Verb Charades

• 1st–2nd grade
• Ages 6–8
• Free, no sign-up

A character acts out a verb, and your child names the action: run, swim, climb. Then the verbs go into sentences. Kids pick swims, not swim, for one person doing it now, and swam, not swimmed, for yesterday.

▶ Play

About the game

How to play

1. Watch the action. What is the character doing?
2. Pick the verb. Tap the action word.
3. Use it in a sentence. Sam ___ to the bus: runs, run or running?
4. Go back in time. Yesterday, Sam ___ to the bus: ran, runs or runned?

For parents: what Verb Charades practices

Verb Charades teaches what a verb is, how verbs change for the present (he runs) and the past (he ran), and the tricky irregular past-tense verbs that kids often get wrong. It pairs with:

• Verbs
• Irregular past tense verbs
• Past, present and future

Common Core: L.1.1e (use verbs to convey past, present and future), L.2.1d (form and use the past tense of irregular verbs).

Getting the most out of it

• Act out each verb together. It's charades!
• Say the sentence with the wrong answer and listen: does it sound right?
• Make a list of the tricky past verbs: ran, ate, swam, flew.

Games are best as a reward or a warm-up, not the main lesson. Ten minutes of play after a short lesson works better than an hour of play on its own.

More games

• Conjunction BridgeJoin ideas with and, but, or, so, because.2nd–4th grade
• Build an AlienRead the adjectives, then build the alien.1st–3rd grade
• Agreement ArcadeOne dog barks, two dogs bark. Race to agree!2nd–4th grade

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Last reviewed: November 11, 2026

Questions parents ask