Embedded Files
(Click on link to see the animated version of the story.)
Mr. Orange walked through the park. (If using the Smartboard page, have Mr. Orange walk around the pond and then continue onto the next page, which shows the playground), He decided to look around the playground. He saw a mother with her small child. The child was looking around the playground and talking about everything she saw. Mr. Orange watched them.
“The girl is sitting. A boy is walking his dog. A girl is standing on the monkey bars. Two boys are spinning on the merry go round. A kid is riding his bike,” said the toddler.
Mr. Orange was amazed. He did not know how to talk about things he could see happening. He could only talk about habits. He decided to talk to the mother.
“I saw your little girl talking. She was talking about what is happening now. I can only talk about habits. I can’t talk about now,” said Mr. Orange.
“Maybe we can help you. My name is Ingrid Green, otherwise known as ING. My daughter’s name is Beatrice White, otherwise known as BE. We always talk about now, because that is what babies and little children love to talk about. We can teach you how.”
“That would be great. What do I need to do?”
“First I have to tell you the trick. To talk about now, you must put BE on your left and ING on your right. When all three of us are together, we can talk about now.”
“That’s all?”
“Well, not exactly. I have to tell you something about my daughter BE. She is very special. I adopted her from a far away country where they have a special tradition. It is a tradition of secret names.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means her name changes depending on who she is with.”
“Huh?”
“I will tell you the secret. When she is by herself or talking about herself, she uses the name AM. When she is with you or with more than one person, she uses the name ARE. When she is with just one person, she uses the name IS. You have to memorize her different names if you want to talk about now with her.” (Show the Smartboard page called “BE’s Secret Names”.)
“So we never call her BE?”
“Not usually. That is her formal name. She only uses AM, IS, and ARE to talk about now.”
“Let’s practice.” (Return to the playground page.)
“Okay. Which action do you want to do?”
“I want to walk.”
“We will hold your hands and make a sentence about what you are doing. You ARE walkING.”
“Great. So if I want to say it by myself, I can say, I AM walkING, right?”
“Right.”
“I see a man over there. He likes to walk. What is he doing now?”
“He IS walk ING.”
“Cool. I understand now how BE changes. But what about you? Do you have to be in every sentence?”
“Yes. BE is very young. She can never go anywhere without her mother. If you want to talk about now, you must always have the baby (BE) and the mommy (ING) on either side of you.”
“OK. So I am going to look around me. You and BE can help me make sentences about what is happening now in the playground. Ready?”
“The sun is shining. The clouds are moving. The children are playing. The girl is standing. The little boy is wearing a red hat. The dog is sniffing. I am standing. You are watching me.”
That’s great! You can talk about now any time you want to now.”
“Thank you!”
Let’s Practice Finding BE and ING
Read this paragraph from the story. Draw boxes around the verbs and color them orange. Draw boxes around the BE word and ING. Color the BE boxes white or tan. Color the ING boxes green.
“The sun is shining. The clouds are moving. The children are playing. The girl is standing. The little boy is wearing a red hat. The dog is sniffing. I am standing. You are watching me.”
Write your own sentences about what is happening at the park. Use your imagination.
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Practicing with Orange, Green, and White
What am I doing?
Students mime an action. Other students go to the board and write the sentence (e.g. She is jumping. She is eating.) Students put boxes around the BE and ING parts of the verb. They color in the green box and leave the white box white (if on a white board leave white, if on a blackboard, color it white). The actor should check to make sure the sentence written is correct.
Picture Stories
Picture Stories
Find pictures with a lot of action. Give students papers that have printed on each line. Have students write sentence to describe the pictures following the color rules.
Language Experience
Language Experience
Students go for a walk, do an experiment, stage a skit, or do anything else together, taking pictures along the way. Then they come back to the classroom and make a book with sentences explaining what is happening in each picture. They can color on each sentence to check their work.
Present Continuous Lesson Plans, Worksheets, and Activities
Lesson One Resources:
Game for practicing BE in the present: (click on link)
Scratch Game: (click on link)
Lesson Four Animation:
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