Here’s a quick idea for an activity to practise the present continuous which will appeal to the artists in the group.

Stick twelve present continuous sentences around the room and divide the class into pairs.  Get each pair to draw a 4×3 table and then do a running dictation BUT one student goes and reads the sentence, comes back and dictates to their partner who then draws a picture of the sentence.

When students have completed the board, you can do feedback by asking them to make a sentence abou the picture – perhaps giving points for the correct grammatical structure as well as points for how closely it resembles the original sentence.

Here are some ideas for sentences…

1. A fat mouse is looking at some cheese.

2. Two old men are sitting in the park.

3. Three children are watching TV in the living room.

4. A happy rabbit is jumping in the garden.

5. A tall, thin man is drinking some orange juice.

6. A boy is reading a book in bed.

7. Four people are riding horses in the countryside.

8. Two boys are playing computer games in their bedroom.

9. An ugly monster is eating three small children.

10. The teacher is standing next to the blackboard.

11. Six children are playing football on the beach.

12. A beautiful woman is talking on her mobile phone.