Rusty's Yesterday Machine — Irregular Past-Tense Verbs (Grade 2)

About this activity

Rusty the robot's machine turns today's verbs into yesterday's: shown go, the child taps went — never 'goed.' Each round offers the real irregular past beside the tempting made-up '-ed' form, in a free, interactive Grade 2 grammar activity that runs in the browser with no account.

The big idea is that some common verbs are irregular: they do not just add -ed to talk about the past. Each round shows three choices — the correct irregular past (went, ran, ate, saw, gave, took, came, swam), the present-tense word itself, and the tempting made-up '-ed' form (goed, runned, eated, seed, gived, taked, comed, swimmed). Because the made-up form is right there, a child has to know the real past-tense word rather than reaching for the regular -ed pattern.

It is aligned to Common Core L.2.1.d — forming and using frequently occurring irregular past-tense verbs. No timer, no score — just calm, playful practice.

What's inside this activity

• Designed for Grade 2 learners (ages about 7–8)
• Common Core strand: Language
• Aligned to Common Core standard L.2.1.d

How to play

Read the verb and think about how to say it about yesterday.

Tap the correct past-tense word — like went or ran — not the present word or the -ed look-alike.

A warm check confirms a correct choice and offers an easy retry, with no timer and no score.

What your child practices

• Forming the past tense of irregular verbs like go, run, and eat
• Telling the real past-tense word apart from a made-up -ed form
• Resisting the over-regularized 'goed' or 'runned' habit
• Connecting a present-tense verb to its yesterday form

Learning goals

Form and use common irregular past-tense verbs — the focus of Common Core L.2.1.d

Understand that some verbs do not follow the add-ed pattern

Build the grammar foundation for correct past-tense speaking and writing