Use this easy and fun past continuous TEFL lesson for online or in-person classes.

1. Discuss the past continuous rules with your students. (5 minutes)

2. Let your students do the following gap fill exercise and check their answers. (10 minutes)

Fill in the Blank Possible Answers: 1. went, 2. went into, 3. was -ing, 4. While, 5. when, 6. were -ing, 7. was – ing, 8. were -ing, 9. was -ing, 10. While

3. Watch this short clip from the movie Up about the flying house and have students write down as many past continuous sentences as they can using the following pattern. (5 minutes)

When the house flew by, SUBJECT + was/were + VERBing.

4. Students should answer the following questions from the video. (10 minutes)

Possible Answers:

1. The little girl was playing when the house flew by.
2. The family was shopping when the house flew by.
3. The worker was cleaning the windows when the house flew by.
4. The weather was sunny while the house was flying.
5. The old man was sitting in a chair when there was a knock at the door.
6. Russel was looking for a snipe or rat when the house took off.
7. Russel was holding onto the front porch when Mr. Frederickson found him.

5. Students should look at the following image and try to make past continuous sentences. (5-10 minutes)

6. Students should answer the following discussion questions in partners or with their teacher. (10 minutes)

7. Watch this video from Encanto. (10 minutes)

Students should raise their hands whenever they can make a sentence using the following sentence pattern. The teacher should pause the video, hear the students sentence, and then continue the video.

While Luisa was singing, she…

I hope you and your students had fun watching some Disney clips and learning about the past continuous! If you want more video lessons, try this one about conditionals.