when you're ready to go again.

Good luck.

Amazing work.

Well done for working so hard on that.

That's absolutely brilliant.

I think the best way for us to discuss that activity is for us to go through some possible answers for things you might have written down.

That does not mean that the answers on the screen are the only possible answers.

These are just some ideas that I had.

You might have something different, which is fine, as long as you've used the past simple.

So at the top, I've got the girl sat on the floor, or the girl sat by the car.

So you can see that I've used sat as the past simple for a sit, another irregular one.

We do not say sitted, we say sat.

Secondly, one of the boys looked around him.

So that's a really nice straightforward action that we can add an E-D on.

So one of the boys looked around him.

We're talking about what happened.

He looked around him.

Not that he wasn't looking not what was happening.

And then we have one of the boys read the map.

This one might potentially confuse a few people.

Now you can see that that word, that action read, one of the boys read the map.

It also looks like read, which we use for the present tense.

So you say I read a book, but you also say I read a book.

They're spelt the same, we just say them slightly differently.

So I just want to make sure I draw your attention to that.

And then finally, two of them stood on the roof of the car.

So we do not say that they were standing because we need to talk about something that happened.

Two of them stood on the roof of the car.

That is our lesson complete for the day.

I'm really, really proud of you all for going through the lesson, completing those activities, working so hard, a huge well done.

There are two final things I just like to mention before you go.

Number one, have a little look through the notes that you've made today or the work that you've done, and think about three things that you've learned or three things that you can take away from this lesson.

And then secondly, if you are able to, it might be nice for you to take a picture of the work that you've completed, and then get a parent or carer, whoever's at home with you to share it with your teacher.

I know that your teacher will be so proud and impressed with how hard you're working at home and getting on with this kind of stuff.

So do share it with your teachers at school.

Finally, if you would like to share your work via social media, we've got Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, we've got @OakNational there, is our Twitter handle.

And there's a #LearnwithOak.

If you would like to and your parent, carer, whoever's at home is happy to, you can share your work over social media, just to show us how well you're doing, how well you're getting on and how hard you're working.

So enjoy the rest of your day.

Can't wait to speak to you for the next lesson.

And again, a massive well done,.