Do you know that we may describe any action we perform? For example, run, swim, jump, hop, read, etc. The word that we use to give a name to the action is a verb. This part of a speech helps us tell about actions or describe the state of something: it is cold.

Look around the world around you. Every moment something new is happening, and we may use different verbs to describe it. There are several ways to practice finding verbs.

1. The first way - show your kids some cards with illustrated actions and ask them what they can see.

For example, here is a boy riding a bike.
 

Possible questions:

Who do you see in this picture? The answer is a boy. What is he doing? He is riding a bike. Where is a verb in this sentence? In the following phrase: riding a bike. Therefore, ‘ride’ is a verb. You may practice doing such exercises using different cards.

2. Another option to offer kids practice finding verbs is to sort out words.

Some apples will be as nouns and others as verbs. We may sort out apples between the suitable trees. Thus, we will have one tree called ‘nouns’ and another tree ‘verbs’. Ask your kids to stick all the apples on these trees.
 

You may also use boxes or jars. You may put all the cards in the bag and ask a child to pull out one card. Imagine he has found a card with an apple. Ask what it is and if there is an action shown in the picture. If there is no action, put the card in the box with nouns. Now the kid is pulling out another illustration with a running boy. Ask the same questions you asked before and when having discussed there is an action in this picture, put this card in the box with verbs.

Another way to remember verbs is using total physical response. Performing and naming actions at the same time help kids learn the words by heart. You may sing a song while doing something. For example, walking, walking, hop, hop, hop, running, running, running, now let's stop. You may ask kids to create their song, but they need to remember that it should be about actions. After singing and playing, tell them that all the words they pronounced were verbs.

Now your kids know how to recognize verbs. But there is a difference between verbs used in present and past tenses. There are two ways to form the past tense of verbs. The first one we use for regular verbs. A regular verb forms its past tense by adding -ed to its base form. For example, here is a verb jump. If we add -ed we get its past from that is ‘jumped’. Other examples are walk-walked, watch-watched, open-opened. If the last letter of present form ends with ‘y’ and there is a consonant before it, we need to add -ed and change ‘y’ into ‘e’: cry - cried, try - tried, carry -carried, etc. If the last letter of present form ends with ‘e’, then we add -d: move - moved, live - lived, etc.

To practice forming irregular verbs, write them on the board, leaving space for -ed: jump, walk, try, move, open, etc.
 

Now propose kids play a game with a ball. A kid needs to say a verb and pass the ball to another person. The one who takes the ball needs to say the past form of this verb, adding -d or -ed. Let kids imagine the ball is a hot potato, so they need to throw it fast.

If there are regular verbs, are there also irregular ones? Yes, they are. Irregular verbs are a bit naughty and don't adhere to specific rules. They don't take the -d and -ed patterns, and most irregular verbs change their spelling form in past tenses. Here are some examples of them: be - was & were, go - went, do - did, buy - bought, catch - caught. There are plenty of engageable activities to remember irregular forms by having fun when practicing.

We propose a memory game. Get ready a set of cards for each student. One card will contain a regular verb in the present tense, while another will have the irregular past tense verb. For example: eat - ate, sleep - slept, go - went. Then place the cards face down and try to find the matching set.

Here are the examples of such cards:
 

Another fun game to play with your children is a memory circle game. Students need to make a circle. One child says a statement using an irregular verb. Then, the next student repeats it and adds his own words. For example, I went shopping yesterday. Ben went shopping, and I ate ice cream yesterday. Kids need to repeat all the statements around the circle. If someone cannot repeat it, the game starts from the very beginning.

Learning regular and irregular verbs will be easier and more enjoyable with these activities.

We wish you happy studying and suggest checking our other learning materials.