Author: Enow Njang Arrey Ebot (Cameroon) | Published on 23 January 2026
Read what Enow says about this activity
This game builds learners’ skills in speaking, teamwork and collaboration. It also reinforces useful vocabulary related to time and house chores while practicing the past continuous tense. The students reflect and write down expressions related to house chores, carry out peer discussions about missing scenes and share their findings.
Stage 1: Prepare
Draw four stick figures—one in each corner of the board—and four clocks beside each figure bearing time.
Figure 1: a stick figure with a wash basin and a plate at 8 o’clock.
Figure 2: a stick figure with a bucket and a t-shirt at half past 9 o’clock.
Figure 3: a stick figure holding a mop at 10 minutes past 10 o’clock.
Figure 4: a stick figure cooking at 30 minutes past 10 o’clock.
Elicit from the students ‘What was Emmanuel doing at [8 o’clock]?’
When you get each correct answer, drill it with the class using the correct grammar.
Then, tell students you are going to give them thirty seconds to try to memorise the four pictures.
After thirty seconds, delete two of the pictures (but not the clocks). Ask the students if they can remember what Emmanuel was doing. Then erase the other two pictures and see if they can remember.
Stage 2: Pair
Ask each student to draw four pictures—each with a clock—in their exercise books or on a piece of paper.
Borrow one student’s drawings and invite a strong student to the front of the class to help you model the activity.
One student asks the other ‘What was [name] doing at [time]?’
The other student answers ‘[name] was [V-ing] at [time]’
When all four pictures have been asked and answered about, the students can then cover the pictures with their hands and ask their partner to remember the answers.
Stage 3: Apply
Give students a real example using past continuous to show them that you now want to talk about real life.
Write on the board some real questions about the class such as:
‘What were we doing at nine o’clock?’
‘What was [student] doing at seven o’clock?’
‘What were we all doing at one o’clock this morning?’
Elicit the answers from the students and help them use the correct grammar.