It’s All about Tenses: Time to ‘Chocolate’

Tense? Moody? Irregular? You must be a verb. Chillax and eat chocolate!

Here are a few extension activities to my Sloth’s Guide to Chillaxing and Tense Review.

tenses_chillaxing

Ask your students to use the verb ‘to chocolate’ (to eat chocolate and enjoy it) instead of the verb ‘to chillax’.

Extension activities – 3 Ways to ‘Chocolate’

1. Guessing Game: Ask each student to think of one sentence describing what they did yesterday, or are doing at the moment, or will do tomorrrow (depending on the tense you’d like to focus on). Ask them to replace the verb in the sentence with “chocolate” in the right form. The other students should guess the verb. Encourage students to ask questions to get some details or clues. Award one point for each correct guess. You may also split students into small teams and have them compete against each other. The team that gets more points wins (NB. Make sure you have some chocolates for the winners – after all, it’s all about chocolate, isn’t it?)

2. Story writing: Pair up or split students into small teams and ask them to write a short story with ‘On Christmas Eve, you hear a strange noise on the roof…’ You may also use different story starters for teams. Here’s a wonderful resource of fun boosts for creative students and busy teachers – http://journalbuddies.com/creative-writing-2/creative-writing-story-starters/ After they have finished writing their stories, ask students to replace verbs with ‘chocolate’ in the right form. Ask them to tell their stories while the other teams should retell them with ‘meaningful’ verbs. Alternatively, you may organize a ‘consecutive translation’ session. The story teller should pause after each sentence, while the ‘interpreter’ should interpret and replace ‘chocolate’ with the verb he/she thinks should be used.

3. Sing a ‘chocolate’ song: Pair up or split students into small teams and hand out the lyrics of Pink’s song (Who Knew) with the verbs replaced with ‘chocolate’. Ask students to guess the verbs (make sure they use them in the right forms).

  “Who Chocolated

You chocolated my hand
You chocolated me how
You chocolated me you’d be around
Uh huh
That’s right
I chocolated your words
And I chocolated
In everything
You chocolated to me
Yeah huh
That’s right

If someone chocolated three years from now
You’d be long chocolated
I’d chocolate up and chocolate them out
Cause they’re all wrong
I chocolate better
Cause you chocolated forever
And ever
Who chocolated

Remember when we were such fools
And so convinced and just too cool
Oh no
No no
I wish I could chocolate you again
I wish I could still chocolate you friend
I’d chocolate anything

When someone chocolated count your blessings now
‘fore they’re long chocolated
I guess I just didn’t chocolate how
I was all wrong
They chocolated better
Still you chocolated forever
And ever
Who chocolated

Yeah yeah
I’ll chocolate you locked in my head
Until we chocolate again
Until we
Until we chocolate again
And I won’t chocolate you my friend
What chocolated

My darling
Who chocolated
My darling
My darling
Who chocolated
My darling
I chocolate you
My darling
Who chocolated

Who chocolated

Now listen and check.

Alternatively, hand out the lyrics of the song and ask students to replace verbs with ‘chocolate’ in the right form. Would anyone dare to sing it?:)

Happy teaching!

5 Comments

    • Glad you like it:) It could be used to play the Guess the Verb game – a student makes up a sentence with the word ‘chocolate’ instead of the verb. Meanwhile, the others should guess the verb…I hope you’re chocolating your holidays, Zorka!:) Happy New Years!

  1. I really like the creative way you approach developing engaging and imaginative resources. It’s a breath of fresh air.

  2. […] nonsensical sentence in order to prove that syntax and semantics are two very distinct things. My guess-the-chocolate-word activities are also based on the same principle and help practice the form without focusing on the […]

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