How to teach Time Frequency expressions to kids learning English?
Below are a few useful teaching points and ideas taken from our free Time Frequency – “How often …?” lesson plan.
What are time expressions?
Time expressions are used to describe how frequently we do certain activities. They are often used in response to the question “How often do you …?”
Here are some commonly used time expressions:
- never: “I never cook dinner”
- once, twice, (3) times, etc.: “I play tennis once a week”
- every day: “I do homework every day“
- ~ a week: I play piano 3 times a week.
- ~ a month: I go to the gym twice a month.
- ~ a year: I ski once a year.
Time expressions take the following forms:
- never: cannot be used with a time frequency such as “a day / a week / a year”. It goes after the subject and before the verb:
E.g. I (subject) never drive (verb) a car.
- once, twice, (3) times, every day: must be used with a time frequency such as “a day / a week / a year / every day”. It goes after the verb. If there is a direct object or indirect object, it goes after that:
E.g. #1 She (subject) sings (verb) every day.
E.g. #2 He (subject) drinks (verb) tea (direct object) 3 times a day.
E.g. #3 I (subject) write (verb) a letter (direct object) to my cousin (indirect object) twice a year.
Teaching points / tips
1. Introduce the structure “How often do you …?”
Before class, find a picture of a famous character or person (cut out from a magazine or print out from the Internet – I use Bart Simpson).
a) Hold up the picture and ask some students if they like this character. Then stick the character onto the left-side of the board and write above it “How often do you …?” (see board layout image below).
b) Next, take some flashcards of everyday actions (make sure that your students are already familiar with many of them), such as: ride a bike, swim, ski, play piano, play (a sport), do ballet , get a haircut, read a book, eat (steak), take a bath, play a board game, go bowling, go to the movie theater, play TV (video) games
c) Hold up the first flashcard (e.g. ride a bike) and elicit the vocab. Then say “Does (Bart Simpson) ride a bike?”. Elicit “Yes, he does”.
d) On the right-side of the board write:
– 0 = never
– 1 = once
– 2 = twice
– 3 = three time
– 4 = four times
– 5 = five times
– 6 = six times
– 7 days = every day
– a week
– a month
– a year
e) Now write next to the character’s image, “How often do you ride a bike, Bart?”. Turn to the class and by pointing at the numbers on the right-side of the board try to elicit an answer (e.g. every day). For the first couple of questions, you may need to give the answer until your students start to pick up the idea. Say and write the answers (below the picture of the character) … if you can, try to say the answers in the character’s voice (e.g. “I ride a bike every day” in a Bart Simpson voice).
f) Go through all of the flashcards electing the answers and writing the questions and answers on the board – so you should have something like this:
Board layout:
Students can make up any answers they don’t know (e.g. how often Bart has his hair cut) – any logical answer is fine.
As you elect the answers, be sure to point out the word order:
- numbers (e.g. once a week, 6 times a month, every day, etc.) go at the end of the sentence (e.g. I swim twice a week, I ride a bike every day).
- ‘never’ goes directly after the subject (I never do ballet).
2. Practice the structure “How often do you?”
We’ll do this in three steps:
STEP 1: Controlled speaking practice
Put students in pairs – Student A asks the questions on the board and Student B is the character on the board. Make sure that all Student Bs speak in the character’s voice!
A reads the questions to B and B answers using the sentences on the board. For example:
Student A: How often do you ride a bike, Bart?
Student B: I ride a bike every day.
After all of the questions have been asked and answered students swap roles and practice again.
During this activity the teacher should monitor carefully and help with mistakes and pronunciation. At the end, ask a few of pairs to stand up and demonstrate a question and answer to the class – give lots of praise and a round of applause!
STEP 2: Roll play practice
Before class prepare more character pictures (cartoon characters, superheroes, film stars, TV stars, pop stars, etc.). Make sure you have enough pictures for each pair.
Give our one picture per pair. Pairs then practice the questions on the board and giving their own ideas for answers.
After all of the questions have been asked and answered students swap roles and practice again. When finished, you can have pairs exchange pictures and do again with another character.
Again, the teacher should monitor carefully and help with mistakes and pronunciation. At the end, ask a few of pairs to stand up and demonstrate a question and answer to the class – give lots of praise and a round of applause!
STEP 3: Interview practice
Finally, your students are going to give their own answers to the questions. In pairs, Student A asks the questions on the board to Student B, and student B will answer truthfully about themselves.
After all of the questions have been asked and answered students swap roles and practice again.
As before, the teacher should monitor carefully and help with mistakes and pronunciation. At the end, ask a few of pairs to stand up and demonstrate a question and answer to the class – give lots of praise and a round of applause!
Additional Activities
Why not try adding these to your lesson from our website?
- download our practice worksheet “How often …? (2) Week / Month / Year“.
- download our homework worksheet “How often …? (4) Week / Month / Year“.
- download our action flashcards to use in this this lesson.
Full Lesson Plan
Download and print our full Time Frequency – “How often …?” lesson plan from our lesson plans page.
Includes 14 flashcards and 2 worksheets.
