Grade 2 Fall — Paragraph Structure, Personal Narrative, and Open-Class Parts of Speech
Lesson 16 50 min eng.g2.f.lesson_16.irregular_past_tense_verbs_drill

Irregular Past-Tense Verbs — Twenty You Must Know

Skills targeted
Objectives
  • Students recite the 20-verb irregular-past-tense core set from present to past.
  • Students rewrite a paragraph from present to past correctly using irregular forms.
Vocabulary
irregular verbpast tensepresent tensecore 20

Lesson plan

Warm-up

5 min

Verb flash drill: teacher shows present-tense verb card; class chorally says past tense. Misses get repeated 3x.

Teacher moves
  • Run the full 20 in 4 minutes — twice
  • Note which 3-4 are weakest; flag for week's spiral
Media
M-2-F-GR-16-B Interactive Physical / non-image

Digital flip-card deck of 20 cards. Front of each card: present-tense verb in 72pt. Tap to flip: past-tense form revealed in 72pt with a green checkmark. Teacher can shuffle, time, or call out individual cards. Audio playback of each pair via headphone-icon button. Accessibility: large-print mode, dyslexic-friendly font, ASR self-quiz mode.

Direct instruction

12 min

English has REGULAR past-tense verbs — just add -ed: walk → walked, jump → jumped, play → played. Easy. But English ALSO has IRREGULAR past-tense verbs — twenty of them you must memorize because they DON'T follow the -ed rule. Look at the chart. Be → was/were. Go → went. Come → came. See → saw. Eat → ate. Run → ran. Get → got. Make → made. Take → took. Give → gave. Know → knew. Think → thought. Bring → brought. Say → said. Have → had. Swim → swam. Fly → flew. Draw → drew. Sleep → slept. Wake → woke. Hide → hid. Find → found. Memorize. Then USE.

Key examples
  • GO is irregular. Past = went, not goed.
    model Yesterday I WENT to the park.
    prompt Fix the verb: 'Yesterday I goed to the park.'
  • SLEEP is irregular. Past = slept.
    model Last night I SLEPT well.
    prompt Fix the verb: 'Last night I sleeped well.'
Checks for understanding
  • Past of THINK? (Thought.)
  • Past of EAT? (Ate.)
Media
M-2-F-GR-16-A Chart
Reproduction of MG-4 at 11x17: two-column chart PRESENT | PAST with 20 paired entries. Each pair has small icon: be/was-

Reproduction of MG-4 at 11x17: two-column chart PRESENT | PAST with 20 paired entries. Each pair has small icon: be/was-were (sun icon), have/had, say/said (speech bubble), go/went (walking figure), come/came, see/saw (eye), make/made, take/took, give/gave, know/knew, think/thought, bring/brought, run/ran (running figure), eat/ate (apple), swim/swam, fly/flew (bird), draw/drew, sleep/slept (z), wake/woke (sun), hide/hid, find/found. Color-coded background bands. Print-ready, dyslexic-friendly font.

MG-4 Chart Physical / non-image

Irregular past-tense verbs anchor chart: present | past columns for 20 most-common irregulars (am-is-are/was-were, have/had, say/said, go/went, come/came, see/saw, make/made, take/took, give/gave, know/knew, think/thought, bring/brought, run/ran, eat/ate, swim/swam, fly/flew, draw/drew, sleep/slept, wake/woke, hide/hid, find/found). Print-ready 11x17.

Guided practice

15 min
Tasks
  • Tense-fix drill: rewrite a 6-sentence present-tense paragraph in past tense, using irregular forms throughout.
    scaffold MG-4 anchor visible; flip cards on desk
  • Re-read your own paragraph 1 draft. Find any over-regularized verb ('goed', 'eated', 'runned'). Fix with a green pencil.

Formative assessment

4 min
Exit ticket
  • Write the past tense of these 8 verbs: go, see, eat, run, think, bring, sleep, find.
scoring 8/8 = mastery; 6-7 = practicing; ≤5 = reteach with flash cards in lesson 17 small group.

Closure

2 min
Moves
  • Pair recite all 20 to your partner — fast.
  • Tomorrow: revision day with multi-move revising routine.

Homework

10 min
Tasks
  • Practice the 20 with a family member. Recite present → past, fast. Bring a tally of how many you got first-try.

Exercises in this lesson

eng.g2.f.ex_30
Rewrite each verb in past tense. (1) I go to the store. (2) She sees the bird. (3) We eat lunch. (4) Dad runs fast. (5) I think hard.
 tense fix · diff 2
eng.g2.f.ex_31
Rewrite this paragraph in past tense: 'Today I go to the park. I see my friend. We eat lunch on a bench. I think it is the best day. Mom...
 rewrite paragraph past · diff 4

Differentiation

Scaffolds
  • Flip-card set per child
  • MG-4 anchor at desk
  • Pre-translated paragraph already partly in past for kids who need scaffolding
Extensions
  • Memorize 5 EXTRA irregular verbs not on the core 20 (drank, held, lost, taught, wrote).
  • Write a 5-sentence story using 5 different irregular past-tense verbs.
English Learners
  • Bilingual verb chart (present + past + L1 translation)
  • Audio recording of all 20 paired verbs
Ieps 504s
  • Core 10 (subset of 20) acceptable
  • Oral recitation acceptable for exit ticket

Teacher notes

Irregular past-tense verbs are pure rote — there is no rule. Daily 4-minute flash drill is the highest-leverage spiral move all term. Children who own these 20 see their narrative writing transformed. Watch over-regularization in drafts — most children will slip on RUN/RAN and THINK/THOUGHT first.