There are actually six tenses in our language, but primary children need to know about only three: past, present and future. They usually learn these forms of regular verbs by the time they reach kindergarten or first grade, and they do a remarkable job of speaking correctly most of the time. It is when they encounter irregular verbs that they get into difficulty. When you hear a child say "I catched the ball," he is actually using a grammar rule he knows is correct -- putting "-ed" to represent a past action. He is not yet aware that "catch" is one of the verbs that changes to "caught" for the past tense. Please see below for a selection of Leveled Lessons for Below Level (basic), and/or On Level (median), and/or Above Level (competent) readers.

Generally speaking, if it sounds correct, it IS correct. Your good example is the best thing for teaching proper tenses of verbs because students will learn correct grammar the same way they learned to speak -- by listening. Help students learn to hear what is correct by playing verbal games with them as they are getting ready to go home or lining up for lunch. Ask them if you are right or wrong when you say, "We done got in line." "We are ready for lunch." "We ain't got no time for a story." Each time you have given an improper example, make sure you follow that up with the correct way to say the sentence.