Holiday Activities
Senior 1 · English
Holiday Activities
Lesson 1 of 5
25 min
Let's begin
Last December, Kalisa, an S1 student from Kigali, spent the holiday with his aunt in Musanze, in Rwanda's Northern Province. He kept a diary. A diary tells events that are finished, in the order they happened, so it is full of verbs in the simple past. As you read, underline every past verb you find. How many of them do not end in -ed?
Tuesday, 23 December 2025
This morning Mum took me to Nyabugogo bus station, and I travelled to Musanze on my own for the first time. The bus left at eight o'clock and climbed the hills for about two hours. Through the window I watched terraced fields and banana plantations. Aunt Mukamana met me at the bus park in Musanze. In the evening we ate Irish potatoes and beans. Aunt says the Northern Province grows the best potatoes in Rwanda, and after that meal I believe her.
Wednesday, 24 December
Today we visited the Musanze Caves. A guide gave us helmets and torches, and we walked into a long tunnel. Lava from the volcanoes made it long ago. Hundreds of bats hung from the roof. When one of them flew past my face, I screamed, and everyone laughed at me. At the end we climbed a steep stone stairway into the sunlight.
After lunch we drove to Lake Ruhondo. A fisherman paddled us across the lake in his wooden canoe. The water was calm, and the volcanoes stood behind the hills like giants. We didn't swim, because the water was very cold.
Friday, 26 December
We went to Kinigi, at the edge of Volcanoes National Park. We didn't see the mountain gorillas, because a permit costs a lot of money. But a ranger at the park office told us about them. The park has five volcanoes, and one of them, Karisimbi, is the highest mountain in Rwanda. Every year, baby gorillas get their names at a big ceremony called Kwita Izina.
Then we visited a cultural village. Young men danced the intore dance, and an old woman showed us how to grind sorghum on a flat stone. I bought a small wooden gorilla for my sister. I go back to Kigali tomorrow, and I really don't want this holiday to end!
| Word | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| journey | travelling from one place to another | The journey from Kigali took two hours. |
| bus park | the place where buses stop to let people on and off | My aunt met me at the bus park. |
| guide | a person whose job is to show visitors a place | The guide gave us torches. |
| torch | a small electric light that you carry in your hand | We needed torches in the dark cave. |
| canoe | a light, narrow boat moved with paddles | A fisherman paddled us across in his canoe. |
| ranger | a person who looks after a national park | The ranger told us about the gorillas. |
| permit | an official paper that allows you to do something | You need a permit to visit the gorillas. |
| souvenir | something you buy or keep to remember a place | I bought a wooden gorilla as a souvenir. |
| ceremony | a formal public event | Baby gorillas are named at a ceremony. |
Definition
Simple past tense: the verb form for actions and states that started and finished at a definite time in the past. We visited the caves on Wednesday.
Regular verb: a verb whose past form ends in -ed (visit → visited). Irregular verb: a verb with its own past form, which must be learned (go → went, see → saw).
| All subjects (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) | |
|---|---|
| Positive | We walked into a long tunnel. Mum took me to Nyabugogo. |
| Negative | We didn't (did not) see the gorillas. |
| Question | Did you swim in the lake? |
| Short answers | Yes, we did. No, we didn't. |
| The verb be | The water was calm. The bats were noisy. It wasn't warm. |
| Rule | Examples |
|---|---|
| Most verbs: add -ed | visit → visited, walk → walked, climb → climbed |
| Verb ends in -e: add -d | arrive → arrived, dance → danced |
| Consonant + y: change y to i, add -ed | carry → carried, try → tried (but play → played) |
| One vowel + one consonant, stressed: double the consonant | stop → stopped, plan → planned, travel → travelled (British spelling) |
| Base form | Past form | Example from the diary |
|---|---|---|
| go | went | We went to Kinigi. |
| take | took | Mum took me to Nyabugogo. |
| leave | left | The bus left at eight o'clock. |
| meet | met | Aunt Mukamana met me at the bus park. |
| eat | ate | We ate Irish potatoes and beans. |
| give | gave | A guide gave us helmets. |
| hang | hung | Hundreds of bats hung from the roof. |
| fly | flew | One flew past my face. |
| drive | drove | We drove to Lake Ruhondo. |
| stand | stood | The volcanoes stood behind the hills. |
| tell | told | A ranger told us about them. |
| buy | bought | I bought a small wooden gorilla. |
Past time expressions: yesterday, last December, two days ago, in 2025, on Friday, this morning (when the morning is over).
Worked example
Analyse: We didn't see the mountain gorillas, because a permit costs a lot of money.
Warning
Show the past only once. After did or didn't, use the base form.
Tip
Spelling: Rwanda's schools use British spelling, so double the l: travel → travelled, travelling; cancel → cancelled. (American English writes traveled.)
Memory hook: learn irregular verbs in sound families: buy, bring, think, fight → bought, brought, thought, fought all end in -ought; sing, swim, drink → sang, swam, drank change i to a.
Past simple irregular verbs, British Council LearnEnglish Teens (3 minutes). Sophie tells the story of a work trip that went wrong. List every irregular past form you hear, then check it in the table above.
Tell a partner about a trip or a special day you remember, in six sentences. Use at least three irregular verbs and one negative. Your partner asks two questions with Did…?
Last April I went to Huye with my school choir. We left Kigali at six in the morning and sang all the way. In Huye we visited the Ethnographic Museum, and a guide told us how Rwandans lived long ago. I bought a postcard for my grandmother. We didn't win the competition, but we came second. I slept on the bus all the way home.
Partner: Did you enjoy the museum? Answer: Yes, I did. Did your grandmother like the postcard? Yes, she did!
Write a diary entry (80–100 words) about one day of your last holiday. Start with the date. Use the simple past, at least four irregular verbs and one sentence with didn't.
Saturday, 27 December 2025
Today my cousins and I climbed Mount Kigali. We left home at seven, before the sun got hot. The path was steep and dusty, and my little cousin Ineza sat down three times. At the top we saw the whole city below us, from the stadium to the airport. We ate mandazi and drank water under a eucalyptus tree. Kevin took a lot of photos. We didn't stay long, because dark clouds came over the hills. We ran down, and the rain caught us at the bottom!
Practice
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
