Continuously present

Introduction:

This is a board game for A2+ students to review present simple and present continuous. Students complete the board game with their own examples and then answer questions in pairs or small groups of three.

Level: A2+

Time: 45 minutes

Objectives:

To review present simple and present continuous.
To write examples on the board using the target language.
To answer questions containing the target language whilst playing a board game.

Materials (Click on the worksheet below to download the PDF file):

Continuously present board game and one die per group of 3.

Procedure:

Put the students in groups of 2 or 3, and give them a copy of Continuously present board game. If you are using Zoom, display the board on the screen and do the exercise with the students. You could also send the board to the students before the class and ask them to prepare their examples at home.
Students first underline the verbs in all the questions on the board. Again if you are working on Zoom you could ask students to just say the verbs out loud and underline them yourself for everyone to see.
Give students some examples of present simple and present continuous time expressions to include in their questions. Present simple: every day, always, usually, often, sometimes, once a week, twice a day, in the summer, at noon, frequently etc. Present continuous: now, right now, at present, at the moment, today, this week, this month, currently, nowadays, still etc.
Next, students use the verbs to write a new question in the empty square provided below, changing all questions in the present simple tense into questions in the present continuous tense and all the questions in the present continuous tense into questions in the present simple tense, g. Change the question in Square 1:1Do you read every day? into Are you reading anything interesting at the moment? and write it in square 2:1. Change the question in Square 4:1 Where are you going now? into How often do you go to the cinema? for Square 4:2. The only requirement is for students to use the same verb in their new question.
Check together as a class.
Hand each group a die. You could be in charge of the die if you are using Zoom.
Players take it in turns to throw the die twice – the first throw indicates which column they should use, and the second throw indicates which row, to obtain the question.
When a player lands on a square each player must answer the question from that square in as much detail as possible. Encourage students to ask each other additional questions to obtain more information.
The game continues in the circle going left.
At the end, ask students to choose four questions (2 present simple and 2 present continuous questions) that they didn’t answer during the game and answer them in writing.