TENSE RELAY To the Teacher: Pick four teams. The goal of the relay is to introduce, practice, of review verb tenses, You put the following on the chalkboard, using four distinet columns: PRESENT PAST FUTURE PERFECT TENSE TENSE TENSE TENSES Today I ‘Yesterday I Tomorrow f will Thave, had, or shall will have, or shall have SEE SAW SEE SEEN Number of Players: Entire class Materials Needed: Both regular and irregular verbs can be used for the relay. The next page shows COMMON IRREGULAR VERBS with four tenses. You can reproduce it as a study list for students or use it as a quick check sheet for yourself as the game progresses. How to Play: The first student on the first team rushes to the chalkboard, puts any present tense verb under column 1, and returns to seat, The first student on the ext team hurries to chalkboard, puts correct past tense of that same verb under column 2, and is seated, ‘The first person on the third team does the same for the {future tense; the first person on the fourth team puts up the purfect terse. Then the second person on the first team has a turn, and so on with each team sending up its next member. ‘Na player can stand up or head for the board until the previous player is seated, (This avoids confusion and gives everyone a fair chance.) When errors are made, the student (or stuelents ifseveral miss sequentially) stand up for a moment. As soon as a child gets the correct answer, the player “captures” the standing student or students for his or her tcam. Thus, the less able pupils still have value to the team, because the relay team with the most players at the end of the time period is the winner. Rationale; Instead of being “out,” less able players continue to get practice and be actively engaged. In fact, errors make the relay more interesting because different teams end up doing various tenses, instead of the first team always introducing new words, the second team doing the past tense, and so forth ‘Modifications: Fourth or fifth graders may want to do just present, past, and future tenses, Sixth graders should be able to include the perfect tenses. If yot use three tens- €s, of course you will use three teams instead of four. With less able children, you might vise juust present and past tenses, Two tenses can be played with four teams, with the remaining procedures staying the same. Another modification would be to use Present Participle and Past Participle as categories. The game €an be adapted to whatever you are teaching about tenses,CoMMON IRREGULAR VERBS List (for use with TENSE RELAY) PRESENT PAST FUTURE {will or shill) am was be begin began begin blew blew blow bring, brought bring ‘build built til burst burst burst buy bough buy catch canght atch chonse chose choose do did do drink, drank drink drive lrove drive al ale eat fall fell fall feet felt feel fight Foughe fight fly flew fly forget forgot Forget forgotien fiecee froze freeze frozen give ave give given go went go gone gow grew pen grown hang hung ang hanged have had have had hear heard hear heard hit hit hit hit ‘hole held hold held keep kept keep kepe know knew know known lose lest lose lost ning rang ring. rd rise rose ise risen say said say sald see saw see seen sell sold sell wold shake shook shake shaken sing sang sing sung sit sat sit sat steal stale steal stolen stink stank stink, stunk take took bake taken wach taught teach tamghe tear tore tear ton tell told tell cold think thought ind: hough!