Lesson Plans: Present Tenses

Present Simple of be guessing games, including spelling practice.

Present Simple and Present Continuous to describe the present activities of businesses, including typical time expressions with different present tenses

Students get points for positive answers from personal Present Simple questions with days of the week like "Does your family cook on Sundays?", with more challenging variations for later and better classes.

Small talk questions with have got for possession and have for actions coin game, with some bad questions to avoid

Students play a fun Present Continuous questions coin game, answering suitable Present Progressive questions for small talk and rejecting strange questions, including useful phrases for politely declining to answer.

Eight fun third person singular of have card games, useful for talking about possessions and third person -s, including questions and short answers.

Six fun card games for practising likes, also useful for third person S practice, including third person yes/ no questions and short answers,

Student A and Student B worksheets with different how often questions for pairwork guessing games, for practice and presentation of both simple and more complex frequency expressions.

Simple and fun practice of Present Simple of be with jobs, family vocabulary, nationality adjectives, etc, starting with guessing the drawings and then presenting the grammar through error correction of the sentences that they just drew and guessed.

A fun game for there is/ are practice in which students test the general knowledge of their classmates, starting with a quick reactions folding paper game

A fun Present Simple of be and possessive adjectives pick and draw game, with vocabulary of clothes, body parts, toys and transport, and optional colours and other adjectives cards.

Students discuss how often to do things outside class to improve their English skills, for frequency expressions practice and learner training, with other suggested advice topics as an optional extension.

Students act out and guess actions related to health and medicine, with medical English vocabulary synonyms presentation and practice.

Fun Present Progressive and prepositions of location practice by rolling a dice and drawing what comes up in the table, including funny combinations like "I'm walking under a red house".

Miming free-time activities TPR game for kids

Three fun practice games for names of places and Present Progressive, with a guessing game and two drawing games.

Funny and sensible prepositions of position and Present Continuous matching activities.

Easy and fun practice of Present Simple and Continuous through actions to represent jobs, including useful jobs vocabulary and actions at work vocabulary.

Present Continuous for actions in progressive and for future arrangements review, starting with a fun quick reactions game. and including contrasts with other present and future tenses.

Clothes vocabulary and Present Continuous practice through constructing sentences and drawing them, including funny combinations like "The snowman is wearing an orange swimsuit", and optional blank cards.

Present Continuous in normal everyday chat review for practice of realistic situations like talking to classmates and meeting foreign visitors, including contrasting present and future meanings, and Present Simple and Continuous.

Present Simple with adverbs of frequency guessing game

Using present tenses questions, statements and related time expressions to describe what you do and what your company does to new contacts review, plus an optional bluffing game.

Suggested vocabulary/ topics with which to discuss and write present tense opinions - good for intermediate students who still need Present Simple and Progressive practice.

Present Continuous and Present Simple situations to discuss in meetings, to remember, to analyse for key words such as time expressions, including useful vocabulary for describing changes with the language of trends.

A fun creative Present Simple speaking activity based on Consequences in which students take turns continuing a story of a typical day by completing the suggested sentences then folding the page, then compare how sensible or silly their stories are.

Students try to find out what good or bad aspects their partner has on their roleplay card, all written with Present Simple for routines/ habits and general facts.

Students ask Present Simple questions to find out which of three jobs or countries most match their partner, possible with yes/ no and/ or wh- questions.

Completing Present Simple sentences about different cultures with man, woman, men or women

Students find out about each other and their language study needs with Present Simple questions, good for a first lesson and GTKY.

Students use Present Simple to try to find similarities between the routines of the people described on their worksheets, with optional Present Simple suggested questions and clues to help.

Students complete typical Present Simple sentences with a mix of true and made-up information, then try to guess which of their partner's sentences are true, including typical key words with Present Simple.

Students classify, ask, answer and write Present Simple questions which are and aren't suitable for everyday conversation, then discuss what topics are generally good and bad.

A fun Present Simple personal questions coin game based on truth or dare in which students might have to answer their own questions, with useful language for talking about routines and Present Simple question stems.

Guessing which of six people your partner chose by asking easy Present Simple questions about their family, appearance, habits, etc.

Speaking game in which students move around a board without a dice by making as many true Present Simple statements about their partner as they can about the word/ topic of the square they are on.

Present Simple with final -s speaking games, first guessing the person and then brainstorming descriptions, with useful vocabulary for describing people with Present Simple.

Present Simple questions for small talk in business situations.

Good and bad present tense questions to use and avoid

On and at with days and times Present Simple pairwork game

Discussing how often with weather vocabulary