What we dream about

What's in the lesson

1. 1Warm-up
2. 2In this lesson
3. 3Guess the words (1)Vocabulary exercise
4. 4Guess the words (2)Vocabulary exercise
5. 5Check the wordsVocabulary
6. 6Check your understandingReading comprehension
7. 7Listen: a strange dreamListening comprehension
8. 8Use the new wordsVocabulary exercise
9. 9What was happening?Grammar exercise
10. 10Find the past continuousGrammar exercise
11. 11The past continuousGrammar rule
12. 12Choose the right formGrammar exercise
13. 13Say it right: was and wereSpeaking practice
14. 14Tell me a dreamSpeaking practice
15. 15Let's discussDiscussion
16. 16Wrap-up

Homework

1. 1Homework: closest meaningVocabulary exercise
2. 2Homework: your sentencesVocabulary exercise
3. 3Homework: a bad nightGrammar exercise
4. 4Homework: a dream I rememberDiscussion

Words

• dream/driːm/

  the pictures and stories in your mind while you sleep (also a verb: dream about)

• nightmare/ˈnaɪtmer/

  a very bad or scary dream

• wake up/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/

  to stop sleeping (past: woke up)

• fall asleep/ˌfɔːl əˈsliːp/

  to start sleeping (past: fell asleep)

• scary/ˈskeri/

  making you feel afraid

• monster/ˈmɑːnstər/

  a big, ugly and scary animal or person in stories

• mind/maɪnd/

  the part of you that thinks, feels and remembers (in your mind)

• pajamas/pəˈdʒæməz/

  soft clothes that you wear in bed

• common/ˈkɑːmən/

  happening often, or usual for many people

• brain/breɪn/

  the part inside your head that thinks and controls your body

Two slides from the lesson

Warm-up

Let's talk about sleep.

1. What time do you usually go to bed?
2. Are your dreams usually happy, strange or scary?
3. Do you prefer to get up early or late?

Grammar rule

The past continuous

was / were + -ing

We use the past continuous for an action that was in progress at a time in the past. A shorter action, in the past simple, often happens in the middle of it.

	Example
Positive	He was sleeping when he heard a tune. They were reading stories.
Negative	I wasn't sleeping. They weren't listening.
Question	What were you doing? Was it raining?

when + the short action: I was walking home when my phone rang. while + the long action: While I was walking home, my phone rang.

I, he, she, it → was. You, we, they → were.