Slap Jack

Remember the good ole days of playing slap jack with your best friend? This led to a game to distinguish the present and past tenses, something they have been struggling with in class.

1) Students receive a pack of cards that have different forms of present and past-tense verbs. One student flips the top card.
2) If it reveals a past tense form, they slap it.
3) Before earning the card, the recipient would have to translate it using the correct form and tense of the word shown. If the partner agrees with the translation, he takes all cards.

For example, here are the cards revealed:
1) estaba slapped, translated, and won
2) es nothing done
3) van nothing done
4) fui  slapped, translated, and won last 3 cards (es, va, fui)

The student with the most cards at the end, wins!

This activity could be expanded to a writing activity or even a speaking activity.

Writing: Students choose 5 of the verbs that they "won" and create an original story using them, similar to a quickwrite or a proficiency write.

Speaking: Using their cards, create a progressive story. One student begins by using their card to create the first sentence. The partner creates the second sentence. The story continues as they use their cards. Once out of cards, the student creates their own sentences to continue the story until both partners finish using their cards.