Explore past, present and future tense verbs in the classroom with this Google Slides interactive activity.
Explore Past, Present and Future with Verb Tenses
This is the perfect resource to enhance your reading and writing instruction in the classroom or digital learning environment. This activity has students reading, identifying and writing using the correct past, present and future tense verbs. With a fun fishbowl-themed interface, students can drag and drop, sort and click their way to mastery of verb usage.
To play, students will open the Google Slides activity in ‘Edit’ mode, not Presentation mode. Each slide has students interacting with moveable and clickable pieces to identify the correct verbs’ past, present and future forms.
Through this activity, students will show their ability to identify and use past, present and future tense verbs.

Differentiate + Scaffold This Verbs Activity
A dedicated, experienced educator team created this resource to support your grammar and writing lessons.
In addition to individual student work time, use this activity to enhance learning through guided writing groups, whole class lessons or remote learning assignments.
If you have a mixture of above and below-level learners, we have a few suggestions for keeping students on track with these concepts:
- Support Struggling Students – Complete the activities with a small group of targeted students, encouraging them to interact with the lesson and talk about their learning.
- Challenge Fast Finishers – Have students extend their learning by identifying past, present and future verbs around the classroom and listing them on paper.
- Group Learning – Project the slides onto a screen and work through them as a class by having students record their answers in their notebooks or mini whiteboards.
Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students
Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to access the Google Slides version of this resource.
Please be sure to open in Edit mode, not Presentation mode.
This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher and Teach Starter collaborator.
More Verb Tense Resources for Year 3
Click below to explore more teacher-created, curriculum-aligned resources for exploring verb tense with your Year 3 students.

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Past Tense, Present Tense and Future Tense Posters
Help your students understand verb tense with this set of past, present and future tense poster examples.

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Present and Past Tense Irregular Verbs Matchup Cards
A set of 30 match-up cards to help students learn about simple present tense and simple past tense of irregular verbs.

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Verb Tenses Sorting Activity
Explore verb tenses through an engaging, hands‑on sorting activity that helps students confidently identify past, present and future tense sentences.












I cannot open this as an interactive tool. I even tried in google slides - It is not linked and doesn't work.
Hi Adelle, We're sorry you're having trouble using our resource. This particular interactive is designed to be run in Edit mode, meaning you will not use the "Slideshow" or "Present" modes in Slides/Powerpoint. We recommend opening the file in Slides, then hide the filmstrip using the arrow in the bottom left corner of Google Slides. Once that is hidden, your presentation area will be larger, and you can move through the slides, dragging and dropping the pieces as needed. There are also several Google Add-ons that you could check out that would allow your slides to be nearly full screen while remaining in edit mode as well. We've used the Google add-on called Fullscreen Google Slides Interactive, which works well.