A selection of English ESL fables printables

A cloze activity. Fill in the blanks with irregular verbs in the simple past. Fun story. A famous and classic story by Aesop that should be familiar to all children.

Aesop's Fables - The Hare and The Tortoise

Reading comprehension. Students read the text and filll in the gaps with the irregular verbs in the past simple tense. Then they answer the questions to the text.

The Legend of King Arthur - Past Simple Gap Fill

King Midas & The Golden Touch - What Could Go Wrong - This is an ancient Greek myth that has a very interesting moral. A story that holds our interest even today.

King Midas & The Golden Touch - What Could Go Wrong

This colourful, nine-picture ESL/EFL worksheet tells the story of two rabbit brothers who quarrel over a carrot, refuse to speak to each other, and eventually learn the importance of family and helping one another.

Students follow the illustrated story and complete the sentences by putting the verbs in brackets into the correct tense: past simple or past continuous. The activity helps learners practise affirmative and negative verb forms, irregular verbs, and the use of past tenses to describe completed actions and ongoing situations in the past.

Language goal: Narrative skills, storytelling, reading comprehension, and describing past events.

Grammar: Past simple and past continuous, affirmative and negative forms, regular and irregular verbs.

Theme: Family relationships, sibling rivalry, forgiveness, kindness, and helping others.

CEFR level: A2–B1 (Pre-intermediate to Intermediate).

Intended age group: Children aged 9–14, particularly upper-primary and lower-secondary learners.

Activity type: Picture story with grammar gap-fill exercises.

Page 2 contains the KEY with the correct answers highlighted in green.

Interactive quiz included! An interactive gap-fill quiz complements the printable worksheet. Students type their answers into the boxes to complete the story, making the activity suitable for individual practice, homework, or classroom use.

The Quarrelling Rabbit Brothers - Gapfill With KEY

it is a short story in the simple past . The pupils read the story and put the verbs in the simple past then they match the paragraphs with their right pictures .After that , they answer detailed questions to check their understanding of the story



Jack & The Beanstalk - Picture Matching + Past Simple

This colorful, autumn-themed ESL/EFL worksheet tells the story of Froggy, a little frog raised by a loving squirrel family. One autumn day, Froggy accidentally falls into a river. Unable to swim, he struggles to stay afloat while his squirrel brother calls for help. Luckily, a friendly bird arrives with a stick, and together they rescue Froggy. Later, two frogs teach him how to swim.

The worksheet features 9 beautifully illustrated story scenes with gap-fill sentences. Students complete the sentences using the correct past simple or past continuous forms of the verbs provided in brackets. The activity helps learners distinguish between completed past actions and ongoing situations in the past while practicing irregular verbs, negative forms, and storytelling.

Page 2 contains the ANSWER KEY, with the correct verb forms highlighted in green.

An interactive quiz complements the printable worksheet. Students type their answers into the boxes to complete the sentences and practice the target grammar online.

Language goal: Describing past events, narrating a sequence of events, and telling a picture story.

Grammar: Past simple vs. past continuous; regular and irregular past tense verbs; affirmative and negative forms.

Theme: Autumn, woodland animals, friendship, family, accidents, helping others, and water safety.

Intended age group: Children aged 8–14, as well as beginner and pre-intermediate English learners.

CEFR level: A2 (Elementary), with some A2+ grammar practice.

Froggy's Autumn accident Picture story gapfill

This printable ESL / EFL worksheet and corresponding interactive quiz, “Sammy and the Shiny Trick – Picture Story,” helps learners practise telling a short story from pictures. Students look at the nine illustrated scenes and write what happened in each one, using the past simple and past continuous tenses to describe the events in sequence. The worksheet focuses on narration, sentence building, and describing interrupted or simultaneous past actions in a fun autumn animal story theme.

An interactive quiz complements the printable version. Students type their answers in open-ended boxes. Please note that in these open-answer task types, students’ answers are not automatically corrected or scored while playing the quiz; instead, an example solution is shown.

- Language goal: developing narrative writing and speaking through picture-based storytelling

- Grammar focus: past simple and past continuous

- Theme: an autumn animal picture story about Sammy the squirrel and a clever trick involving a shiny spoon

- Intended age group: children aged about 7–11

- CEFR level: A2 (suitable for stronger A1 learners with support)

Sammy & The Shiny Trick - Picture Story - Past Tenses

An activity for practicing fairy tale vocabulary. The teacher should review the names of the objects and review the vocabulary for words found in all fairy tales.

Fairy Tale Vocabulary - Match The Word To The Picture

A recount of the fable, the Hare and the Tortoise in which the students have to fill in the verb in the past tense. Practises both regular and irregular verbs in the past tense.

The Hare and the Tortoise - Famous Fable - Gap Fill

 The worksheet contains five exercises, the answer key is given.

Here you can find another story:https://en.islcollective.com/english-esl-worksheets/grammar/passive-voice-or-active-voice/sir-lancelot-lake-reading-comprehension/86781

King Arthur and his knights. The Knight with the badly made coat 

This colorful, nine-picture ESL/EFL worksheet tells the amusing story of Sammy, a clever little squirrel who collects acorns in the park. On his way home, a mischievous crow steals his basket and flies into a tree. Unable to reach it, Sammy comes up with a clever trick: he uses a shiny spoon to distract the crow and get his precious acorns back!

Students follow the story and complete the sentences by filling in the missing verbs in the **past simple or past continuous tense**. The infinitive forms are provided in brackets to help learners choose the correct verb forms. The activity combines grammar practice with storytelling, reading comprehension, and visual clues.

Page 2 has the KEY.

An interactive quiz complements the printable worksheet. In the digital version, students type their answers into the gapfill boxes. An answer sheet with example solutions is also provided.

Language goal: Practicing narrative skills, describing past events, and distinguishing between completed actions and ongoing activities in the past.

Grammar: Past simple and past continuous; affirmative and negative forms; irregular verbs; using *while* to connect past events.

Theme: Autumn, woodland animals, clever tricks, problem-solving, and storytelling.

Intended age group: 8–14 years (young learners and lower-secondary students).

CEFR level: A2 (Elementary–Pre-intermediate).

Sammy and the shiny trick - Picture story gapfill

Join Froggy on an exciting autumn adventure in this colorful, nine-picture ESL/EFL storytelling worksheet/interactive quiz. Students look at the nine illustrations and write sentences describing what happened, using the **past simple and past continuous tenses**. The activity encourages learners to tell a story in chronological order, describe actions and events, and practise combining the two past tenses naturally.

Froggy is a little frog who grew up happily with his foster squirrel family. One beautiful autumn day, he is sitting on a rock beside a river when he suddenly slips and falls into the water. Unfortunately, Froggy doesn't know how to swim! His squirrel brother notices that he is in danger and calls for help. Luckily, a friendly bird comes to the rescue with a stick, and together they save Froggy. After thanking his brave friends, Froggy finally learns how to swim with the help of two grown-up frogs.

Page 2 has the example answers.

**Interactive quiz:** An interactive quiz complements the printable worksheet. Students type their sentences into open-ended answer boxes. In these open-answer tasks, students' responses are **not automatically corrected or scored** while playing the quiz. Instead, an example solution is displayed so learners can compare their answers with a suggested response.

**Language goal:** Developing narrative writing and storytelling skills, describing past events, sequencing actions, and practising sentence construction.

**Grammar:** Past simple and past continuous, including interrupted actions and events happening at the same time.

**Theme:** Autumn, animals, friendship, family, helping others, water safety, and learning new skills.

**Intended age group:** 7–12 years old (young learners).

**CEFR level:** A1–A2 (beginner to elementary). The worksheet is particularly suitable for A2 learners practising the contrast between past simple and past continuous.



Froggy's Autumn Accident Picture Story

Fables

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

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141 Fables English ESL worksheets pdf & doc