Simple Past: Stories About Yesterday | Regular & Irregular Verbs, Questions & Negatives | Grammar Unit | Grades 5–6

Simple Past: Stories About Yesterday is a complete grammar unit on the simple past tense for grades 5–6, covering time markers, regular and irregular verbs, questions, negatives, and a short past-time story: a 27-page student book and a 14-page teacher guide.

Students write true or invented sentences about yesterday and use time markers such as "Yesterday I visited my friend." They form regular past tenses (play, played; stop, stopped) and learn common irregular verbs in sentences (go, went; see, saw; have, had). They turn affirmative sentences into questions and negatives with did and the base form, and avoid errors like "Did you went?" At the end they write six sentences about an invented day, using first, then, and finally to order events.

What's Included

• 27-page student book with a how-to-use page, five learning paths, a project, a learning check, a glossary, and a reflection page
• Each path in four steps: Understand (explanation and worked example), Observe (an illustration to examine), Practice (Task A), Transfer (Task B)
• Five Task A practice tasks with help cards and five Task B transfer tasks that ask students to explain a new situation with reasons
• My project (2 pages): students explain one path to another student with a heading, two examples, and a question of their own
• Learning check with one explain-and-give-an-example prompt per path, plus a "Words and ideas" glossary for students' own explanations
• My reflection page with a five-point self-assessment and a next-step question
• 14-page teacher guide: overview, learning progression, five answer-guidance pages with sample answers for Task A, five method pages (5-, 20-, and 10-minute lesson phases), project and learning-check criteria, sources
• Print-ready PDF (A4; prints on US Letter with fit-to-page)

Learning Paths

1. Yesterday and Time Markers — Finished past events with clear time words
2. Regular Verbs — -ed endings and spelling changes
3. Irregular Verbs — went, saw, had in meaningful sentences
4. Questions and Negatives — Did and did not plus the base verb
5. A Short Past-Time Story — Ordered events with consistent past forms

Students Will Learn To

• use the simple past with time markers to describe finished events
• form regular and common irregular past verbs correctly
• ask and answer simple past questions with did and write negatives with did not

Perfect For

• Grades 5–6 ELA grammar and ESL/ELL classes working on past tense
• Teachers who already use a grade-level grammar pack and want a full unit on one tense
• UK and Australian classrooms: KS2 English (Years 5–6) verb tense work, and EAL support
• Small groups, newcomer or intervention groups, centers, and sub plans
• Homeschool families who want a printable past-tense unit with sample answers

Why Teachers Choose This Unit

• A complete sequence in one book: explanation, worked example, observation, practice, transfer, project, check, and reflection
• Written sample answers and feedback guidance for every path, including how to handle the open transfer task
• Two task levels in each path (A practice, B transfer), with support (sentence starters, word cards, shared image description) and extension (borderline case, counterexample, compare two solutions)
• Illustrations are discussion prompts for storytelling; the rules and verb forms are in the text, not in the pictures
• About 5–8 lessons, and each path can be taught as a separate module

Also part of the Grammar & Language Bundle: four complete units for $49.90.

Created with AI assistance: ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Claude (Anthropic). Illustrations were generated with OpenAI ImageGen as discussion prompts; they are not photographs or scale diagrams. Edited for classroom use before publication.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which grade does this fit?

It is written for grades 5–6 and sits closest to the Common Core language standards on verb tense, and to the English language development strand for English learners. No official endorsement is claimed.

How long does it take?

Plan about 5–8 lessons. Each path has a 5-minute opening, a 20-minute explore phase, and a 10-minute consolidation, and paths can be used separately.

Is it suitable for English learners?

Yes. The teacher guide suggests sentence starters, word cards, and a shared image description as support, and the unit uses short, concrete sentences. It covers one tense only, with a limited set of irregular verbs (go, see, have and similar), so it is a focused unit rather than a full verb list.

How is it delivered?

As an instant digital download after checkout. Nothing is shipped.