S2E13 - The Knight's Story

Objective & content

In the castle's great hall, Mr Brown tells George and Ollie the legend of Sir Hartley, who fought off attacking knights with his soldiers and his children's help, before a bird flies in and Ollie wonders if it is a ghost. The episode teaches the past simple, regular and irregular verbs side by side (He took his sword, climbed to the wall, and called his soldiers), with did + base verb for yes/no questions (Did Sir Hartley fight them?). The vocabulary field is legends and castle defence (sword, soldier, stone, team). Learners listen for the order of events, then take the in-app quiz.

Pedagogical guide

Learners often apply one past-tense pattern to every verb. The sentence above puts an irregular verb (took) next to two regular ones in the same line, and the questions show that did takes the base verb, never the past form. Sir Hartley is the knight from the painting in the previous episode.

Suggested procedure

1. (3 min) Ask pupils for a story they know about a castle or a knight.
2. (5 min) Introduce Mr Brown, George and Ollie, then preview sword, soldier, stone and team.
3. (4 min) First listen: what happens in the story, and what interrupts it?
4. (8 min) Second listen with pauses after the sword sentence, the children carrying stones and the bird.
5. (7 min) Sort the past verbs from the script into regular (attacked, called, carried) and irregular (took, rode, fought), then drill a did question.
6. (6 min) Pairs tell a short made-up story of three or four events; the partner asks one did question.

Materials & prerequisites

The episode in the PLAY app (audio, slideshow, text and quiz), a student sheet and a teacher sheet with the answer key. Learners need was / were and the regular past simple.

Curriculum alignment

Cycle 4 (5e), axis "School and society": a school trip to a historic site and the stories linked to it.