New Hampshire Grade 2 English

Grade 2: use irregular verbs to describe a past event

Adding an ending works for many past-tense verbs, but it does not work for all of them. This short invented classroom account lets students practice familiar irregular forms in a meaningful sentence. Focus on how a verb changes when describing yesterday, rather than memorizing an isolated list. Match further practice to the school’s English competencies and the learner’s current writing.

Curriculum reference: 2010 Common Core ELA/literacy standards, original publisher’s document, from the New Hampshire school-approval rules (Ed 306.29).

New Hampshire Grade 2 references for this activity

New Hampshire’s current school-approval rules, Ed 306.29, allow local boards to use the adopted 2010 Common Core English standards or approved alternative academic standards. Confirm the school’s choice and competencies first. The selected Common Core references here were checked in the original publisher’s 2010 document, using the correct grade column. These references identify this activity’s focus and are not a complete local curriculum checklist.

These selected reference labels identify an activity focus, with the grade column and PDF page linked separately. Read the complete standards selected by the school and its learning sequence, including reading, writing, language, speaking, and listening. This short original example does not fulfill the entire curriculum or establish a student’s grade-level proficiency.

Repair yesterday’s classroom account

This original classroom example is separate from official assessment questions.

Yesterday, I goed to the reading corner. I sitted beside Jo and telled her about my drawing. Then we played a word game.

Try the activity

The first three action verbs need revision for conventional past-tense English. Rewrite the account, keeping the event sequence and the final sentence. Explain why “played” can stay as it is.

Follow the reasoning

A conventional revision is: “Yesterday, I went to the reading corner. I sat beside Jo and told her about my drawing. Then we played a word game.” Go becomes went, sit becomes sat, and tell becomes told. These frequently used irregular verbs do not form their past tense by adding -ed to the base word. Played is already a conventional past-tense form of play. The time word yesterday helps establish when the account happened, but it does not remove the need to choose the appropriate verb forms.

Notice what needs more practice

A child who says “goed” is applying a pattern that often works. Build on that understanding while teaching this word’s conventional form. Do not teach that every past-tense verb is irregular, or that every word ending in -ed describes a complete past event in every sentence. Keep this lesson focused on common verbs in a simple account. Speech, spelling, and handwriting can require different kinds of support; record which difficulty actually appears.

Use the next session to build independence

1. Say go and went, sit and sat, tell and told in short present/past sentence pairs. Keep the pairs connected to familiar actions.
2. Ask the learner to revise the account and explain one change. Reread to check that yesterday’s event sequence remains clear.
3. In a later writing task, look for the same verbs without announcing which words need correction. Teach another frequent form only after checking this transfer.

A useful follow-up is a two-sentence account of a familiar classroom event. Help students express what happened before correcting every feature at once. If a learner already uses these forms accurately, move to a fuller narrative and check whether the forms stay accurate while the writing becomes longer.

For more general reading and writing resources, visit the Grade 2 English Online Center.

New Hampshire Grade 2 English: useful planning questions

Why does “played” stay while “goed” changes?

Play commonly forms its past tense as played. Go has the irregular past form went. The task teaches which conventional pattern each verb follows, not a rule that all past verbs must change in the same way.

Which standards does the school use?

New Hampshire’s current school-approval rules, Ed 306.29, allow local boards to use the adopted 2010 Common Core English standards or approved alternative academic standards. Confirm the school’s choice and competencies first. The selected Common Core references here were checked in the original publisher’s 2010 document, using the correct grade column. These references identify this activity’s focus and are not a complete local curriculum checklist. The school’s sequence also includes reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language work beyond this example.