Christmas- Present Simple & Continuous Mimes

Xmas mimes Present Simple and Continuous practice

Xmas Present Continuous mimes

Choose one of the actions below and mime it for your partner until they guess exactly what you are doing with “You are…” (looking at the list if they need to).

• carving a turkey
• cleaning the house
• cracking nuts
• cutting a cake
• decorating a Xmas tree
• dressing up as Santa
• drinking champagne
• eating chocolates
• eating fish
• kissing people
• lighting a firework
• opening a present
• playing a musical instrument
• pouring gravy on your dinner
• praying
• putting a paper hat on your head
• putting presents into a shoe
• putting presents into a stocking
• putting the dinner in the oven
• ripping the wrapping paper off a present/ You are tearing open a gift
• shopping
• singing
• visiting people’s houses
• watching TV
• working
• writing Xmas cards

Choose one of the things above and give your partner clues about which one you are thinking about by telling them how often you and other people do this thing, e.g. “I never do this”, “My father very rarely does this”, “In American films, the father always does this late at night on Xmas Eve” for “dressing up as Santa”

Play the same guessing game, but with other things that people typically do at Xmas.

Why do we use the Present Continuous (“You are kissing people”= be + ing) for the mimes, but the Present Simple (“He dresses up as Santa” = single verb, with ‘-s’ after he/ she/ it) when you say how often you do things?

Which tense is used with habits and repeated actions? Which tense is used with temporary actions around now?