I have to prepare Movers exam to a young child (8 years old) and past verbs are so difficult to her. This is because he hasn �t studied them in her mother tongue.

Moreover, she needs motivating activities or in 30 minutes she starts to be bored. 

Hi Ana,

 

Your student is very young to be a Movers! The truth is that she mainly has to be able to recognize these verbs in Past Simple not really to produce them - so she needs the passive knowledge of them for the sake of Reading and Writing test. There is a vocabulary list you can download, that should limit the numbers already. Still there are 49 irregular verbs (I did the counting on the list). For the speaking test, she can tell the story in the present tense and that �s the only longer free production piece. Stories are most problematic with kids generally. Overall, just make sure she answers in full sentences throughout the speaking test so that she scores high on production.

I �m sure you can do some bingo, snakes and ladders, million pound drop or a gazillion of other games  which recycle past simple irregular verbs. It �s worth doing but I wouldn �t agonize if she doesn �t master these. It �s much more important to know the exam format and what to expect. I would really practise that. A little more exciting way to do it may be Fun for Fovers book by CUP. If I can give you a hand any further, let me know 

 

best,

 

joanna 

Hugs.

 

 

Ana.