Hello, I chose to use 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' to practice past simple and past continuous (the target language of the lesson) despite the fact the song contains present simple and present continuous tense due to not being able to find an appropriate song for my target language. However, you can use this song to focus on present simple and continuous if you wish, just adapt the worksheet accordingly.
Go through the tasks on the worksheet, giving the students plenty of time to listen to the song so they can practice to sing it later on. You may need to explain the use of 'would' in the past as a conditional for the future.
In order to complete this song successfully and give the students the best possible chance to complete the sheet, you will need to have previously taught and explained the use of the past continuous and past simple forms in a grammar based lesson. This is an activity to practice, identify and adapt the language rather than teaching it directly.
If time permits, you can get students to act out the song while someone narrates. Another option is to play the scene from Armageddon (the movie in which this song is famously used) and ask what happens next.
There are many versions of this song out there if you choose to use a different artist (just beware that the lyrics may have been adapted). Here are a couple of the other artists who have recorded this song;
John Denver (Original/Writer) Peter, Paul and Mary
