present continuous

What is happening right now — the easiest tense to demonstrate, because you can act every sentence out.

From age 5Cambridge level: Pre-A1 Starters

Age: Ages 5–11
Level: Pre-A1
Skill: Grammar
Format: Teacher guide

The pattern

Saying it: I am running
Saying no: I am not running
Asking: Are you running?
Short answer: Yes, I am. / No, I'm not.

Printable worksheet Presentation (PPT)

Sentences a child can say

Tap any sentence to hear it. Every one uses words from a topic pack you already have.

Mini exercise: choose the right word

Five sentences from this page, each with a word missing. A child taps the word that fits and, once it is right, hears the whole sentence.

She is blank an apple.
The cat blank jumping.
We blank singing.
I blank not crying.
They are blank football.

What you will actually hear

The mistakes that come up in every class, and what is behind each one, with a tag on those a first language makes typical.

I running.I am running.

The -ing cannot stand alone. Am, is or are has to be there, even when it is squeezed to I'm.

She is run.She is running.

Both halves are needed: the helper and the -ing. Losing either breaks it.

I am liking pizza.I like pizza.

Feelings and thoughts stay simple. Like, want, know and love do not take -ing.

How to teach it

1
Act first, speak second. Mime it, let them guess, then give the sentence — never the other way round.
2
"What are you doing?" is worth more than the tense itself. Give it as a fixed question from day one.
3
Freeze-and-say: music plays, children move, music stops, everyone says what they were doing.
4
Photographs work better than drawings here. A real frozen moment is exactly what this tense describes.

Topic packs that pair with this

Same structure, words your class already knows — no new vocabulary needed.

Actions Sports Weather & sky Animals Music

Questions teachers ask

Do I need to teach the spelling changes (run → running)?

Not as a rule for young learners. Give the ten verbs they actually use as whole written words and let the pattern be noticed. Rules about doubling consonants belong to a later, more literate stage.

My pupils drop the am/is/are. How do I fix it?

Say the sentence with a clap on the helper. Making it audible as a beat does more than telling them it is missing — the word is unstressed in natural speech, which is exactly why it vanishes.