Give children handouts with irregular verb lists.
Verbs are words that show action and consist of three main parts: the present, past and past participle. Verbs can be categorized into regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs end with "ed" when written in past tense and past participle tense. Irregular verbs, however, do not follow this pattern. Irregular verbs in past and past participle tenses contain alternative patterns and are therefore hard for many people to learn. With practice, memorization, reading and activities, anyone can learn irregular verb tenses.
Explanation
When children learn about verbs and verb tenses, it is important that they develop a good understanding of how regular verbs work. To accomplish this, teachers can explain verb tenses and give students worksheets for practice. The worksheets contain regular verbs, such as "walk." The children must fill in the past tense for walk, which is "walked." After children become familiar with how regular verbs work, they can begin to learn about irregular verbs.
Worksheets
One way to learn about irregular verbs is to see them and practice them through using worksheets. Teachers should begin teaching irregular verbs using verbs the children are extremely familiar with, such as the verbs "be," "have," "run" and "go." Use sentence examples to help the kids understand the different forms of these irregular verbs. For example, have the children change the sentence "I go to school" to past tense and past participle tense. The sentence would become "I went to school" and "I have gone to school." So the verb "go" is irregular because the past and past participle forms of this word are "went" and "gone." Use worksheets to let kids learn about different irregular verb forms.
Memorization
There is no pattern to how irregular verbs work, so many teacher choose to have students memorize them. Print a list of irregular verbs, and have students practice using them. You might have students form pairs to practice the verbs together. With young children, gently correct incorrect uses of irregular verb tenses by pointing out the correct words.
Callout Game
Organize a game for learning irregular verbs. For example, place kids in a line or go in order of desks. One child begins by calling out a present tense verb. The next child in line says the past tense and the third child says the past participle tense. For example, one child says "eat." The second child says "ate," and the third child says "eaten." Go around the classroom as many times as your time allows to let the kids learn through a fun game.
Online Games
Online games and activities can help children learn individually or in small groups. Learning about irregular verbs is no different. One website that offers games and exercises to help children learn about irregular verbs is "Chomp Chomp." The ESL Exercises website is another.
