People, relationships & family · songs

This Used to Be My Playground by Madonna

This song by Madonna talks about a precious time, before reaching adulthood, when life did not have the complexities that unfortunately, seem to come into existence as one gets older. It’s a good way to practice the structure ‘used to’ to speak about things from the past that no longer happen. In this post you will have two activities, the first is a pre-listening which will help you brush up on this structure and some of the expressions related to emotions that are in the lyrics of Madonna’s song, and a sentence completion listening activity.

Levels B1 and B2

Created by blogdeserena

Learning English with songs Pre-listening This Used to be My Playground

This is a pre-listening activity of the song by Madonna

Follow the instructions.

Activity by Serena

Match the expression 'regret' to its correct meaning. 

Match the expression 'a dream' with it's correct meaning. 

 

Match the expression 'pride' to the correct meaning.

 

Grammar 

The following sentence refers to... I used to cycle every weekend.

The following sentence refers to... I'm used to cycling every weekend.

In the following sentence ... 'I used to cycle every weekend'

What time does the following sentence refer to? 

She used to play with her neighbours.

What time does the following sentence refer to? 

She's used to playing with her neighbours.

Who can speak French?

Who has moved home?

Your score is

The average score is 85%

Created by blogdeserena

Learning English with songs This Used to be My Playground Madonna

Listen and fill the blanks with the missing word according to what you hear.

Activity by Serena

This used to be my playground 
This used to be my____ dream

This used to be the place I ran to
Whenever I was in need
Of a_____

Why did it have to end
And why do they always say

Don't look ____

Keep your head held high
Don't ask them why
Because life is ___

And before you know
You're feeling old
And your heart is ___

Don't hold on to the past
Well that's too much to ask

This used to be my playground (used to be)
This used to be my childhood ____

This used to be the place I ran to
Whenever I was in need
Of a friend
Why did it have to end
And why do they always say

No ____

But I wish that you
Were here with me
Well then there's hope yet
I can see your ____
In our secret place

You're not just a _____
Say goodbye to yesterday (the dream)
Those are words I'll never say (I'll never say)

This used to be my playground (used to be)
This used to be our pride and ___

This used to be the place we ran to
That no one in the world could dare ____

This used to be our playground (used to be)
This used to be our childhood dream
This used to be the place we ran to
I wish you were ____here with me

This used to be our playground (used to be)
This used to be our childhood dream
This used to be the place we ran to
The best things in life are always ____
Wishing you were here with me

Your score is

The average score is 67%

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