The verb “to do” is one of the most complicated in English, however, it’s also one of the most important verbs in this language. Learning to use it can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be boring! With these activities to learn about the verb to do your little one will have fun while also getting to practice a very important lesson.
1. Did, Do, Does! The idea of this fun activity is to learn the association between the forms of the verb “to do” in the most common tenses: past and present. Before starting the game, make sure to practice the verb “to do” in English with your little one. Then, prepare some sentences in both present and past to use in the game. Sentences like: “She played with her dog yesterday.”, or “Linda goes to the market.” are perfect, they are simple and they have all the information needed, which is the subject and the tense. Then, grab three pieces of construction paper of your favorite color and write one of the three forms of the verb in each one of them. You can decorate it and put all the colors you want. Grab a couple of wooden sticks and glue them to the back of the construction paper. Then, it’s time to start playing! Give a sentence to your little one and ask him or her which form of the verb “to do” would be fit to make a question about the sentence. For example, the sentence “She lives in Florida.” has a female pronoun and it’s in present, so the correct form of the verb to make a question with the verb “to do” is “does”! So, your child should pick the sign with the word “DOES” written on it.
2. Yes and No. This game is quite entertaining and very easy to do! All you will need is to prepare a few images of people doing several activities, from mowing the lawn to playing ping-pong or even cooking. The objective of the game is to guess what the person in the photo is doing. You can give some clues about the images, and then tell your little one to ask you questions with “do” and “does” to find out the activities these people are doing. “Does he study English? No, he doesn’t.”, “Do they play in a band? Yes, they do!”... This way our little one will get to practice his or her vocabulary and will also get to practice questions in English.
3. The detective game! Turn your little one into a detective for a while with this fun activity! All you’ll need to do is practice making questions with “to do” with your little one beforehand. Then, at your next family gathering, or during a playdate with friends, encourage your little one to be a detective and to ask questions with this verb to family and friends. The idea is that your child practices making questions and listening to people’s answers, this will be perfect to improve his or her language skills while learning more about the important people in their life. If you want to, you can give a small notepad and a pen to your little one so he or she can take notes during the investigation!