Let's Pantomime - to review Past Simple and Past Progressive

Let's Pantomime - to review Past Simple and Past Progressive

Activating pupils is better than doing 'fill-in-the-blanks-with-the-correct-tense-of-the-verb-in-brackets exercises, wouldn't you agree ?  Pantomime can do that !

Make cards - or better yet- have the pupils make cards (two cards each,one of each kind) :              
Cards with verbs in V1 of short actions ( for example: wake up, open the window, sneeze , etc..)
 and cards with verbs in V1 with long actions ( for example: read the newspaper, snore loudly, swim, etc..).
The actions should be actions which will be easy for the pupils to act out in pantomime.

 Put all the short action cards face-down on one side of the desk and all the long action cards face-down on the other side of the desk. Invite two volunteers at a time: one picks a short action card, the other picks a long action card. (Another option is to put all the cards on the desk face-down WITHOUT separating them.)  The two pupils mime the actions and the rest of the pupils have to describe what they saw :
For example: Dan was swimming when Ruth (suddenly) sneezed.
or- Ben opened the window while Shira was snoring loudly.

Make sure to include some silly actions... to make grammar-practice more lively !