Brainstorm a list of target vocabulary with your students, focusing on past tense verbs. Depending upon your students' levels and confidence, you can keep the list of past tense verbs on the board during the game, or write only the present tense form or cover the list completely. Start the game by acting out one of the verbs. For the student to guess correctly, he must form the correct past tense of the verb. The person who guesses correctly chooses the next verb to act out.
Graphic or symbolic reinforcement appeals to students who are visual learners. Review a word bank of verbs with your students. Then draw a symbol or picture that represents the verb. Students must guess which verb you are drawing by using the correct past tense form of the verb. Once they have mastered the basics of this game, students can play it in teams or in pairs.
More advanced or older students appreciate using past tense verbs in the context of phrases and real-life situations. Set up simple and fun improvisational games that allow students to practice correct verb usage. Possible situations could be a child lying to a parent about how something got broken, a witness describing a crime to a police officer or friends gossiping about what happened at a party.
Students practice their writing and comprehension skills in this simple game. Have each student copy the phrase "Yesterday, I..." on a piece of paper. Below that phrase they must write three sentences using three different past-tense verbs. The trick is that two of the phrases they write must be true and the third must be a lie. Students take turns presenting their statements to the class. Students vote on which statements are lies. More advanced students can explain why a certain statement must be a lie.