This fun, Halloween-themed ESL/EFL picture story worksheet helps students practise the past simple and past continuous tenses through a colourful nine-picture story.

The story follows two brothers whose Halloween pumpkin-carving activity goes terribly wrong when the younger brother accidentally drops their jack-o’-lantern. After an argument and some tears, a friendly squirrel helps them make a new one, leading to a happy ending.

Language goal: Practise describing past events, narrating a sequence of actions, and distinguishing between completed actions and activities in progress.

Grammar focus: Past simple and past continuous, including affirmative statements, irregular verbs, and the use of while to connect simultaneous actions.

Theme: Halloween, family, sibling relationships, emotions, problem-solving, and cooperation.

Age group: Primary school learners (approximately 8–12 years old).

CEFR level: A2-B1 (because of the phrasal verbs "showed up" and "turned out")

Task: Students look at the nine illustrations and complete the sentences by writing the missing verbs in the correct tense (past simple or past continuous). The infinitive forms are provided in brackets as clues.

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

Interactive quiz: An interactive gapfill quiz complements the printable worksheet. Students type their answers into the boxes to complete the sentences, allowing them to practise and check their understanding digitally.

the-jack-o-lantern-trouble-picture-story-gapfill-with-key_170475.docx

Jack o’Lantern Trouble - Picture Story Gapfill With KEY

jack-olantern-trouble-picture-story-gapfill-with-key

Let's do English ESL guided grammar production. This fun, Halloween-themed ESL/EFL picture story worksheet helps students practise the past simple and past cont…