Preterite vs. imperfect is tricky. Here are some of my favorite activities for helping students better understand the preterite tense, the imperfect tense, and the differences between when they are used!
1. READING COMPREHENSION DIGITAL MYSTERY PICTURE
Students struggling with reading comprehension and the differences between preterite and imperfect? You need this no-prep digital mystery picture! Your Spanish students will improve their reading comprehension skills as they read a passage about a group of friends that went on a ski trip and answer a variety of questions about what they read.
This activity is self-checking! If a student’s answer is correct, part of the hidden picture will be revealed. If a student’s answer is incorrect, the picture will not change. That lets the student know he/she needs to try again. The instant feedback really helps students improve their skills! Students love trying to guess what the picture is as they complete the activity.
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2. DIGITAL ESCAPE ROOM
Can your students escape from the jungle?? They will have to work together to solve the 6 puzzles in this jungle-themed digital escape room to do so! This engaging escape room was designed to not only give your students a well-rounded review of preterite vs imperfect but also encourage them to think critically as they work their way through the escape room. It’s easy for you to assign and students to navigate. All puzzles are embedded right in the Google Slides or Google Sites escape room. No messing around with a bunch of files! Simply share the links to the escape room and Google Form and students are good to go!
This no-prep activity is self-checking. Students input their answers to the puzzles in a Google Form. If a group’s answer is correct, it will unlock the next question on the Google Form. If a group’s answer is incorrect, a message will pop up telling students they need to try again and giving them a hint. That instant feedback makes your job so much easier!
3. GOOGLE SLIDES
These digital task cards for Google Slides are for anyone looking to reinforce students’ understanding of preterite vs. imperfect in a fun, interactive way. Students will be engaged and get a great review of preterite vs. imperfect as they work their way through the 50 Google Slides.
Students will be engaged in:
- completing drag and drop conjugation charts for preterite and imperfect verbs
- deciding if examples would be preterite or imperfect
- filling in the blanks of sentences with preterite and imperfect verbs
- finding the errors in sentences and correcting them
- multiple-choice questions
- answering open-ended questions using the preterite or the imperfect
Save over 40% on all my fun Google resources for Spanish class with the Spanish Google Activities Mega Bundle.
Click HERE to learn more about these Google Slides.
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4. BOOM CARDS
Self-checking AND self-grading? YES, PLEASE! If you are looking for a fun, interactive digital activity for your students to practice preterite vs. imperfect, these NO PREP preterite vs. imperfect Boom Cards are just what you need! Students will be engaged and get a great review of the preterite tense, the imperfect tense, and the differences between them as they work their way through the 50 cards in the deck.
You as a teacher need a free Boom Learning account to use Boom Cards with your students, but your students do NOT need accounts or to log in if you use the Fast Pins option. Simply share a link with them and they click on the link, enter the code, and play the cards. You can still hold students accountable and take advantage of the self-grading feature by having them take a screenshot of the last slide that says complete and their score and send it to you.
There are more features available with a paid membership like live monitoring and data. If you want data, students will need to log in so you can track them. If they have Google or Microsoft accounts, they can use those credentials to log into Boom. A paid membership is only $25 per year and I think it is worth every penny! I love the data.
See how fun they are for yourself by playing a few cards HERE!
Click HERE to learn more about these Boom Cards.
5. DIGITAL MYSTERY PICTURES
Love super fun, no prep digital activities? If so, then you will love these preterite vs. imperfect mystery pictures! Your Spanish students will get a ton of practice with preterite vs. imperfect as they answer a variety of questions in Google Sheets. Best part? Pixel art activities are self-checking! If a student’s answer is correct, part of the hidden picture of a flamenco dancer will be revealed. If a student’s answer is incorrect, the picture will not change. That lets the student know he/she needs to try again. The instant feedback really helps students improve their skills! They love these mystery pictures and so will you!
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6. TASK CARDS
Task cards are such a fun, versatile tool. This Spanish preterite vs. imperfect task card set has 48 different cards to get your students up and moving while practicing the preterite tense, the imperfect tense, and when to use each of them. Students will be engaged as they complete various tasks like conjugating verbs in both tenses, filling in the blank with the correct preterite or imperfect form of the verb in parentheses based on their understanding of the situation, writing sentences from prompts given, answering multiple-choice questions, rewriting grammatically-incorrect sentences correctly, and stating whether examples (weather, age, etc.) use preterite or imperfect.
Not sure how to use task cards in class? 15 ideas are included! You can also check out these blog posts I wrote for Secondary Spanish Space: 10 Task Card Ideas for Spanish Class and 5 (More) Ways to Use Task Cards in Spanish Class.
Click HERE to learn more about these task cards.
7. TRIVIA GAME
Looking for a super fun, NO PREP activity to review preterite vs. imperfect with your Spanish students? Play this Jeopardy-style trivia game with them! Students will be engaged as they work in teams to answer questions in the following categories: Conjugating Preterite Verbs, Conjugating Imperfect Verbs, Preterite vs. Imperfect, Translation, and Un Poco de Todo. In addition to the traditional point value questions that start at $100 and get increasingly more difficult as students work their way up to the $500 questions, there is also a fun ‘Make a Wager’ option for each category that is like Final Jeopardy. Both regular and irregular preterite and imperfect verbs are included in this game.
How I like to play:
I put students in teams of 2-3 (three is ideal) and have teams sit together facing the board. Each team needs a mini-whiteboard, dry-erase marker, eraser (a tissue works, too), score sheet, and writing utensil. Have one person on the team be the scorekeeper and a different person be the mini whiteboard writer. The scorekeeper needs to write all the group members’ names on the sheet. Once that is done, I ask the class who has the next birthday (or last birthday, is tallest, etc.) and that person gets to choose the first square. From there I go around the room calling on one person from each group until every student has had a chance to pick a square.
When playing, EVERY team answers the question by discussing quietly as a group and writing the answer on their mini whiteboard. I make sure they keep their answer hidden until it is time to share. Once I think all the teams have an answer (or it has been a reasonable amount of time), I give a ”tres, dos, uno” countdown and teams hold up their mini-whiteboards. I then reveal the answer on the screen and points are awarded to the teams who get it correct. Teams are responsible for keeping track of their own points on their score sheet. Honor system!
I play like this so all teams are engaged and getting a good review, not just the one team who picked the question.
Every five questions or so I have students pass materials one person to the left so all students get a chance to keep score and use the ever-popular mini whiteboards, thus no one can ”check out” or be lazy. I find it builds student confidence, too.
Click HERE to learn more about this trivia game.
8. GOOGLE FORMS ASSESSMENT
Self-grading? Yes, please! This digital preterite vs. imperfect assessment created in Google Forms is self-grading, editable, AND no prep! In addition to using this for a quiz or test, you can also use a Google Form for an exit ticket, formative assessment, choice board, make-up test for absent students, or about a million other things!
Click HERE to learn more about this Google Form.
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9. CONVERSATION CARDS
Give your students a ton of speaking opportunities and practice with preterite vs. imperfect with these fun conversation cards! This preterite vs. imperfect conversation card set comes with 48 different cards to get your students speaking in the target language while reviewing the preterite tense, the imperfect tense, and the differences between the two. Both regular and irregular preterite and imperfect tense verbs are included with this set. Students will be engaged as they answer questions about their lives like what they did yesterday, where they went last week, what they used to do as a child, what they liked to eat as a child, and more. Conversation cards can be used in lots of different fun ways to get students talking in Spanish class. Read three ideas in a blog post HERE.
Click HERE to learn more about these conversation cards.
10. CUCHARAS GAME
Reinforce the differences between preterite and imperfect tense verb endings in Spanish with this fun game of Cucharas, or Spoons. Students love collecting all the conjugations of a verb in the preterite or imperfect tense and racing to grab the spoons! This is a great way to get students engaged and focusing on the details of verb endings! There is an included extension activity that has students writing and speaking with the verbs after each round.
OBJECTIVE: Collect all seven cards for one verb (infinitive + all six forms in either preterite OR imperfect- for example: CORRER, CORRÍA, CORRÍAS, CORRÍA, CORRÍAMOS, CORRÍAIS y CORRÍAN) and/or not be the person left without a spoon! Read more about how to play Cucharas HERE.
Click HERE to learn more about this game.
11. SUB PLANS
These printable preterite vs imperfect activities are for anyone looking to improve their Spanish students’ reading comprehension skills and understanding of the preterite tense, the imperfect tense, and the differences between them. There are three print-and-go activities to go along with the comprehensible reading passage for you to choose from: task cards, a crossword puzzle, and worksheets. Talk about an easy sub plan!
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Save 20% on all these fun resources with the Preterite vs. Imperfect Activities Bundle! Click HERE to see it and save.
I hope these ideas for preterite vs. imperfect help! If you enjoyed this post, I would love it if you would pin it so others can enjoy it, too! Thanks and have a great day!
Looking for more ideas? Check out these similar posts: SER vs. ESTAR Activities for Spanish Class and Preterite Tense Activities for Spanish Class.
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