This activity presents a made up language. Students look at examples of how verbs show tense and must decipher what words puts a verb in the past, present, or future. This is a great exercise to help students understand the abstract concept of verb tenses. By using an artificial language students will be able to create phrases in the past, present, and future without resorting to grammar rules. You will find yourself referring back to exercise throughout the year as students struggle with understanding verb tense. This great for a language arts class or any foreign language class. You can download a full versions of this activity here.
You could use Esperanto for this exercise – and I have done. The advantage of using Esperanto is that the students can subsequently be given an authentic small text about current affairs (from China Radio International) or a short story or joke to translate / decipher.