Word Work
Irregular verbs
Have students look at the first page and list all the verbs. Discuss how this report talks about history, or things that have already happened, so the text has past tense verbs. Write the verb invented on the board. Ask students to tell you the present tense form and how the word changed to make a past tense verb. Have students look at the verbs to see how many were formed by adding -ed. Explain that some past tense verbs are not made by adding -ed. We use a different spelling of the word to create the past tense. These are called irregular verbs. Write the word run on the board and ask students what the past tense of the verb is. Have students work in pairs to find examples of irregular past tense verbs. Write the words they find on the board. 

Word Study
Contractions
Write the words do and not on the board. Remind students that a contraction is a shortened word made by combining two words. Ask students what you need to do to create the contraction don’t from these two words. Write the word don’t on the board and have students check their answer. Repeat with the words would not, will not, have not, and are not.