A video postcard!
Grammar and
functions
Learning goals:
Keywords
Talking about the weather in the context
of holidays
Weather: cloud, cloudy, ice, icy, fog,
foggy, rain, rainbow, rainy, sky, snow,
snowy, storm, sun, sunny, umbrella,
wind, windy
Understanding the difference between
regular and irregular verbs
Using a range of irregular forms
Contents
Aims
Year 7
Lesson 12
Past tense regular and irregular verbs:
arrived, began, climbed, had, saw,
taught, was, went
Language Analysis
Weather vocabulary
Noun
Adjective
There’s lots of sun today.
It’s a sunny day.
sun /sʌn/
sunny /ˈsʌni/
rain /reɪn/
rainy /ˈreɪni/
wind /wɪnd/
windy /ˈwɪndi/
cloud /klaʊd/
cloudy /ˈklaʊdi/
snow /snəʊ/
snowy /ˈsnəʊi/
fog /fɒɡ/
foggy /ˈfɒɡi/
ice /aɪs/
icy /ˈaɪsi/
Past Simple regular and irregular verbs
We use the Past Simple tense to talk about an event that happened in the past. We usually know exactly
when the event happened e.g. yesterday, two days ago, in 1999.
In order to change regular present verbs into past simple verbs we add -ed e.g. I like – I liked.
There are some important spelling rules that one needs to follow when adding -ed:
Arrive – arrived – if there is e at the end of the verb we only add d
Stop – stopped – if there is the following pattern at the end of the word: cvc (consonant, vowel,
consonant) we need to double the last consonant
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Cry – cried – if the verbs ends with y, and y is preceded by a consonant we change it into i.
Play – played – if the verbs ends with y but y is preceded by a vowel we do not change it into i and add
ed as is customary.
There is a number of irregular verbs (the most popular verbs are irregular) that need to be studied by
heart, a few examples can be found below:
Be – was / were
Begin – began
Come – came
Feel – felt
Go – went
Have – had
See – saw
Teach – taught
Tell – told
Tips for studying irregular verbs:
1. Some teachers believe it is best to learn all the three forms at a time e.g. come – came – come
rather than first two then the third one. It is probably easier for auditory reasons, some of the
verbs rhyme and it is easier to remember the trios.
2. Find verbs that have the same present and past forms e.g. cut – cut, put – put, cost – cost - cost.
3. Find verbs that get o in the past e.g. break – broke, drive- drove, wake – woke
4. Find verbs that get ew in the past e.g. blow – blew, grow – grew, know – knew
5. Find verbs that loose one vowel e.g. keep – kept, sleep – slept, meet – met
6. Find verbs that are written in the same way and have the same consonant clusters but
pronunciation changes e.g. read – read (/riːd/, /red/), deal – dealt, mean – meant .
7. Find verbs where u changes into ou e.g. find – found
8. Find verbs where i changes to u e.g. dig – dug
9. Find verbs with ought or aught endings e.g. bring – brought, teach – taught, buy bought
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Procedure
Lead-in
Key:
The aim of the screen is to match postcards to the
places.
Extension: Ask students if they send postcards
when they go on holiday? Continue with
questions: Do you send letters? How often do you
receive postcards? What do you do with the
postcards you get? Do you collect them in a
special box, put on a wall etc.? Do you send
emails? Do you send e-cards or traditional cards
for Christmas, etc.
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Main input
Audio 1:
Kate: Hello from South Africa! We’re on safari
and it’s great! Yesterday I saw an elephant, a
giraffe and a lion! We also went to Cape Town
and climbed up Table Mountain – it was such fun!
Tomorrow is our last day, but I don’t want to come
back!
Audio 2:
Emma: Hi everyone! I’m on holiday in
Switzerland, skiing! I had lessons last week
because it was my first time. They taught me how
to stop and how to turn. It’s fun! I really like all the
snow here, and it’s sunny every day so I don’t feel
cold!
Audio 3:
William: Hello from Croatia! I’m on a sailing
holiday with my parents. We began in the north,
and we’re sailing south, stopping at all the
islands. It’s brilliant! This morning we arrived in
Zadar, so now I’m going to have a look at the city.
Key:
1 saw 2 went 3 climbed 4 had 5 was 6 taught
7 began 8 arrived
The animation shows three different postcards,
students watch and select the verbs that they
think were used.
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Practice 1
Audio 1:
Kate: Hello from South Africa! We’re on safari
and it’s great! Yesterday I saw an elephant, a
giraffe and a lion! We also went to Cape Town
and climbed up Table Mountain – it was such fun!
Tomorrow is our last day, but I don’t want to come
back!
Audio 2:
Emma: Hi everyone! I’m on holiday in
Switzerland, skiing! I had lessons last week
because it was my first time. They taught me how
to stop and how to turn. It’s fun! I really like all the
snow here, and it’s sunny every day so I don’t feel
cold!
Audio 3:
William: Hello from Croatia! I’m on a sailing
holiday with my parents. We began in the north,
and we’re sailing south, stopping at all the
islands. It’s brilliant! This morning we arrived in
Zadar, so now I’m going to have a look at the city.
The aim of this screen is to practise past simple
verbs anduse them in the short texts.
Extension: Before or after doing the activity
enlarge the pictures and ask students to say all
the words they can see in the picture. Exploit all
the vocabulary and also ask questions such as
‘How do you think she/he is feeling?’
Key:
1 saw, went, climbed
2 had, was, taught
3 began, arrived
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Practice 2
Key:
Regular:
want, climb, stop, turn, like, sail, arrive, look
Irregular:
saw, went, was, come, had, taught, feel, began
The aim of the screen is to practise past simple
regular and irregular verbs.
Extension: ask students to listen and repeat the
verbs to practise pronunciation.
Distribute the Handout.
Ask students to provide past tense verbs.
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Key:
1 began 2 arrived 3 was/were 4 climbed 5 came
6 felt 7 went 8 had 9 liked 10 looked 11 sailed
12 saw 13 stopped 14 taught 15 turned 16
wanted
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Practice 3
Audio:
Harry: Hi guys, I’m on holiday in Wales but the
weather’s terrible! It’s rained since I got here, and
it’s windy, foggy and cloudy too. I can see snow
on the mountains! I went for a walk with my
umbrella yesterday but it broke! I want to go
home!
William: The weather here in Croatia is very
exciting! There was a big storm so we had to
leave the boat because it was dangerous. Then
after the storm we saw a rainbow. And now the
sky is blue and it’s sunny again!
Key:
(From left to right)
1 Harry, Harry, Harry, Harry
2 William, Harry, William, William
Students match the pictures to either Harry’s or
William’s postcard by selecting the right name.
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Practice 4
Key:
Noun: rain
Adjective: windy, cloudy, snowy, foggy
Students read and choose nouns or adjectives.
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Practice 5
Key:
went, was, snow, sky, saw, were, fog, was, was,
sky, wind, rain, sunny
Students complete the text with the missing
words. All of them are either past simple verbs or
weather words.
Extension: Ask students to prepare a short note
about a place and its weather. It could be here
and now.
Also, if possible, ask students to go online and
find a few photos of people in different parts of the
world (with different weather conditions) so that
they can practise a variety of vocabulary.
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
English to take away
Audio:
Kate: Hello from South Africa! We’re on safari
and it’s great! Yesterday I saw an elephant, a
giraffe and a lion! We also went to Cape Town
and climbed up Table Mountain – it was such fun!
Tomorrow is our last day, but I don’t want to come
back!
Key:
N/A
Now it is your turn, This is a ‘free practice’ stage.
The aim is personalisation.
Extension: Students can either film their video
postcards on their phones or on other mobile
devices, or present them in small groups. Who’s
had the best holiday?
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide
Handout
1
begin
_______________________
2
arrive
_______________________
3
be
_______________________
4
climb
_______________________
5
come
_______________________
6
feel
_______________________
7
go
_______________________
8
have
_______________________
9
like
_______________________
10 look
_______________________
11 sail
_______________________
12 see
_______________________
13 stop
_______________________
14 teach
_______________________
15 turn
_______________________
16 want
_______________________
© Young Digital Planet 2014 – Core Curriculum for English – Teacher’s Guide