First through third grade students working on regular past tense -ed and third person -s, including students whose spoken sentences drop these endings.

Yes. It plays free in the browser with no login. An account adds session data, goal scoring and assignment to a student.

Why are the same verbs in both bins?

So the ending is the only clue. If the verbs differed, a student could sort on meaning or on a picture instead of noticing walked versus walks.

Yesterday or Every Day? Verb Ending Sort

Sort twelve verbs by ending: past tense -ed words into Yesterday and present tense -s words into Every day.

Add to a session

Sorting

Yesterday

Drop here

Every day

Drop here

walked

jumped

played

painted

cooked

kicked

walks

jumps

plays

paints

cooks

kicks

0/12 sorted

Demo — these marks stay on this screen.Sign in to save this to a student →

How to run it

Before the student drags a word, have them put it in a sentence: yesterday I walked to school, or every day she walks to school. Then sort it. Model one of each first. If they sort correctly but say the sentence without the ending, the sort is not yet carrying over to speech, so spend the time on saying rather than dragging. Six minutes covers the board.

Cueing ladder

Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.

Step 1IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
Step 2HintStress the part of the sentence that changes, or point to the word ending.Log as cued
Step 3Sentence starterSay the first half of the sentence and let the student finish it.Log as cued
Step 4ModelSay the correct form in the whole sentence; the student repeats it.Log as cued

Adjust it

Easier

Give a sentence starter every time, and do fewer cards.

Harder

Ask for a new sentence of the student's own with the same form, with no card to lean on.

Matching IEP goal

Given sentence cards, Student will produce regular past tense -ed and present tense -s verbs in sentences in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than an indirect cue.

Send it home through the parent portal →

About this activity

Twelve verbs in six matched pairs, walked and walks, jumped and jumps, played and plays, painted and paints, sorted into two bins: Yesterday for the past tense -ed form and Every day for the present tense -s form. Because each verb appears in both forms, the ending is the only thing that separates them, so the board isolates exactly the grammatical marker a student is working on.

What to listen for

Listen to the endings in the spoken sentence, not only the bin chosen. The -ed in painted adds a syllable, while in walked and cooked it sounds like /t/, so a student may hear one and not the other. Notice whether the -s is dropped in every day he walks. A student who sorts every word by the first letter has not noticed the ending at all.

Carrying it home

At dinner, ask what the child did today and answer with a past tense verb yourself: I cooked, I walked the dog. Then ask what they do every day and listen for the -s when they talk about someone else: Dad cooks, the dog plays. Correct gently by repeating their sentence back with the ending in place.

What's in this activity

Yesterday
Every day

Questions

Who is this for?: First through third grade students working on regular past tense -ed and third person -s, including students whose spoken sentences drop these endings.
Is it free?: Yes. It plays free in the browser with no login. An account adds session data, goal scoring and assignment to a student.
Why are the same verbs in both bins?: So the ending is the only clue. If the verbs differed, a student could sort on meaning or on a picture instead of noticing walked versus walks.