Spanish Preterite: Completed Action

After learning the conjugations for the preterite tense, both regular and irregular, students must become accustomed to its uses. One use of the preterite tense is to show a completed action. The completed action could be defined by a specific time-frame or the tense itself could give the feeling of plot progression. Verbs in the preterite tense give a sense of stating what happened and moving on.

In this activity, students will write a narrative that only uses the preterite tense, demonstrating this feeling of plot progression. Students should be encouraged to use a variety of different scenes and verbs to practice each different conjugation.

To provide guidance, you can provide students with the first cell to spark their imaginations, or let them start from scratch. After students have completed their storyboards, consider having them read them aloud to the class, using the slideshow function to display each cell as they read.

Student Instructions

Create a narrative that uses only the preterite tense.

1. Click "Start Assignment".
2. In the description boxes, write a narrative using the preterite tense to describe completed actions.
3. Create an illustration for each cell using appropriate scenes, characters, and items.
4. Save and exit when you're done.