A past tense rewriting task for Year 2, over three pages. Page 1 shows a six-sentence diary entry in the present tense, from Today I wake up early to Then we go back to class for maths, with eight verbs underlined. Pupils rewrite the whole entry in the past tense on page 2, then add a sentence about what happened after school. The key gives the full rewritten diary. It follows England National Curriculum grammar for the present and past tenses.
Writing - vocabulary, grammar and punctuation
“The present and past tenses correctly and consistently including the progressive form”
Pupils change eight present tense verbs to the past tense and keep every sentence in the same tense, then add one more past tense sentence.
Writing - vocabulary, grammar and punctuation
“Use and understand the grammatical terminology in English Appendix 2 in discussing their writing.”
The instructions name the present tense and the past tense, and pupils change each underlined verb.
A boxed diary beside a playground picture of one pupil helping another up. The eight underlined verbs include wake, eat, falls and go.
Eight ruled lines to rewrite the entry, then three lines for a new sentence about what happened after school.
Verb hunt
Read the diary aloud and ask pupils to stand when they hear an underlined verb. Falls and go lead naturally into fell and went.
Marking by verb
Mark the rewrite verb by verb against the key. A pupil who writes woke and ate but also falled shows where to teach irregular pairs next.
Longer writing
Use the after-school sentence as the opening of a longer diary for the same day, written in the past tense.
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