talking about past with USED TO

USED TO is not the easiest English structure for the students to understand since is may be absent in their native language. I usually practice this structure talking about childhood memories or habits that changed over the years, and finish off with a discussion about civilisations development. Here is a simple activity the latter.

SPEAKING

Prepare some sentences comparing past and present, cut them into two parts and hand out whichever part you wish to the students. their task is to either start the sentence using USED TO or finish it with PRESENT SIMPLE TENSE (depending which part of the sentence you decide to hand out).

- People used to write letters to each other...

...but now they communicate by social media.  

- People used to count with abacuses...
...but now we have calculators and computers.
- Children used to go to work to earn money for the family...
...but now they go to school.
- We used to grow gardens for food...
...but now we buy fruit and vegetables in supermarkets. 
- People used to travel in horse carriages...
....but now we have cars and motorbikes.
- People used to keep food fresh under ground or in caves...
....but now we have fridges.
- People used to tell each other stories for fun...
...but now they watch TV and movies.
- Women used to wear long dresses...
...but now many women wear jeans.
- People used to tell the time with the sun...
...but now we use watches and clocks.

Next show the students a slidshow with pictures BEFORE and AFTER concerning different aspects of everyday life and ask them to form sentences with USED TO for the past and PRESENT SIMPLE for the present. Here is an example that you may find useful.