Teacher notes for this lesson. Two sides of A4, not for pupils.Mild sheetMedium sheetSpicy sheetAnswers
Teacher notes · not for pupils Grammar sequence

Now or Then?

Simple present and simple past

Lesson 6 of 14
Year 2 45 min

Objective

Choose the correct tense for the time described, form regular pasts with -ed, and use the common irregular pasts went, saw, made and ate, consistently across a sentence.

Board title: Present and past tense  ·  Say it: “Today we're choosing the present for things happening now, the past for things already over, and using went, saw, made and ate instead of -ed.”

Curriculum

  • Y2: correct and consistent use of present tense and past tense
  • Y1: -ed endings (revisited)
  • Terminology: verb, tense (past, present)
  • STA domain: G4.1c

Success criteria

  • say whether a sentence is about now or then
  • add -ed to make the past of most verbs
  • use went, saw, made and ate instead of -ed
  • keep every verb in a sentence in the same tense

Key vocabulary

verb · tense · present · past · -ed ending · changing verb

Run of the lesson

5 min
Starter: cook → cooked but go → went on the board. Ask why you can say cooked but never goed. Some will argue goed follows the rule, agree that it is perfectly logical, then say 'hold that thought' and move on.
10 min
Model with the café: Every day I cook lunch against Yesterday I cooked lunch. Underline the time word first, every time, it decides the tense before you reach the verb. Say cooked, baked, tasted aloud, three different sounds, one spelling, that surprises them. Then name and chant today's four changing verbs: go-went, see-saw, make-made, eat-ate. Spicy Task 1 also uses run-ran, ring-rang and stand-stood: they are on the trap slide, name them before the worksheet.
9 min
What's Cooking? on the whiteboard, Mild band. The timer cue, Now, Yesterday, Tomorrow, is the whole lesson in miniature, point at it before the first round. Class votes before you tap and says the whole sentence back in the right tense.
5 min
The four vote pairs: a child says WHY before each reveal, and the time word is the evidence (answers: a-right, b-left, c-left, d-right). When maked and goed come up, praise the logic before correcting the verb.
13 min
Worksheet, independent, after two quick board examples heading off the -ed spellings, stir doubles its r, bake just adds d. Circulate on Task 3 listening for tense drift: have each child read their sentence aloud and tap every verb, the ear catches the went and buy slide that the eye misses. Short time openers (Yesterday, Every day, Last night) are written without a comma in this lesson, on purpose: do not mark a missing comma after them.
3 min
Plenary: Polpetta's diary, Yesterday I goed to the beach and eated three gelati. The class spots both mistakes, says what he should have written, and explains why -ed was never going to work on go and eat.
On screenSPAGhetti → What's Cooking? → Mild. One screen only; no pupil devices needed. The timer cue tells them when; ~8 items in 10 minutes with discussion.
SPAGhetti · Grammar sequence · Lesson 6 of 14  ·  Teacher notes 1 of 2
Teacher notes · not for pupils Now or Then? · side 2

On the day

If the tech failsSkip the game entirely. Task 1 is the same content on paper, read the four pairs aloud and vote with thumbs. The lesson still works.
If they're on devicesLesson code TNSEB (on the worksheet footer) opens the right game, locks the café until 10 items are done, then unlocks it as the reward.

Misconceptions to watch for

Over-regularising: goed, eated, maked. The -ed rule applied everywhere, a sign of learning, not failure. Praise the logic, then chant the changing verbs: go-went, see-saw, make-made, eat-ate.

The time word ignored. Yesterday I cook lunch. They choose the verb before reading the sentence. Circle the time word first, every time; it decides the tense before the verb is reached.

Tense drift mid-sentence. I went to the shop and buy some milk. The first verb is right; the second slides home to the present. Read aloud and tap each verb, the ear catches what the eye misses.

Spelling the -ed: stired, bakeed. Stir doubles its r before -ed; bake already ends in e and just adds d. Two quick board examples head this off before Task 3.

The three sheets

Same four tasks on every sheet, in the same order, with the same look. Only the demand changes. Print the one each child needs; nobody does two.

Mild

Same four tasks as every other sheet, same order, same look, the demand is lower, not the dignity. Shorter passage in Task 2, and in Task 3 a word bank or words to tick, with printed sentence starters. Give it to anyone who needs a way in, and expect them to move up.

Medium

The core sheet. Give this to most of the class. No word bank; in Task 3 pupils choose from a few close options, then use one in a sentence of their own.

Spicy

Same four tasks, more demand, a longer passage with a subtler error, and Task 3 asks for two things at once. Not extra work; harder work. Nobody should be doing Spicy and the Medium sheet.

Adaptive teaching

  • Support: Tasks 1 and 2, then Task 3 orally with a scribe. Keep to the regular -ed verbs first.
  • SEN: gentle mode on; read Task 2 aloud before they edit.
  • Stretch: Task 3 extension, one sentence with a regular and a changing verb, both in the past.
  • EAL: past endings may not exist in the first language. Pre-teach yesterday and every day as signal words; chant go-went, eat-ate.

Play it

Lesson code TNSEB at playspaghetti.com. The code is printed on the bottom of every pupil sheet with a QR, and Class Quiz in your dashboard opens the plenary quiz for this lesson pre-picked.

SPAGhetti · Grammar sequence · Lesson 6 of 14  ·  Teacher notes, not for pupils 2 of 2  ·  Ludora