A selection of English ESL present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense printables with creative writing prompt, writing practice

Can a watermelon teach maths? Can a gorilla work in a beauty salon? And why is an astronaut frying pancakes on the Moon?

This fun, colorful ESL/EFL worksheet features 9 hilarious and absurd scenes that encourage students to think creatively, spot what's wrong, and explain why the situations are unusual or impossible.

Students examine each picture and write two sentences: one describing the absurd action using the present continuous, and another explaining why it is wrong using the present simple. The first picture includes an example to help students understand the task.

Page 2 contains the KEY, with example solutions in green.

An interactive quiz complements the printable worksheet. Students type their answers into open-ended text boxes. These answers are not automatically corrected or scored; instead, students are shown example solutions.

Language goal: Describing pictures, identifying absurd situations, explaining why something is wrong, developing observation skills, and practicing logical reasoning and creative thinking.

Grammar: Present continuous for describing actions happening in pictures; present simple for expressing facts, general truths, and everyday expectations. Practice with affirmative and negative sentences.

Theme: Funny and absurd situations, imagination, everyday activities, animals, fantasy, and humor.

Intended age group: 7–14 years (young learners).

CEFR level: A1–A2 (Beginner–Elementary).

A playful speaking and writing activity suitable for individual work, pair discussions, or classroom practice.

What’s Wrong #3 - Write What’s Ridiculous or Absurd

Model your e-mail on the sample above. Use your own ideas and relevant information. This can be used as part of My Writing Book (cover uploaded elsewhere) or as a stand alone. Fully editable. To change clip art- ungroup first.



There are 19 compositions in all. Bind in a spiral or use individually.



Cover found here:



https://en.islcollective.com/resources/printables/worksheets_doc_docx/creative_writing_my_writing_book_a1_level/creative-writing-my/27280

Creative Writing: e-mail summer holiday #11 A1 Level

Model your sentences on the sample above. Use your own ideas and relevant information. This can be used as part of My Writing Book (cover uploaded elsewhere) or as a stand alone. Fully editable. To change clip art- ungroup first.



There are 19 compositions in all. Bind in a spiral or use individually.



Cover found here:



https://en.islcollective.com/resources/printables/worksheets_doc_docx/creative_writing_my_writing_book_a1_level/creative-writing-my/27280

Creative Writing: What are we wearing? #17 A1 Level        

In this worksheet, students will able to form the Ving form of some common verbs, put the verb in the correct form, recognise some signals of the tense, know the situation happening in each sentences and make their own sentences.

Present continuous with action verbs

A simple writing assignment including the use of Present Simple and Continuous tenses + vocabulary about trips, holidays and camping.

Teachers can use this as homework or a task at the production stage of a grammar lesson.

Writing - Camping

Ideal for strong students of Junior B' Class, Students A' Senior or even adults who want to practice. Also for children who have forgotten some rules or have a difiiculty in spotting the differenences.

XMAS edition! Present Simple Or Present Continous Sentences! (with Key answers)

present simple present continious practice 

general and special questions practice 

game of thrones - describing and making statments and questions about movie scenes

Game of thrones present simple present continuous 

A1 / A2+ Present Continuous – Pirate Island Picture Description.
Fun Worksheet for kids- Students look at the busy pirate island scene and describe what each character is doing using present continuous. Great for speaking, guessing, and question practice (e.g. What is number 5 doing?). Fun, visual activity perfect for young learners.

Updated from my original upload-this one has the pirates shuffled better on page 1- the clues on the last page - the letters are now shuffled for each individual word, students have to reorder the letters to form the words -under the map. Hope you have fun :)

Reading: Pirates at Play (present Simple Vs Continuous)

A1+ / A2  : Practise PRESENT SIMPLE and PRESENT CONTINUOUS with Tom’s weekend plans on the farm! Includes reading, grammar, time expressions, speaking, role plays, picture stories, emails and creative writing across 2 colourful magazine-style pages.

Reading : A BUSY WEEKEND – PRESENT SIMPLE & PRESENT CONTINUOUS

Can elephants fly? Can you walk a fish? Can a train travel through the sky? This funny, colorful worksheet challenges students to spot absurd and impossible situations in nine cartoon illustrations and explain what's wrong with each scene.

Students look at the pictures, describe the unusual actions, and explain why they are wrong or impossible. One completed example helps them understand the task. The activity encourages creativity, logical thinking, observation skills, and speaking and writing practice.

Page 2 contains the ANSWER KEY, with example solutions for all nine pictures.

Interactive quiz: An interactive version complements the printable worksheet. Students type their answers into open-ended answer boxes. These answers are not automatically corrected or scored; instead, example solutions are provided.

Language goal: Describing pictures, identifying absurd situations, explaining mistakes, expressing logical reasoning, and discussing what is possible or impossible.

Grammar: Present continuous for describing actions, present simple for stating general facts, negative sentences, and modal verbs (can/can't) for expressing ability and possibility.

Theme: Funny situations, absurdity, everyday activities, animals, imagination, and humor.

Intended age group: 8–13 years old, but also suitable for older beginners.

CEFR level: A1–A2 (Elementary-Pre-intermediate).

Skills: Speaking, writing, picture description, critical thinking, and vocabulary development.

What’s Wrong #2 - Write What’s Ridiculous or Absurd

Creative writing prompt

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

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

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>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

10 Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense, Creative writing prompt, Writing Practice English ESL worksheets pdf & doc