Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Guide To Teaching PDF
Guide To Teaching PDF
Luc Ciotkowski
Introduction
Are we missing the point?
Lexical and grammatical fields
Materials
Vocabulary games
The chairs game
Language specific games
II
V
VIII
XII
XIV
XVI
XVII
Week
Lesson
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Introductions
Numbers
Commands
Halloween
Colours
REVISION A
Emotions
This and that
This and that
Weather
Christmas
1
3
5
7
10
12
13
15
15
19
21
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
REVISION B
Family and pets
Body parts I
Body parts II
Animals
REVISION C
Can you?
In the house
Hair and eyes
Easter + REVISION D
23
24
27
29
31
34
35
39
42
45
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Hes big
Clothes
REVISION E
Mealtimes
Food
Jobs
Transport
REVISION F
Time
REVISION G + Goodbye
47
50
53
54
57
59
64
68
69
72
2005
Introduction
This guide was originally conceived for the PROXILANGUE language
school program and provides material for an English language course
for children between the ages of three and eleven years old. The
course consists of thirty one lessons of one hour which, at one hour a
week, represents a full academic year. It can be no more than a basis
due to the large differences in development between these age
groups. Therefore, the guide should not be looked at as a one-sizefits-all but as a cloth ready to be tailored to specific groups and
ages. Clearly, you will spend longer using the more simple practice
activities and games with groups of younger students, while you will
be able to move onto more complex activities and games more quickly
with older groups. The course is very light on materials and teaches
spoken English. This allows for maximum communication, interaction
and participation, while promoting a new language as an interpersonal
tool and not an academic discipline. As a result the course is more
demanding than many others: the teacher is neither able to rest nor
hide behind materials and written exercises. However, this is also
the very thing that makes it more rewarding for teachers than many
other courses.
The Teacher Guide was developed on these principles: children learn
most naturally and effectively through play; learning a language can
and should be a pleasant experience. I hope the Teacher Guide will
be used with motivation in mind. I believe that this is the most
important factor for increasing the effectiveness of learning (see
the piece entitled Are we missing the point?) and should be a key
consideration in any course. The activities are designed to promote
cooperation, participation and some friendly competition that doesnt
exclude less able students in favour of the more able ones. The
students are discouraged from reverting to their mother tongue or
not participating by the risk of losing or isolating themselves from
the group; they must participate in order to survive. This is coupled
with the way that activities are presented as play rather than work;
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2005
Survival/Desire Theory
I intend to talk about motivation in the context of English as a Foreign
Language, dividing it into two kinds which I call DESIRE MOTIVATION and
SURVIVAL MOTIVATION. DESIRE MOTIVATION is motivation to do
something because you like it, enjoy it, want to or are interested in it.
SURVIVAL MOTIVATION is motivation to do something because you feel
you need to do it.
The reason for learning the language in the first place is a survival
motivation. Here are a few examples: the student lives in an English
speaking environment; the student needs to pass exams or get good
marks; the students boss wants him/her to learn English; the students
parents want him/her to learn English; the student feels he/she needs
English for his/her career; the student would like to integrate into an
English speaking community; the student likes the thought of being able
to speak English; etc. Coercion is a form of survival motivation. Examples
of coercion are: fear of punishment from parents, teachers or bosses if a
student does not learn; fear of social exclusion (isolation from other
students or people in general). Rewards are also a form of survival
motivation, whether that is praise from parents/teachers/other students
or pay rises, etc.
Everyone (that is able to) eats, sleeps, learns to walk and learns his/her
mother tongue. Why do you eat? Why do you sleep? Why do you learn to
walk? Why do you learn your mother tongue? These are all examples of
survival motivation at its most potent. However, Why do you learn a
second/foreign language? is not a rhetorical question and it is unlikely in
the extreme that the survival motivation for this could reach the same
strength as in those four examples. Let us look at when survival
motivation for learning a foreign language is at its strongest: when
learners live in a foreign country where their native language is not
spoken. A British family of five moved to France. Amongst the family
members were a five year-old boy and his forty year-old father. The five
year-old boy spoke no French at all and the father had learned a little at
school, but had barely an elementary level. The boy had done six weeks of
his first year of school in the UK and said that he did not want to learn
French. The father, skilled as a builder, said he wanted to be able to speak
French for work purposes and to integrate into the local community. The
son reluctantly began French primary school and cried every day for the
first three weeks as his parents left him at the school. His teacher
reported that after a month he started to speak French in class with no
accent. After six months his fluency was exactly the same as the other
French children in his class. The father took intensive classes in French
and studied specialised vocabulary in the field of construction. He secured
building work after two months but relied a lot on help from his wife for
communicating in French. After a year he felt his French had improved,
but still found it a struggle and said there were lots of misunderstandings
at work due to the language barrier. There were several factors that might
explain the differences in proficiency of the father and son after a year.
2005
VI
The difference in age and the theory that there may be a sensitive period
for learning language could certainly be a factor but that is a different
discussion, especially as this is not a scientific experiment. The level of
exposure to French was clearly different, also. What interests me is the
difference in survival motivation. The father could use lots of different
ways to survive without having to use French. He could rely on his wife
to communicate for him when he got stuck. He could use the similarities
to English words when he saw written French to understand signs. He
could go about his day-to-day business speaking very little French. He
could fill in official forms using dictionary translations without needing to
assimilate the words he was writing. In interpersonal relationships he
could speak English: with his wife; with his children; over the telephone
with his family and English-speaking friends. Only in the workplace was he
truly forced to use French to survive (and still, lots of gesturing and
waving could see him through). On the other hand, the survival
motivation was quite different for the son. His world consisted of home
and school. Of course, at home he spoke English and at school he spoke
French. He could not fall back on the survival strategies that his father
was able to. Once at school, everything depended on learning French. If
he did not use French he could not participate; he could not make friends;
he could not be accepted . . . He could not survive without it.
Desire motivation is the stimulation of curiosity and enjoyment that has
an effect during learning. If people think of what their favourite subject
was at school, followed by the subject in which they achieved the best
grades or put the most effort into, I am sure a high percentage would give
the same subject for both answers. The same is true if we look at it the
opposite way round: we tend to enjoy the things we are good at. This is
why it is so important to give students a sense of achievement. Desire
motivation, or lack of it, is what makes someone go the cinema twice to
see the same film and leave half way through another. Newer methods
and approaches advocate the use of authentic materials instead of
contrived and wooden examples of English. What is the difference if they
both give the same end result?..
There are two reasons: if students can see the point they will invest
themselves more willingly; if activities or subjects are more relevant to
their lives and interests they want to do them. The movement towards
student-centred activities and classrooms away from teacher-centred
ones is also based on desire motivation (as well as promoting learner
autonomy). Student-centred activities exploit students two greatest
interests: themselves and other people.
While considering these observations allows us to recognise what
motivates students, it is our job as teachers to exploit them in order to
optimise student motivation. Indeed, there are more and more teachers
who believe the ability to get students motivated and help them to
become autonomous learners is as important as (if not more than) the
teachers knowledge of the language.
2005
VII
Numbers (12+):
One; two; three; four; five; six; seven; eight; nine; ten;
eleven; twelve
Halloween (6+):
Eating/drinking (5+):
Seasons (4):
Christmas (6+):
People/Family (10+):
Animals (7+):
Easter (2+):
Clothes (8+):
Meals (3+):
Food (8+):
Jobs (7+):
Transport (6+):
2005
VIII
Descriptions
Weather (6+):
Colours (9-12+):
Feelings/
Other adjectives (11+):
Fine; happy; sad; angry; fed up; hot; cold; big; small; good;
bad; thirsty; hungry
Possessive (2+):
My; your
Prepositions (6+):
Actions
Commands (21+):
If; and; but; or; with; to; the; a; an; of; this; that; these;
those; I; you; he; she; it; we; they; for; at; from; here; there;
by; not; all; everyone; everybody; not; which; how; where;
who; what; when; again; another; other; now; then; some;
any; more; up; down; him; her; them; yes; no; out; first
(and any other frequently recurring language that the
teacher uses).
This list is flexible and non-exhaustive and is meant as an indication of the
language to which the students will be exposed during the course. It is NOT a
restriction on what can be taught.
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Questions
Basic question structures
Am I . . .?
Are you . . .?
Are you a . . .?
Are you in the . . .?
Are you wearing (a) . . .?
Is this your . . .?
Is that your . . .?
Is he . . .?
Is she . . .?
Is he a . . .?
Is she a . . .?
Are you scared of . . .?
Are these your . . .?
Are those your . . .?
Can you . . .?
Do you like . . .?
Have you got any . . .?
Phrases / sentences
To be
Yes, I am.
No, Im not.
Yes, it is.
No, its not.
Its (colour).
Its (weather).
Its (time) oclock.
Its half past (time).
This is a . . .
Thats a . . .
Theres . . .
Hes (adjective).
Shes (adjective).
Hes not (adjective).
Shes not (adjective).
Hes a (job/profession).
Shes a (job/profession).
The man/woman is (adjective).
2005
To have (got)
Ive got (number).
Ive got (number + family/pets).
Ive got some . . .
I havent got any . . .
Can
Yes, I can.
No, I cant.
I can(t) fly.
I can(t) run.
.
Greetings
I can(t) swim.
I can(t) jump.
I can(t) climb.
Hello.
Goodbye.
Good morning.
Good afternoon.
Good evening.
Good night.
Various
My names . . .
I live in (place).
Ouch!
2005
XI
Materials
Week 1
None
Week 2
Week 3
None
Week 4
Halloween flashcards
10 scared faces
10 not scared faces
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
1 set of real cutlery and crockery (knife, fork, spoon, plate, glass)
1 set for each student of paper cutlery and crockery
Week 9
1 set of real cutlery and crockery (knife, fork, spoon, plate, glass)
1 set for each student of paper cutlery and crockery
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Week 16
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XII
Week 17
Week 18
Animal flashcards
Week 19
Week 20
Week 21
Easter Bunny
Easter eggs
Revision of weeks 16, 18 and 19
Week 22
Week 23
Week 24
Revision
Week 25
Week 26
Week 27
Week 28
Week 29
Week 30
Week 31
2005
XIII
Vocabulary games
This is just a small selection of vocabulary games that you may find helpful.
Circles
This game works for any vocabulary that is used in sequences. (I have used this
game to teach cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers, days of the week, months of the
year, meals and parts of the day.)
We practise the words together to begin with. Repeat with individuals to check
pronunciation and when youre happy, put the students into a circle. For example,
were doing morning, afternoon and evening (and perhaps night), and we have to go
round the circle in order. So in this case, begin with morning and the next person
must say afternoon, and so on. Sounds a bit rubbish, doesnt it? Well, theyre
practising new words and the order they go in, its not so rubbish for them. Make sure
the group is not divisible by three (or four), so each students word changes with
every turn (I join in if needed). The better they get, the faster they have to go. Theyve
got to remember the word, pronounce it properly, say it in the right order and as fast
as they can.
Start again, this time with meals. Show them pictures of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
We practise as before, then we go into our circles.
Once were really good at this, the hard part comes. We want to put these pieces of
vocabulary together and make a sentence. We now need the glue that sticks a
sentence together. Were going to learn I have breakfast in the morning, etc.
It depends on the vocabulary as to the glue needed, and you might choose to move
on to a different task to teach this.
Pick up a pair
You need a set of flashcards with two copies of each picture. After the vocabulary
has been introduced and repeated, shuffle the cards and lay them face down on the
table or floor. A student turns one card over, revealing a picture. To have their
second turn, the student must say the vocabulary item out loud. If they can, they turn
over a second card of their choice and say the word that it represents. If the two
cards match, they keep the cards and have another go.
2005
XIV
Poisoned pass-the-parcel
In a circle, students pass several flashcards or items to one another. When you say
stop, those who are holding an item must say what it is in English. This can also be
used for specific structures such as to have (got) and to be.
Whats missing?
For this activity you need objects for the vocabulary you want to teach, it can be used
to teach just about anything you can fit on a table. Its up to you how many objects
you use, although you run the risk of the students retaining very little if you confuse
them with too much new vocabulary. I normally use six or seven objects maximum if
they are all words that are new to the class. If only a couple are new and the rest are
pretty well known to the class (You just want to reinforce, revise a little, or test
retention if they learnt the words a while ago), I might use up to ten. If you use more
than that youll more than likely be wasting your time you want them to learn
English, not develop a photographic memory.
Choose a student to go into the corner and close their eyes. Repeat the names of the
objects in no particular order and, showing the rest of the class which one, take an
object away and hide it. Then its, Ready, go! and the student comes back to find
the missing object. If they get it right, great, start hiding several objects at a time.
When they cant do it go through the objects that are there to see if it jogs their
memory. If they still cant do it, see if the other students can remember, only then
should you give in and tell them (showing the hidden object). Even if they get it right
you need to show them the object and repeat it, reinforcing it for those who knew and
reminding for those who didnt. After a while, you can start giving the students the
chance to pick an object to hide. They have to remember the one they picked in
particular, and when the student who closed their eyes says which objects were
missing they have to say which one they chose. Its just a way to stop the students
who arent doing the guessing from switching off.
If they get really good at it, hide all the objects and see if the students can remember
them all.
Change chairs/places
The students sit in a circle and each one has a flashcard. Call out two or three items
(shown by images on the flashcards) and the students holding these items change
places.
You can have one less chair than students, in which case one student stands in the
middle. This student must try to get a chair when others change places. This second
variation is more fun, but play it at your own risk! If you have more than one overcompetitive student, mayhem and injury can ensue.
2005
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XVI
Everyone stands in a circle and asks in unison, What time is it? Choose a time such
as 4 oclock. Say, Its 4 oclock. The group mime the time by using their arms. The
results can be funny. Anybody who gets it wrong is out of the game and sits down.
The game continues until there is one person left standing, they are the winner. You
could vary this by choosing a student to say the times.
First to 20
Language
Numbers
Sit the students in a circle and count to 20, first together and then go round the circle.
Each person says one, two or three numbers each. They can choose how many they
want to say. The person who falls on 20 gains a point. Play the first to 3 points.
Directions
Language
One child stands in the corner of the room and the group or individuals give him
directions to get to another part of the room. Continue until everyone has had a go.
Your wish is my command
Language
Giving instructions
This is an extension of the idea in Directions. Ask two students to go to the side of
the room. Give them instructions on how to cross the room. For example: walk
slowly; put your arms in the air; wave. Give one instruction, and then another, and
then another. The students are not allowed to stop doing one action before they start
another; they do them all simultaneously. As soon as the students reach the other
side of the room they stop, take over the role of giving instructions and two more
students go up to be commanded.
What colour is ?
Stand in a circle and ask a few questions about the colour of clothes that the
students are wearing. For example, What colour is Jacks T-shirt? After a few
examples, blindfold one of the students. The rest of the group ask the blindfolded
student questions about the colour of students clothes. When the blindfolded
student answers correctly, he gives the blindfold to the student whose clothes were
being talked about.
2005
XVII
2.
3.
4.
Telephone game
Language
Simple conversation e.g. Hello, how are you? Do you want to.?
Bye.
Give the children a ready made telephone out of cardboard. Let the students spend a
few minutes colouring in their telephones, practising the colours they use to draw
with. Give each child their own phone number in written in one colour and a phone
number that they will dial in another colour. In turn, the children dial their dialling
number, saying the number out loud as they dial. All the others look at their own
number to see if they are the one being called. If so, they answer and have a short
conversation. The person who receives the call is the next person to make a phone
call.
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Introductions
Target structures:
Hello
How are you?
Whats your name?
Where do you live?
Materials:
This is always going to be the hardest and most stressful lesson of the course.
However, this is not only true for you; your students feel exactly the same. If there is
one lesson plan that you are going to completely disregard and do things your own
way let it be this one. If you want to put your students at ease, you need to be as
comfortable as possible with what you are doing. Read the plan, understand what
you are trying to get from the lesson and adapt it so that you are comfortable with it.
Hello, introduce by shaking hands with everyone in the room, then get them to
shake hands with each other.
Ask a student, How are you? (Think about intonation, its got to sound like a
question, we want them to learn a realistic and interesting style of English from the
start. Maybe its obvious, but unfortunately there are still a lot of foreigners learning
HOW ARE YOU robot English.)
In a circle each person asks his or her neighbour, How are you? Do the same with,
Im fine, thank you.
Ask all the students individually, How are you? and get them all to answer in turn.
They might think you are looking for them to repeat again. If they do, you step in with
a pre-emptive, Im fine thank you., so they know that youre now looking for an
answer. Now in the circle, they can ask their neighbour the question, before their
neighbour replies and then in turn asks the next student.
Point to yourself and say, My names.... Point to somebody and ask the question,
Whats your name?. If you need to help them, say it and get them to repeat. The
first child then asks their neighbour Whats your name? the neighbour replies My
names.. and then asks his neighbour and so on.
Go round the circle again, this time shaking hands and asking everything, Hello,
How are you? Whats your name? Put the children in pairs and get them to shake
hands and ask each other the questions, change the partners until theyve all spoken
to each other.
Do the same for, Where do you live? this time, if you want, showing a map or
pictures drawn on the board of France and the UK.
Now stand up in front of the children. Say, My names . . . and each child does the
same. Then go round again, but this time ask, Whats your name?. If the first
student begins to repeat the question stop them in their tracks by starting My
names. so that its clear youre looking for the answer. Between each student ask
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
-1-
Then at the end, you can put all the questions and answers together. Stand up and
ask one student all the questions and he replies. Do this with all the students in turn.
Then one of the students can ask the questions, taking the role of the teacher.
Everyone has a go.
-2-
1.
2.
Numbers.
Boy; boys; girl; girls.
Target structures:
1.
2.
Materials
Introduce the numbers 1 12. Say them slowly and show the relevant figure at
the same time. Getting all the children to repeat after each number, do this twice.
Then, do it with each child individually, you saying the number first then them.
All count in a circle together, then go round with everyone saying a number each
in sequence. Continue getting faster and faster, checking that everyone knows
the numbers and can pronounce them correctly.
Choose one of the children to go and close their eyes and move them away from
the group. Show the rest of the group a number of your choice from the set of
cards, which are lined up in order. The group say the number together (this
reinforces for those who are struggling). Ready, go! the one that has not seen
the number rejoins the group and has to find the number that has been said. A
possible problem could be if someone blurts out the number in French. If this
happens you need to make it clear that its not allowed. Stamp this out now and
youll save yourself a lot of problems in future lessons. One way to do it is to tell
them that they lose a point if they say the word in French. They take turns until
everybody has had a go.
Divide your class into two teams. One student from each team comes over to you.
Their remaining team members have a set of cards with the numbers on. You
show the child from team one a number. He says the number in English to one of
his team-mates, who finds the number. If he cant find it, or gets it wrong, the rest
of the team can say. If they still dont have the right answer the other team can try.
If they get it right first time they get two points, if their team gets it right they get
one point and if the other team get it, they steal a point.
To make the link between numbers and age write how old you are in figures on
the board and point to yourself. Point to the number on the board and to yourself
again and elicit what you are trying to convey. If they can guess it will be in their
own language, thats ok, you are merely looking for them to understand the
concept of numbers representing your age (also, they havent learnt as far as the
number you will have written). Tell the students, Im . . .(your age). If you get
blank looks you can take a picture of the boy and hold, for example, the number
five next to it and say, Im five. Take a picture of the girl and hold, for example,
the number six next to it and say, Im six. Point to a student, asking, How old
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
-3-
-4-
Materials:
None.
Its more than possible that you didnt get through everything in Week 2, so begin
this one by finishing the last if you need to. Even if you did, it would be a good
idea to go back and do any points that were rushed or do the activities that
involved the students producing the language. Most importantly make sure that
the students recognise the difference between there is one . . . and there are
two/three etc. . . They will have less problems with the numbers and girl or boy,
but youre also teaching them an extremely useful structure with the how many
and there is/are.
Start the habit of asking how they are and how many girls or boys there are now,
doing this at the start of every class will make it second nature. Further on you
can add all sorts of extra everyday things: What day it is; what the weather is like
etc.
Arrange the chairs into a line, including your own. (Its preferable to have no
chairs or other obstacles in the middle of the room, and as much space as
possible.) You are going to give orders, which are carried out by moving. Begin
with Stand up, you stand up to show the students what to do. Sit down, you sit
down and they follow, they know what youre doing now. The orders are up to
you, but I recommend: Jump; turn around; step forwards; step backwards; be
quiet (finger on lips, short silence), clap your hands; close your eyes; open your
eyes; count to ten. Sit down and stand up are obvious, but also essential for
controlling the class and setting up games. Deep breath, close your eyes,
followed by count to twelve (Everyone counts to twelve slowly), open your eyes,
this is amazingly useful for calming the group after a boisterous game or to curtail
any messing about.
Once youve introduced all the different orders you want to use, bring in dont.
When you dont move they see that theyre not supposed to either. You can use
positive and negative together now, Do this! Dont do that! You no longer need
to show them first, so take a chair opposite the line of students and give the
orders without performing the actions. This is fun for them, but it cant last too long
(especially for the very young groups). Well come back to it later in the lesson.
-5-
Hello!
Hello! (Shake hands)
Whats your name?
My names . . . Whats your name?
My names . . .
How are you?
Im fine thank you. How are you?
Im fine thank you.
How old are you?
Im . . . How old are you?
Im . . .
Where do you live?
I live in . . . Where do you live?
I live in . . .
The order isnt important, of course, youre looking for the right question with the
right answer and pronounced as well as possible. The better the students
become, the more likely it is that youll be able to put two of them in the middle.
This is what youre aiming for, but of course youll need to help.
If your group find this too difficult (which is likely), conveyor belt questioning (see
Games and activities) is an excellent way to practise question and answer
recognition.
Go back to your orders now. Dont give them any clues this time; see if they can
remember from before. Once they get good again (they need to be good for this
bit), put a student in your place in front of the other students. They now give
orders for the rest of the group to follow. If a student struggles, swap over quickly.
The better someone does, the more it will inspire the others to try (They should
enjoy it, they get to tell everyone what to do). The younger the group is, the more
help youll need to give and it may help to limit the orders they can choose from.
Its obvious that you need to keep a younger group under tighter control, but you
can get good participation if you give just enough freedom. Youve got a handy
calming technique now (Sit down, be quiet, close your eyes, count to twelve.).
Commands should make frequent comebacks in future lessons to revise, warm
up or change emphasis to re-capture short attentions spans (slowly introducing
more and more verbs or actions through mime).
-6-
Target structures:
Are you a ?
Yes, I am / No, Im not.
Are you scared of ..?
Yes, Im scared of
No, Im not scared of
Materials:
Introduce the vocabulary. Go through it a few times, as a group and then individually
until you are satisfied with the pronunciation. Then play two vocabulary games to put
it into practice. An example would be to hand out the cards, say one of the words
and get the child with that card to hold it up. Another would be to play the Whats
missing game. This is good to get the students to practise pronunciation.
Go on to teaching the structure, Are you a ? Do this by giving everybody a
flashcard each. Turn to the person next to you and say, Are you a .? followed by
the name of whatever they are holding. Prompt them to answer, Yes I am, do the
same for each student in turn. After you have gone round the circle once, go round
again this time asking, Are you a ..? followed by something theyre not. This time
prompt them to reply saying, No, Im not. Go round a third time with the aim of
mixing up the two answers. You might be tempted to say, Are you the ghost? for
example, as you are talking about the picture of the specific ghost on the flashcard,
but if you were outside the classroom, you would be more likely to use the indefinite
article a if you were talking about things in general. So be careful not to slip into
saying the ghost which might be an easy thing to do.
E.g.
Teacher
A
Teacher
B
-7-
Continue doing this until you are happy with what the students are saying. Go onto
play a game. Hold up the picture of the witch and give it to the person next to you.
Ask them, Are you the witch? the student answers, Yes, I am. Take the card from
the student and give it to the next student, ask the same question again and gesture
for the first student to repeat the question after you. He should say this with a
questioning tone and he should direct it to student number two. Student two answers
and then asks number three the question and so on, until it has gone round the circle
twice or three times. For the game, split the class into teams and sit them at either
sides of a table. Give everyone in the first team a different flashcard, and give the
second team copies of the cards youve given the first team. Make sure everybody
hides their cards so that nobody can see. Well call them team A and team B. Team
A are going to start. The first member looks at his card, say its the skeleton. His aim
is to find the skeleton in the other group, so he picks someone and asks, Are you the
skeleton? They reply accordingly. If they say, Yes, I am. the two players but their
cards down on the table. If they say No, Im not., its the next member of team A to
have a go. If the answer was yes, team A get a point, but only if they guess right first
time. Let every team member find their partner (even if its the second or third time of
them asking the question.) Now, all the cards should be laid down on the table. Pick
up the cards and deal them out again, keeping one set of cards for team A and the
copies for team B. If you havent used all the flashcards in the first round, (because
you have a small class), use this as an opportunity to swap over and use the
remaining flashcards. Do exactly the same but this time with team B asking the
questions. Record the points each time they guess correctly the first time and get
them to keep taking turns until all their partners have been found. At the end, add up
the points and see who has got the most. Play the game again If you feel that the
students would benefit from it.
For the next part of the lesson, use the scared and not scared flashcards. Hold one
up at a time and say what they are using the phrases, Im scared and Im not
scared. Then, choose one of the Halloween flashcards, hold it up in the air and say,
Oooh, Im scared. Choose another one of the flashcards, shake your head and say
Im not scared. Hold up the scared card and the not scared cards once again,
and repeat the phrases that they represent. Then, the students can have a go. Put
the pictures down on the table and get the students to point to the correct picture
when you say Im scared and Im not scared. After they are getting them all right,
point to the pictures and get the students to say what they are, first altogether then
individually.
Moving onto the question, get everyone to stand up and stand in a circle. Say the
question this time, Are you scared?. Say it several times getting the students to
repeat after you as a group. Ask individuals to repeat after you. Do some more
repetitions as a group and then go round the circle, encouraging everyone to say the
question in turn. (If it is a small, well behaved group, throw round a cuddly toy to
choose the student who speaks.)
-8-
Sit back down again, and show the Halloween flashcards. Say if you hold up the
ghost flashcard ask, Are you scared of the ghost? The students can reply how they
want to. Practise with all the flashcards and go through them several times. Then,
play the game. Choose someone to ask the question and the first person who is
going to answer. Give the scared pictures and all of the Halloween flashcards to the
person who is going to ask the question Student A. Student A picks up one of the
Halloween flashcards e.g. the pumpkin and asks student B, Are you scared of
pumpkins? Student B replies how he wants to. Yes, Im scared, or No, Im not
scared. Student A, then gives the corresponding scared picture to Student B.
Student A asks Student C the same question, and gives him one of the scared
pictures, depending on student Cs answer.
A
B
A
A
C
A
Student A asks everybody a question about one Halloween flashcard. After he has
asked everyone a question, use some TPR.
E.g.
Then it is student Bs turn to ask the question, so do the same again with a different
Halloween flashcard. Finish the round with some TPR. An idea to finish off the lesson
is something like a Halloween jigsaw or some Halloween colouring in.
-9-
Week 5
Colours
Target structures:
Target vocabulary: Blue; red; yellow; green; black; white; brown; purple. (Pink;
orange; grey.)
Materials:
Hello, how are you, how many boys are there, how many girls are there? Easy,
obvious, but dont forget to keep this going. Also, take your first five minutes or so to
go over the previous lesson. This is another habit to get into early, its essential for
two reasons: To internalise the language, iron-out any faults and to make the
students feel good about themselves (they are doing something they already know,
so they can express it confidently and begin the class on a high).
Using pieces of coloured cardboard, introduce the colours above or of your choice,
but ideally no more than seven colours, as this is the average number of words we
can retain in the space of an hour. Hold the pieces of cardboard up, saying the name
of the colour as you do so. Get the children to repeat the names all together, at least
three times. Then ask the children to say the names of the colours individually as you
hold the colours up. Red and green are often the most difficult, due to the
pronunciation of the English r.
To reinforce the names of the colours, play a game. Split the group into two teams
and get them to sit behind each other on the floor. Give the two children at the back
of the line a set of the colours each that you have just taught them. Ask all the
children apart from the two at the front to close their eyes. They should know how to
do this, after Week 3. Show the front two children a colour. Shout, Open your eyes.
to the other children, and then get the first two children to turn around and whisper
the name of the colour to the second child, the second child to the third etc. Try and
make sure that they whisper and that they say the name in English. You can
reinforce this by taking away points if they say the colour in French. When the
Chinese whisper has got to the child at the back of the line. He selects the correct
colour from his set and holds it up in the air. The first team to do this correctly gets a
point. Unfortunately this game will only work with a fairly large group, so use your
judgement as to whether it will work in your class.
Stop the game when one of the teams has got a set number of points, for example
play the first to 5. Then you can move on to the question, What colour is it?
Ask this question and then point to the red piece of cardboard and say, Its red.
Repeat the question and this time point to the blue piece and say, Its blue.
Repetition of the question and answer form one after the other will help associate the
two together.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
- 10 -
Get the children to repeat after you, What colour is it? first together, and then
individually, correcting any mispronunciation. Then, all ask the question together.
Point to one of the colours and all say in unison, Its .. It is quite likely that the
children will just blurt out the name of the colour without its, in this case insist on
them saying its by getting them to repeat the answer after you each time.
Now, you can play another game. Give each child in the circle a colour. Start by
saying, Ive got red, for example. Prompt the child next to you to say Ive got ..
whichever colour he has. Go round the circle until everyone has said which colour
they have. Give everyone a different colour and do it again. Lay out a set of the same
colours that the students have on a table or on the floor. Then, introduce the
question, What colour have you got? ask everyone individually and get them to
reply. They mustnt show you the colour, but say, Ive got . . .(Green for example).
Find the corresponding colour, (so the green card in this case) and hold it up. Beckon
for the student to show you their card. The two cards should match. (If they dont the
student is wrong.) Ask, Is that right? The students reply yes or no. If no, give them
and the others a chance to correct before you do. Make this a habit for everything,
always let the class correct themselves first. Doing this keeps the attention and
involvement of the whole class, while being corrected by your peers is less harsh.
Repeat the colour one more time as a group, just to reinforce. When everybody is a
bit more confident, you can start the game. Divide the class into two teams (This is a
game played individually, but keeping the points in teams avoids an individual loser).
Choose a student to play the role of the teacher, asking everyone the question in
turn. If the student picks the correct colour from their classmates reply, they take the
pair. Give a point for each pair of cards chosen correctly. If a reply is wrong, e.g. a
student says, Ive got blue when they have a red card, that students team loses a
point. The student counts their points in English at the end of their turn. Everybody
having a turn at this should enable them to retain the question and how to reply.
You can keep this game going until the end of the lesson, changing teams to keep
interest, or revisit something from earlier in the lesson. Of course, you can also add
any game of your own, but nothing involving new vocabulary (theyve had enough to
deal with already).
- 11 -
Revision Lesson A
Lessons to revise:
Week 1
Introductions
Week 2
Numbers
Week 3
Commands
Week 5
Colours
- 12 -
Im . . .
Are you..?
Yes, I am / No, Im not.
Am I . . .?
Yes, you are / No, youre not.
(Present simple - to be + feeling.)
Target vocabulary:
Materials:
This week, were going to concentrate on teaching the present simple of to be (Im
and youre in this lesson). You can also see that it is contracted (Im, not I am etc.). If
you think about it, pretty much the only people who say I am in normal spoken
English are foreigners (apart from in the affirmative Yes, I am). Dont worry; they
will most certainly learn to write I am at school in the future. So once youve used
your first five minutes or so to look back at the last lesson, you can start to teach
these emotions.
Start by showing the students the happy flashcard; pull a big happy face and signal
for the students to do the same. Happy!, you say, and the students repeat. Sad,
everyone pulls a sad face and says Sad. Practise all four as a group, and then
individually. Move onto You point, they say (You can probably skip You say, they
point, as there are so few words to remember), again as a group and after that with
individuals.
Give each student a flashcard, organise them into a circle and start with yourself, Im
. . .. Each student says Im . . .(emotion shown on their card) when its their turn .
Swap the flashcards around and do the exercise again a few times (youre insisting
on the Im now).
Once the Im has sunk in change the cards again, this time showing the students that
they are not allowed to let anyone else see their card.
TeacherAre you happy? Yes or no?
ANo.
TeacherNo, Im not.
ANo, Im not.
TeacherAre you angry?
AYes!
TeacherYes, I am.
AYes, I am.
Teacher(Turns to B.) Are you happy?
BYes, I am!
Teacher(Turns to C.) Are you fed up?
CNo, Im not.
Etc.
- 13 -
Thats how it should go. In reality it will take longer than that to get yes, I am and no,
Im not replies to come out naturally, but were going to practise until they do.
Choose a student to replace you, i.e. they ask the others, Are you . . . ?. When they
get one right they take the card. You decide how long to let each student ask the
questions. Its the guessing game part that the children will like, but youre interested
in making them confident and able to use the question; the answer and the
vocabulary. Give everyone a turn to ask the questions before you end the game.
The next task is to teach Am I . . .?, yes, you are and no, youre not. Take a
flashcard and ask, Am I . . .(happy)?. (Youre actually angry.) The group tells you,
No!. -No, youre not , you correct. Am I . . .(angry)?, you ask. Yes!, they reply. Yes, you are, you correct this time. Continue this, deliberately getting ones wrong
now and again to practise no, youre not as well as yes, you are.
Pick one or two students to go and close their eyes away from the rest of the group.
The remaining group members pick an emotion for them. They come back to the
circle and ask the others, Am I . . . ?. You choose who replies, to make sure they all
participate. You can get this to go quite fast as the students get quicker and better
with the language. They may get quite excitable. If so, warm them down with a Sit
down, be quiet, close your eyes, count to ten, be quiet, open your eyes.
This should take you pretty much to the end of the lesson. If you do have some time
left, you can try another version of the activity where everyone is in a circle and each
student has a flashcard. They look at the flashcard, hold it so that the rest of the
group can see, and instead of saying Im . . .; they have to say Im not . . .. They
know what they are, so they have the freedom to choose from the other three
emotions that dont apply to them.
A
B
C
Show them what you want with a few examples. E.g. You have a happy flashcard.
Show the card to the students and say, Im not sad. Change the card for an angry
and say, Im not happy, etc.
This is just if you have some time left, but it gives the students some freedom in
exercising what they have learnt.
- 14 -
Target structures:
Materials:
This was originally going to be one lesson, but when tested it became clear that it
was too dense and the concepts couldnt be done justice in one hour. Go as far as
you can comfortably go in the first hour without rushing. You can then re-do some of
the earlier activities, before concentrating on the Wheres my? Is that your?
game, in the second hour.
Introduce your vocabulary, its best if you get hold of the realia (real objects) for this
one instead of showing flashcards (for your master set). Choose a couple of
vocabulary games to practise (try to avoid the whats missing? game, because its
the basis of the activity for producing our sentences).
Give each student their own paper knife, fork, spoon, plate and glass from the printed
sheets. Everyone stands in a line with their paper vocabulary in front of them (laid out
like it would be for a meal). You stand opposite the group with your items in front of
you, just like the students. You practise, This is a . . . for all of the vocabulary with
the students (group and individuals).
Teacher
Group
Teacher
Group
Teacher
Group
Teacher
A
Teacher
Group
Teacher
B
Teacher
C
Etc.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
Its important that you hold up any item that you are going to use for a this sentence.
Why? Lets be sure of the difference between this and that.
This is something physically or psychologically near.
That is something physically or psychologically remote.
French doesnt distinguish between this and that (e.g. this tree cet arbre; that tree
cet arbre). This is why you should always hold up a this item (shows that its
close), and why you should point at a that item (shows that its remote).
Take one item from your set and put it on the floor further away from the others (so
that its clearly separate from the rest of your set). Point at it and say, Thats a . . ..
Teacher
Group
Teacher
A
(Separates the knife from the rest of the set and points at it.)
Whats that?
(Separate the knife from the rest of their sets and point at it.)
Thats a knife.
(Separates the spoon from the rest of the set and points at it.)
Whats that? (Looking at A.)
(Separates the knife from the rest of the set and points at it.)
Thats a spoon.
Etc.
A chanting game can be played now. You pick up one item, the knife for instance,
and pointing to each one in turn you say, This is a knife, the students copy, This is
a knife. Thats a plate, you say, Thats a plate, they reply. You continue until all of
the items have been done. For the next round, you pick the plate up and the order
will be this: thats a knife; this is a plate; thats a fork; thats a spoon; thats a glass.
The next will be: thats a knife; thats a plate; this is a fork; thats a spoon; thats a
glass. When you have been through the whole set it is the students turn. One
student comes to the front, picks up the knife, everybody else (standing opposite)
does the same. He then goes through the items in order, saying this is a if he is
holding it and thats a if he is pointing to it on the floor. The students each take a
turn, doing it as fast and with as few mistakes as possible.
The students need to personalise their cutlery and crockery. You should write their
name or initial on their knives, forks, etc. You can let them scribble or draw on them a
bit if youve got some coloured pens (it could also be a little revision of colours). Dont
spend any more than three or four minutes doing this, the main thing is that each
persons vocabulary items be distinguishable from the others.
Sit everyone in a circle, meal settings in front of them. Take one item from your set,
stand up and put it on your chair behind you. The students do the same (with the
same item). You say, Wheres my . . .?. The next student does the same, and the
next, etc. until the whole group has done it. Repeat this for a couple more items, and
then send a student to close their eyes away from the others (Student A). Take their
plate, while everyone else picks up their own plate. Swap Student As plate with
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
- 16 -
(A comes back to the group and sees that his plate is missing.)
Plate?!
Wheres m . .
Wheres my plate?
(Points at Es plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?
No.
No, its not.
No, its not.
(Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?
No.
No, its not.
No, its not.
(Waves for A to ask B.)
Wheres my plate?
(Shows B by pointing to plate in the middle.) Is that . .
(Points at Es plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?
No, its not.
(Shows B by holding up plate.) Is this . .
(Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?
No, its not.
(Waves for A to ask C.)
Wheres my plate?
(Points at Es plate in the middle.) Is this your plate?
(Points at Es plate in the middle.) This? Or that?
(Points at Es plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?
No, its not.
(Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?
No, its not. (Looks at D.) Wheres my plate?
(Points at Es plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?
No, its not.
(Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?
No, its not. (Turns to E.) Wheres my plate?
(Points at Es plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?
No, its not.
(Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?
Yes!
Yes, it is!
Yes, it is!
That went on for a while (I wanted to show a couple of the possible problems), but it
just depends on how quickly they find the person who has their item.
Small problem:- The older they are, the more likely they are to recognise who the
item in the middle belongs to. Once one has been put in the middle, everyone swaps
their items with each other (so if Es plate is in the middle it no longer means that E
has the wanted plate).
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
- 17 -
A
E
A
B
A
B
A
C
A
C
A
B
A
E
Etc.
Whats the difference that shows them whether to use this or that ?
They know that its this when theyre holding something (its near), and its that
when theyre pointing at something (its more remote).
You can finish by playing the Whats this/that? This is/thats a . . . game from
earlier on. See if the students can conduct it by themselves (with a little help from you
if they need).
- 18 -
Target structure:
Materials:
As always, use your first five minutes to look back to the previous lesson (thats the
last time well say that, you should do this automatically now). Introduce the above
types of weather by using pictures. Show the pictures and say what they are, using
the construction, Its. Do this a few times, then give each child a picture. If there
are more children than pictures, put the children into pairs. Then, shout out a type of
weather and the child or children with that picture stand up with their picture. Do this
a couple of times and then change pictures.
Put the pictures on six chairs in the room and pick out one student to go and sit on
the chair with the picture that corresponds with what you say. Its best to do this with
just one student rather than the class as a whole, but change over the students quite
quickly so that the others dont get bored. Each time the child finds the picture that
you ask for, ask the class if they have chosen correctly or not, this will keep the group
involved and interested. After you have done this several times with different children,
move on to getting them to practise saying the phrases. Choose someone else and
say a type of weather. Again, get him to sit on the chair with the corresponding
picture, then say what it is. All the class can say this together.
After a few goes, introduce the question, Whats the weather like? Place the second
set of pictures face down on a table away from the group and choose an assistant.
The assistant is going to reply to your question (Whats the weather like?) by turning
over one of the pictures and saying what type of weather it is. Again, pick one child to
go and stand by the corresponding picture and repeat what the assistant has said.
Change over the student every one or two questions.
After everyone has got a fair idea of the language you are using, you can move onto
a game of weather bingo. Prompt the children to ask the question, Whats the
weather like? use the second set of cards to determine the order in which you say
them. The children can then take turns in being the bingo caller. (There will have to
be a couple of the same pictures on each bingo card as we are only teaching six
types of weather.)
- 19 -
- 20 -
Target structure:
Materials:
Use pictures to introduce the vocabulary. Choose other words if you wish, but limit
them to seven or eight. You could also use the poisoned pass the parcel game to
teach the vocabulary. After everyone is confident, stick 2 sets of the flashcards on the
wall, in two separate areas, and give another child in the group the third set of
flashcards. The child with the set of flashcards in his hand is going to call out the
names of the pictures on the cards. If you think he might struggle, give him a helper
to give him a hand. Two more students are going to go up and stand next to a set of
words each on the wall. As the child with the flashcards calls out the names, the two
children have to point to the corresponding picture, the first one to do this correctly
gets a point. Make sure you ask the rest of the class if its right after each go to keep
them involved. After the child has read out the names of the flashcards, change over
all the players and start again.
After all the excitement, it may be an idea to calm the students down, by getting them
to sit down, close their eyes and count to twelve. Hand out all the pictures so that
everyone has got a set each. For two minutes, go over the vocabulary again, by
calling out the words without showing any pictures and getting all the children to hold
up the corresponding picture. Hand the pictures out again, but this time not fairly so
that some children have two or more of the same picture, this is to introduce the
plurals. Do an example first e.g. call out Christmas tree and hold up one Christmas
tree, then say Christmas trees and hold up a few. Call out all the vocabulary in
singular and plural forms getting the children to hold up whatever you ask for, then
move on to the next part. Collect in all of one picture, for example everyone gives you
their presents. Introduce the saying, Ive got some presents. Hold up all the pictures
of the presents and say the full sentence at the same time. Pass all the pictures of
the presents to the next person and get them to say the same phrase. Go round the
circle getting everyone to say it one by one as they are holding the pictures. Go
round the circle until everyone has had a go. Then do this with all the snowmen for
example, to emphasise that the objects can change but the structure stays the same.
- 21 -
- 22 -
Revision Lesson B
Lessons to revise:
Week 7
Emotions
Weeks 8 & 9
Week 10
Weather
- 23 -
Target structure:
Materials:
If you have a photo of your family, this is an ideal way to teach this vocabulary. The
students will also find it very interesting. Point to each person and say which one it is,
do this a couple of times, then get the children to repeat the names after you. Then
say the names and get the children to point to the correct picture, they can do this
one by one. Then, you point to the pictures and get the children to say what they are,
first as a group and then one by one.
The commands game using conditional commands is a good activity for bodilykinaesthetic stimulation and offers another way to process the language they are
learning. Start them off by asking them to put their chairs in a line and sit down,
followed by some of the simple orders that they now know by heart. You then tell
them to do something if theyve got a certain amount of brothers and sisters. Watch
them all move and then see how (hopefully) some realise that they were only
supposed to do it if the condition applied to them. Whether some realise first time
around or not, I sit them back down and go through the students asking them if they
have the amount of brothers and sisters I specified. If it does apply to the student I
give him/her the go ahead thumbs up to do the action, if it doesnt I shake my head
and wave my dont do it finger and he/she doesnt do it.
Here is an example of how it might go:
stand up
sit down
stand up youve got 1 brother but no sisters
sit down if youve got 1 sister but no sisters
clap your hands if youve got 2 brothers but no sisters
turn around if youve got 2 sisters but no brothers
stand up if youve got 1 sister and 1 brother
sit down if youve got no brothers or sisters/if you havent got any. etc
Bring out the picture again and ask the question Have you got any brothers or
sisters? Answer the question yourself, using the whole phrase Ive got., use your
fingers to show how many you have and point to the brother and/or the sister in the
picture to indicate which you have. Then point to someone in the group, and ask the
question: Have you got any brothers or sisters? use the picture as a prop and
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
- 24 -
- 25 -
Line the students up in two rows facing each other. Get one group to ask the
question in unison: Have you got any pets? Hold up a picture of an animal and
indicate the number on your fingers, to provoke the second groups answer. Ive
got. Do this several times, using the cards and your fingers to decide the answer.
Swap over to let the other team have a go at asking the question. Go on to do this
with individuals, choose the two students facing each other and who are closest to
you to go first, then the second two students and so on. After everyone has a go, do
exactly the same again, but with the other person asking the question this time.
Come back to the circle and sit down. Prompt the child to your right to ask you the
question, give your own answer, followed by the question. The question will be
directed at the student to your left. He will answer the question and ask the person to
his left the question, and so on. You may need to do quite a lot of prompting.
At the end of the class, get everyone to stand up and form a line, standing behind
each other. Ask the first student in front of you, one of the two questions you have
been using, and see if they can reply. If they reply correctly send them to the back of
the line for another go, if they dont get it right, correct them and then send them to
the back of the line too. (You can give points for each correct answer to spice things
up a bit if you want to, but I find that this gets complicated with the little ones.
- 26 -
Body Parts I
Target vocabulary: Eye; ear; mouth; nose; head; foot; hand; stomach.
Target structures:
Materials:
Were going to start with the above body parts, introduce too many at once and you
risk confusing the students. Introduce these body parts by pointing to your
eye/ear/mouth/nose/head/foot/hand/stomach and showing the corresponding
flashcard at the same time. Keep them all in the singular to begin with, they can learn
the plurals later (especially as we have an irregular plural). Get them to repeat after
you and go through each body part at least three times altogether and then
individually. Drill the words until you are happy that everyone can pronounce them
correctly. Then, say Touch your . and get the students to do the action. Let
them do this on their own, so as to find out how much they remember. This will give
you a good indication of the ones that they find easy and the ones they find more
difficult. Go back to pointing at each part of the body, showing the card and saying
what it is. You can put more emphasis on the ones that they are finding difficult this
time. Then start giving the touch your instructions a second time. First to the
group as a whole and then to individuals. Now, you can see where any individuals
have problems and you can go over the vocabulary again. With each one go through
all the vocabulary, coming back to the difficult words every third time or so. E.g. If
ear is the difficult one, say it more than the rest ear, mouth, ear, hand, ear, eye,
etc
They should be able to attempt the body parts on their own now. Instead of you
saying and the students pointing, you can point to the body part and the students say
it. To begin with, the students can say the body parts together as you point. As
before, move onto testing individuals and reinforce pronunciation.
The game we are going to play is this:
A
Ouch!
B
Whats wrong?
Show A the ear flashcard.
A
My ear hurts.
B holds a plaster over As ear.
You Is that right?
A
Yes!
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Target Structure:
Materials :
Start by going over the last lessons body parts. Point to the parts of the body and
say the name, get the children to repeat after you. Then, you can do this, just
pointing at the body parts and getting the children to say what it is. First do this all
together, then do it with individuals. When you are satisfied with the pronunciation
you can move on to the new vocabulary.
For the new vocabulary you can use the head, shoulders, knees and toes song. Get
everyone to stand up and start by talking the students through the song, getting
everyone to point at the body part and say what it is as you go along. Do this a few
times before you go on to sing it. Then, sing it together doing the actions at the same
time. Make sure you point to your toes and not just your feet when doing the actions.
Emphasise the difference between toes and feet so as to avoid confusion.
Sing the song a couple of times. If the group is large, you might need to calm them
down before moving on. You can do this with the method we used earlier (tell them to
sit down, close their eyes and count to twelve).
Now, you can check which of the words they have retained. Point to your arm, leg,
neck, shoulders, knees, fingers and toes, saying what each one is as you point and
getting the children to repeat the name. Do this several times as a group and then
with individuals. Then back to group work; say, Touch your and get the children to
touch the relevant body part. You will have to demonstrate the first couple so as to
give an example of what youre looking for, but only do a couple, so that they have to
try and work out which body part is which. Do this again, but this time with
individuals.
Then give every student a picture of a monsters body and a monsters head (one
large oval shape and a round shape). Place a pile of ready prepared eyes, ears,
noses, mouths, arms and legs on the table. This is for the students to create their
own monster. They can give it as many eyes or legs as they want, create your own
one at the same time or have one already prepared to demonstrate. Stick the body
parts on with blutack (use drawing pins for the arms and legs, but youll have to do
this bit to avoid any accidents). When they are finished stick them up on the wall. Ask
each child individually, how many eyes has your monster got? The child replies its
got three eyes. Insist straight away on the whole sentence, as they will just reply with
the number to start of with, so give them the sentence and get them to repeat it after
you. Do this with each child and each body part. Afterwards they can take their
monster home and describe it to their parents.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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If there is still time at the end of the class, practise the role-play from the previous
lesson, this time incorporating the new vocabulary. First split the class in two. Point to
one half and say, Ouch make a gesture for them to repeat what you say. Then point
to the second half of the class and say Whats wrong? then, gesture for them to
repeat it. Go back to the first half and say my leg hurts and get them to repeat. Back
to the first team, give one child from this team a plaster to hold over the imaginary
injury. Do this a couple of times and then show different vocabulary flashcards to
group one, now they have to incorporate whatever word is on the card. Then change
over, getting the other half of the group to start this time. After doing this with the two
halves of the group, pick individuals to act it out, showing different vocabulary cards
each time.
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Animals
Target Vocabulary:
Target Structure :
Materials:
Show flashcards of the seven animals above. Show them slowly one by one, saying
their names as you go along and getting the group to repeat what you say. Do this at
least three times. Then, lay them out on the table and point to them saying what they
are, again getting everyone to repeat as you go say the names. Then, just say the
name and get the children to point to the corresponding picture. Alternatively, you
could give everyone in the group a picture each, say the name of the animal and
gesture for the child with that picture to hold it up in the air, do this several times
swapping over everyones picture each time. Place the cards back on the table, point
to a picture and the children try to be the first to say what it is. A competitive version
of whats missing? (with two children closing their eyes and then trying to be the
quickest to call out the three or four missing pictures. If they dont know them all the
students who chose the pictures that have been hidden can steal points by saying
them afterwards) could be another useful activity.
Put seven chairs out in a circle in the room and stick a flashcard onto each chair. Tell
everyone to choose a chair and sit down on it. Practise a few stand up s and sit
down s, as these commands are going to form part of the phrase you are going to
use to give instructions. Now, tell the children to stand up and come forward.
Everyone is now stood in front of you. Give an instruction like the following, Sit on
the chair with the spider. Direct this at one student and he must do as you say. If he
struggles to understand direct it at another student to demonstrate. Keep giving
instructions for a while, until everyone has got the hang of it and then come back and
stand in the circle.
Now you can add the action that the animals do. Using the other set of flashcards,
hold a picture up. For example, take the fish and say, The fish can swim and do the
action of swimming at the same time. All the children do this with you. Do this for all
the animals you have:
i.e.
The rabbit can jump.
The cat can run.
The dog can run.
The bird can fly.
The mouse can run.
The spider can climb.
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Then, hold the rabbit flashcard up and ask the question, Can the rabbit jump? Start
by saying yes along with them as well as doing the action, so they know what you are
looking for. Do this with all the animals in turn mixing up true and false statements.
e.g.
A
Can the fish swim? (Does swimming action.)
B
Yes
A
Can the rabbit swim? (Does swimming action.)
B
No
A child once pointed out in this lesson that her dog could swim, for the purposes of
the games and to prevent complicating things each animal is limited to one action
that it can perform.
Using the chairs again, give a command like the following: Sit on a chair with an
animal that can swim, then direct this at one student, doing the action if necessary.
Saying a students name after the question instead of before, keeps everyones
concentration up, as they dont know who is going to be chosen. Direct the children
to the chairs, until everyone is sitting down. Now, you can direct one student to
another place, if there is already a student on the chair they must go to the place of
the student who wants their spot, and so it keeps moving round.
Now, you can revise what you have just done by playing a round of Whats missing.
This will go over the vocabulary and also calm the children down after they have
been moving around. You start by hiding one card and asking the question Whats
missing? The person who answers is the next one to hide a card and so on. Each
time an animal is chosen ask a question Can the jump / run / climb / fly? Say
true and false ones, getting the students to reply with yes or no.
Alternative
Present the animals to the students. Practise as a group and then individually with
emphasis on pronunciation. Play you say, they point and say, you point, they say,
keep the card and competitive whats missing?. Play a regular game of commands
and introduce the actions: run; jump (continuous jumping like a rabbit, not a single
jump like we normally do); fly; climb; swim. Play this with elimination, having the
students close their eyes before performing each new action to prevent copying.
Link each animal with the action it can do. The students sit in a line with you in front
of them. They stand up one by one, repeating the sentence that you give as you
show a particular animal, e.g. The bird can fly. When they are all standing you
repeat the sentence louder and as a group, before all performing the action. Tell
them to stop and sit down, repeat the process for the rest of the animals.
Set out the seven chairs in a circle and stick an animal to each chair. Begin with a
few rounds of, Sit on the chair with the rabbit etc. to establish the idea that you must
be the quickest to sit on the appropriate chair. Repeat what each animal can do and
play the full game of, Sit on the chair with an animal that can fly etc. The first few
rounds can be done showing the action. Two children play at a time, the winner gets
a point and goes to sit down on a chair outside the circle until it is his/her turn to
come back, while the loser stays in the middle and plays against the next student
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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- 33 -
Week 17
Revision Lesson C
Lessons to revise:
Week 13
Week 14
Body Parts I
Week 15
Body Parts II
- 34 -
Target structure:
Materials:
Sit the children in a circle and give everyone a flashcard each. Say the name of each
animal and get the children to hold their picture up when you say the name. Go round
the circle asking what everyone has got, show them that they have to hold up their
picture and say the name. Change over everyones picture and repeat, first say it and
the students hold up the picture. Then point at the students picture and ask what
they have got, then they hold up their picture and say what it is. Change flashcards
again, say the names of two of the animals and the two students with these two
flashcards must change places, going outside of the circle, miming the action of the
animal as they move. Pick a student to stand up and do an example with you, using
mime and English only.
As each child sits down, say what it is that their animal can do. E.g. The fish can
swim. The child who has done the action repeats this after you. After everyone has
had a go, swap over the cards and do it again. After a while see if they can say the
phrase by themselves, if not keep going with them repeating after you and try again
in a little bit.
Hold up a flashcard, for example the fish and ask, Can the fish swim / jump? the
children have to answer with, Yes or No. You could, as an alternative, get the
children to stand up if the answer is yes and remain seated if the answer is no.
Take the cat and the dog flashcards out for this game. Ask one student to go the side
of the room, face the wall and close his eyes. Give each student a card, they
memorise what they have and put their cards back on the table. The eyes closed
student rejoins the group. The group stands in a line and the eyes closed student
asks questions to match the cards up with the students. For example, Can you fly?
(to try and find the student with the bird picture). The question is directed at the
student at the end of the line. If this student answers Yes, I can. The eyes closed
student gains a point. If this student answers, No, I cant he/she moves onto ask the
next student a question. When the eyes closed student reaches the end of the line,
add up the points. Go back to those who said No, I cant., and ask them to say what
they can do, depending on what their picture is.
The eyes closed student then says what animal they are, but he does not gain any
points for this part. Another student can go up and be the next person to close his
eyes and ask the questions.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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Yes, B just talked about him/herself in the third person. You can teach them and I
(or the wrong, but more commonly used and me) if you want, but youll have to
decide whether you want to risk complicating things further.
You can move onto double orders, e.g. Stand up, jump if you can swim. Stand up,
turn around if you cant swim .
To end with, weve got a fun non-competitive game to play. Sit the students in a line
opposite you. Give each student an animal flashcard. They have to memorise the
action that their animal can do. Collect the cards back in and give an example of what
they have to do. Show a card from the pack, its the bird. Find out who had the bird
and ask them to stand up. Encourage them to say, I can fly and to flap their wings
(show this by doing it yourself). They must continue doing their action (in this case
flapping) until you show a different card. Show the next flashcard, the owner(s) of
this card stand up and say, I can . . .. They start to do their animals action, while
the last (birdman) person sits back down. Go through all of the flashcards to give
each student a chance to practise their action. Start for real, getting faster as the
students recognise their action.
E.g.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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Make sure this is fairly fast paced, this is what makes it fun (and keeps concentration
levels up). It can also be more fun when there is more than one student who is a
rabbit, bird, etc.
Alternative
This follows on from the alternative Animals lesson and is more ambitious than the
first version of the Can you? lesson. The first part will be to revise the animals and
ideas from that previous lesson. Show and say the names of the animals that you
used. Play you say, they point and say, you point, they say, keep the card and
competitive whats missing?. Play a regular game of commands and revise the
actions: run; jump (continuous jumping like a rabbit, not a single jump like we
normally do); fly; climb; swim. Play this with elimination, having the students close
their eyes before performing each new action to prevent copying.
Link each animal with the action it can do. The students sit in a line with you in front
of them. They stand up one by one, repeating the sentence that you give as you
show a particular animal, e.g. The bird can fly. When they are all standing you
repeat the sentence louder and as a group, before all performing the action. Tell
them to stop and sit down, repeat the process for the rest of the animals.
Set out the seven chairs in a circle and stick an animal to each chair. Begin with a
few rounds of, Sit on the chair with the rabbit etc. to re-establish the idea that you
must be the quickest to sit on the appropriate chair. Repeat what each animal can do
and play the full game of, Sit on the chair with an animal that can fly etc. The first
few rounds can be done showing the action. Two children play at a time, the winner
gets a point and goes to sit down on a chair outside the circle until it is his/her turn to
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
- 37 -
- 38 -
Target structures:
Materials:
Take the flashcards of the house, garden and rooms. Show them, say what youre
holding and repeat as a group. Pass one flashcard around the circle, each student
says the place shown on the card. You help with pronunciations and repeat this for
each piece of vocabulary.
Choose another couple of vocabulary games to practise. I suggest any one from
poisoned pass the parcel, change chairs, pick up a pair, whats missing? and keep
the card. Another useful game to do after one of these is the Go into game. You
say, Go into the . . .(room or place), (the flashcards are on chairs or on the wall
around the room) and a student has to find the right one. (From my experience, your
problem words will probably be bedroom and bathroom because of the similarity.
Dining room is also a hard one for correct pronunciation.)
After these games, were going to introduce Im in the . . .. Fix the flashcards to
chairs or on the wall around the room (if you didnt use the Go into game), with a
decent space between each room or place. As the students watch, walk into one of
the rooms and say, Im in the (room or place). Take a couple of students and put
them in rooms. Once they have said Im in the . . . (maybe needing help from you),
invite the rest of the group to go into rooms (You can let them choose where if you
want). Go round the whole group and ask, Where are you?. When each student has
said their room with Im in the in front of it, everyone moves on one to the next
room. Ask again, the students reply, and then move round. Ask, Where are you?
every time, so the students can familiarise the question and answer. Once this has
been done enough times for the students to accept they have to say the Im in the
part, as well as the room, bring them back into a circle. Practise the question on its
own: you say and the next person repeats. (You could pass a question mark around
the group, each person says the question when they are holding it.)
Show the dolls house to the students. Lift the house front off, revealing the rooms.
The students identify the rooms (its easy, theyve got the same pictures as the
flashcards), before you give them their counter. Their counter is a small piece of
card, on which you write a students name and they draw a face. Put your own
counter in one of the rooms and say where you are. Choose another student to put
their counter in a room and say, Im in the . . .. All the students now put their
counters in a room of their choice and, as you ask each one where they are, they say
which room theyre in. Do this again, but the students take their counter back and
remember which room it was in this time.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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(Comes back to group and doesnt know where the others put their
counters.) Where are you? (Points at B.)
Im in the kitchen.
(Puts Bs counter in the kitchen.)
Is that right?
Yes!
Where are you? (Points at C.)
Im in the bedroom.
(Puts Cs counter in the bathroom.)
Is that right?
No.
Where are you?
Im in the bedroom.
Is that the bedroom? (Looks at the group and points at the bathroom.)
No! Bathroom.
Wheres the bedroom? (Asks A.)
(Puts Cs counter in the bedroom.)
Is that right?
Yes!
You can give points for first time correct answers, put the students into teams . . . its
up to you. If youve got a large group it could be useful to do it like this: Divide the
class into two teams; have two students from each team close their eyes in the
corner; when they come back they ask the other members of their team; the teams
get points for correct answers.
Take the dolls house to one side of the room. Choose one student to take the
flashcards and stand at the other side of the room (or somewhere they cant see what
is happening in the dolls house). Another person (or you if the class is small) takes
the other students counters and puts them in the dolls house. This person is the
chooser. The student with the flashcards asks, Where are you? and the others
have to say where in the house they have been placed. The student with the
flashcards holds up the one that has been said, and the chooser says if it is right or
wrong (to keep them concentrating). Change the roles around and give everyone a
turn as either chooser or flashcarder.
The last thing to introduce is, Are you in the . . .?. Put the dolls house back into the
middle of the room and invite the students to put their counters in the rooms. Ask
someone, Are you in the (e.g. lounge)?. They reply. If they are where you have
asked, yes and if theyre not, no, Im in the (e.g. kitchen). Give them some
examples to clarify what you want if they dont find it immediately obvious.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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You can do this with two students closing their eyes, asking the others alternately
and its the first one to find the student in the designated room.
You can decide where the students have their counters if you need to, this way you
can make sure there is only one person in the room you choose and you can give
everyone a chance to be it.
This is already a lot to get through if you give each part the time it needs. If you still
have some time left, you can play a game to find out where each person is. As
before, they ask, Are you in the . . .?. However, they keep on asking the same
person, using different rooms until they guess the correct one before moving on to
the next person.
- 41 -
Target structure:
Materials:
Spend roughly 20 minutes on this part. Point to your eyes and say, Eyes. Urge
them to repeat, first as a group then individually. Point at everyones eyes and say
what colours they are e.g. Brown eyes or Blue eyes or Green eyes. Point at one
person at a time and get the group to say what colour eyes that person has. Then,
they describe their own eyes one by one. Introduce Ive got. Point to your eyes and
this time say the full sentence. Go round the group individually again, this time getting
them to say the whole thing. E.g. Ive got blue eyes. Go round several times until
everyone is getting it right. Use some TPR then to practise the above. Sit everyone in
a circle, and use commands like the following:
Stand up if youve got brown eyes.
Turn around if youve got green eyes.
Sit down if youve got blue eyes.
Next, add the question, What colour eyes have you got? Say this and encourage
the group to repeat what you say. Do group repetition, individual repetition and then
go round the circle getting everyone to say only the question, with you saying it in
between each student. With older children you might want to pass a cuddly toy or a
ball, but only do this with the older ones. Continue by sitting the students in line,
stand in front of them and ask the person at the end, What colour eyes have you
got? He replies with Ive got.eyes, go along the line asking everyone in turn. The
person at the end, who you started with then goes up to be the next person to ask
the question and everyone moves along a seat, you go and sit on the seat that is left
free at the other end of the line. After this student has asked everybody the question,
the next student goes up, everyone moves along a seat and the student who has just
asked the question, goes to the other end of the line and sits down next to you.
This continues until everyone has had a turn at asking the question, and you are left
standing up. This game works on a conveyor belt idea.
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- 43 -
B
D
Looking at the diagram above C and D close their eyes as A shows two pictures to B.
B is going to say the phrase and C and D are going to look through their pictures, find
the correct ones and are going to hold them up. The first out of C and D to do so,
wins.
C and D
A
C and D
B
C and D
C
Continue until everyone in the group has a turn in every role. If you have a big class
you can have two teams, (two people showing, two people saying and two people
showing at the other end.) This limits the number of students not playing, but always
remember to use the ones not playing to check that those playing are always getting
it right.
For the next game, give everyone in the group a picture each. (Youll have six
pictures: man; men; woman; women; hungry; thirsty.) If you have more than six
students give the others a blank piece of card each. Stand everyone in a circle and
get everyone to show their cards. Say, Go, and each student passes their card to
the person next to them. Keep passing the cards until you say stop. Then say, for
example, The woman is thirsty, the students holding the woman and thirsty go
and stand in the centre of the circle. Do a few like these and then pick out students
to play teacher and say a phrase.
Group
Teacher
A
B
Now, for the next 10 minutes go back to the first part of the lesson with hair and
eyes. Play the game again where a student closes his eyes. The students take a
card each, memorise what they have got and put the card back. The student has to
match up the student and his card. To finish off in the last 5 minutes, play one of the
games revising men and thirsty etc. Choose whichever you think more appropriate
for your class.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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Week 21
Target structures:
Materials:
We did This and that in Week 8, but never looked at the plurals. Introduce the
Easter Bunny and Easter eggs. Give the Easter eggs out so that every student has a
set. Just like the This and that lesson, practise, These are my Easter eggs (holding
them up) and, Those are my Easter eggs (pointing at them).
Were going to move straight on to the Where are my Easter eggs? game. One
student is chosen to close their eyes away from the group. Take their Easter eggs
and give them to another student. Take that students Easter eggs and put them on
the floor in the middle. The closed eyes student comes back and asks where their
Easter eggs are (yes, just like in This and that).
E.g.
A
Teacher
A
Teacher
A
Teacher
A
B
A
B
A
Teacher
A
C
A
C
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
Lessons to revise:
Week 16
Animals
Week 18
Can you?
Week 19
In the house
- 46 -
Target vocabulary:
Materials:
Begin with everybody in a circle. Stand up with your arms stretched out; make
yourself as big as you can. Big!, you say, encouraging the students to do the same
action and repeat. Small!, mime holding a small imaginary thing between your
fingers. Practise a few times with the group, and then with individuals.
Now say, big or small without the actions. Individuals have to do the actions for
you. Practise these for a couple of minutes.
Do the actions for big and small yourself this time; its the students turn to say big
or small. Show the students a small picture of a boy and a big picture of a boy. Hold
one higher than the other, youre looking for them to call out Big! or Small!. Resist
the temptation to start teaching adjective and noun word order if they shout Boy big.
Were not there just yet (wed get stuck with little versus small, too).
Change between the two pictures, introducing hes this time (hes small and hes
big). Group first, then individuals.
Take the pictures of the girl and do the same with shes.
Next, test individuals on both sets of cards: hes big; hes small; shes big; shes
small.
Rejoin the circle if you left it and assign every student with a big or small (perhaps
start all the same and then mix things up when they get the hang). They have to stay
frozen in their action. You start by saying what the person next to you is, and pointing
at them. Point to that person, and then to their neighbour. They describe that
neighbour. E.g. If their neighbour is a boy and is doing a big action they say, Hes
big. This can go on until they get the she and he for a girl or boy correct every time.
Repeat this process for good and bad. Smiley face and thumbs up action for good,
sour face and thumbs down for bad. Your picture cards will be of a goodie and a
baddie. Use these in conjunction with the boy and girl pictures and with the students
themselves.
With hes and shes working well, bring the happy; sad; angry and fed up cards out.
Give each student a card and jog their memories with a round of Im happy (Or
whatever is on their card. Move onto the third person singular again to increase their
awareness of the difference between Im, hes and shes. The students keep the
same card and, instead of saying the emotion on their card, they describe their
neighbour.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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First time.
A
B
C
Etc.
Second time.
A
(Person to their left [boy] has sad card) Hes sad.
B
(Person to their left [boy] has fed up card) Hes fed up.
C
(Person to their left [girl] has angry card) Shes angry.
Etc.
Of course, you start them off and have to do a lot of pointing to make sure they know
who theyre supposed to talk about. Change the direction so they describe their other
neighbour, before changing the cards and starting again. Keep this going for a few
minutes, going back to Im every few rounds (make it clear that its an Im or a hes
/ shes round, confuse them and theyll lose interest). Look to the class to help you
reinforce whenever individual students use the wrong gender.
E.g.
A
(Person to their left [boy] has happy card) Shes happy.
Teacher
(Standing behind and pointing to the boy with the happy card, looking
at the rest of the group.) Is she a girl?
Class
No!
Teacher
Is he a boy?
Class
Yes! Hes happy.
Obviously, youre not going to do this in such a way as to humiliate the student who
gets it wrong. Mistakes like that can be funny, and will help to highlight the difference
between hes and shes for your students.
Look back to the final task from the emotions lesson, it was the one where the
students had to say what they were not. You might not have had the time to do much
on this, if at all. That doesnt matter, you can practise Im not alongside hes/shes
not. Give a few examples yourself, as always, so they know whats expected.
A
B
C
Etc.
(Person to their left [girl] has sad card) Shes not angry.
(Person to their left [boy] has angry card) Hes not happy.
(Person to their left [girl] has sad card) Shes not happy.
OK, you can play a version of the guessing game to finish with. Pick two students
from the group. One chooses the card and stays silent, only showing it to their
partner. The students still in the group ask, Is he/she . . .?. The silent students
partner replies, Yes, he is/ no shes not.. When the group students get it right, the
silent student shows their card to the group and changes roles with their partner.
When both partners have had a turn they come back to the group and two new
students take their place. If you want the game to move more quickly at any stage,
you can swap the happy; sad; fed up; angry cards for the good; bad or big; small
cards.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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Target structures:
Indefinite article a.
Im wearing + clothing.
Are you wearing + clothing.
Im wearing + colour + clothing.
Materials:
Introduce the vocabulary the way that you want for this one. You can use pictures, or
real pieces of clothing, or both. Practise repeating the clothes with the group and
individuals as you show each piece of clothing. When pronunciation gets better take
one piece of clothing and pass it around the circle, each person saying what its
called when they have it in their possession. Go around two or three times at normal
speed, and then have a few more turns trying to go as fast as possible. You might
say, This time, were going to go . . . FASTER!. (Miming the piece of clothing
moving really fast around the circle, saying it as you pass behind each student.) If the
pace slows give an encouraging FASTER! (mime moving fast) to speed them up. It
can be fun as everyone concentrates on passing the item and saying it as quickly as
possible. Repeat this for all the clothes, helping as soon as anyone gets stuck.
Arrange the clothes (or pictures of them) in a line on chairs or against the wall. Stand
opposite the line of clothes with the students. This is where were going to introduce
Im wearing . . .. Take one picture of the wee man from the body parts lessons.
Teacher
Repeat this for each item of clothing. Notice that you say, Im wearing a jumper/
shirt/ T-shirt/ skirt and Im wearing shoes/ socks/ trousers/ jeans (no a for the
plurals). You can let the students show what our wee man is wearing now.
Teacher
A
Teacher
Group
A
Teacher
B
Teacher
Group
Teacher
B
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
When everyone has had a turn give all the students a wee man picture. Do the
same exercise, sending one or more students to the items of clothing. This time, they
repeat the Im wearing . . . sentence when they get to the piece of clothing. You
have to insist on the Im wearing part along with the clothing noun.
Teacher
A
Teacher
A
Teacher
B
Teacher
B
Teacher
C
Etc.
Im wearing a jumper . . . A.
(Walks over to the jumper) Im wearing jumper.
Im wearing a jumper.
Im wearing a jumper.
Im wearing socks . . . B.
(Walks over to the socks) Im wearing a socks.
Im wearing socks.
Im wearing socks.
Im wearing shoes . . . C.
(Walks over to the shoes) Im wearing shoes.
These examples highlight the problem caused by the singular nouns that need a,
and the plural nouns that dont. It might be useful to keep shoes; socks; trousers and
jeans together at one side, and jumper; shirt; T-shirt and skirt at the other side. Its
not going to cure the problem, youll still have a job to do with this, but it might help
the children to mentally separate the singulars and the plurals.
Bring the students back into a circle, were going to introduce the question. Give them
each a piece of clothing to hold. Ask each student the question, Are you wearing . . .
?. If you say the name of their item they reply Yes, I am, if you say a different item
they reply No, Im not.
Teacher
A
Teacher
A
Teacher
B
Teacher
B
Teacher
C
Do the same thing again, but this time the students dont keep the items of clothing.
Put the items on a chair in the middle of the circle, the students have to remember
which one they had. Pick one piece up (e.g. skirt) and ask someone if its theirs ("Are
you wearing a skirt?"). If its the right one you give them the piece of clothing. If its
wrong, ask somebody else using the same item. Everyone ends up with the piece of
clothing they had at the start.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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Do this for each piece of clothing (or area, in some cases like skirt instead of trousers
and shirt instead of T-shirt), and then swap around at random.
E.g.
Teacher
(Points to shoes.) Im wearing black shoes. (Points to A.)
A
Im wearing white shoes.
Teacher
(Points to legs.) Im wearing black trousers. (Points to B.)
B
Im wearing a red skirt.
Etc.
If you have any time after practising this, you can try a memory/guessing game with
the colours of the students clothes. One student is either blindfolded or faces away
from the group with their eyes closed. One by one the students say their names, and
the person who is blindfolded guesses the colour of their . . . shoes for example.
Extra/variation
The commands game using conditional commands is a good activity for bodilykinaesthetic stimulation and offers another way to process the language they are
learning. Start them off by asking them to put their chairs in a line and sit down,
followed by some of the simple orders that they now know by heart.
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Week 24
Revision Lesson E
Lessons to revise:
Week 20
Week 22
Hes big
Week 23
Clothes
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Target structures:
Materials:
Present the four parts of the day with the help of flashcards (morning sun rising in
the sky; afternoon sun high in the sky; evening moon rising in blue sky; night
moon high in black sky). Play the circles game until everyone remember the four
pieces of vocabulary well. Stick the flashcards to chairs or on the wall, one on each of
the four sides or corners of the room. When you say, Good morning! to a student
they have to go the side with the picture representing morning. Do this with each
student until they are all next to the pictures. (Its not advised to send them all at
once, you could be inviting mayhem upon yourself!) Youre alone in the middle, now.
Wave to a student, smile and say, Good (morning depending where they are).
They wave back and say the same. Once theyve all done their greeting, bring them
back to the middle. Send them out once again, one by one, keeping one student in
the middle. This student has to greet each person and be greeted back, according to
whats on his or her picture. After that, they all move round one place, you send the
student in the middle to one of the pictures and bring another one out. Try to give
everyone a turn in the middle.
Present breakfast, lunch and dinner. Play the circles game to practise.
We need to link the meals and the parts of the day to make our sentence now. Bring
back the morning, afternoon and evening flashcards. (We dont normally eat meals
during the night!) Lay morning, afternoon and evening out where everyone can see
them and hold up the breakfast flashcard. Ask, When do you have breakfast? . . . In
the morning . . . in the afternoon . . . or in the evening?. The students have to match
up the meal flashcards with the parts of the day flashcards. Take the newly paired
breakfast and morning flashcards, youre going to give them the glue to turn this into
a sentence. Hold up the breakfast flashcard in your right hand and say, I have
breakfast. Pause, hold up the morning flashcard in your left hand and say, In the
morning. Do this again, without the pause this time. Signal for the class to repeat. Do
this a few times with the class, and then several times with individuals. Youll have to
give lots of help to begin with. Take lunch and afternoon, dinner and evening, and
practise the same way.
Give the six flashcards to students, they hold these up in front of them. Point to a
student with a meal flashcard. That person replies, I have . . . and the student
holding the corresponding part of the day adds, In the . . ..
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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E.g.
A has the breakfast flashcard.
B has the evening flashcard.
C has the morning flashcard.
D has the afternoon flashcard.
E has the lunch flashcard.
F has the dinner flashcard.
Teacher
E
D
Teacher
D
Teacher
A
C
Teacher
F
B
Teacher
A
C
Etc.
(Points to E.)
I have lunch.
Afternoon.
In the afternoon.
In the afternoon.
(Points to A.)
I have breakfast.
In the morning!
(Points to F.)
I have dinner.
In the evening!
(Points to A.)
I have breakfast.
In the morning!
Pass the flashcards around and have a few turns, as they improve pronunciation of
the linking words and recognition of which meal goes with which part of the day.
Three students stand in a line next to the wall holding morning, afternoon and
evening. You (or a student) choose one of the flashcards to show another student,
who says, I have . . .. The student with the corresponding part of the day steps
forward and says, In the . . . (They dont get to see the meal in this game, the link is
mental). Change the person who picks the meal (if youre not doing it), the person
who calls out, I have . . . and the three people who have morning, afternoon and
evening.
Sit the students back down in a circle. Try the circles game again, now with the full
sentences: I have breakfast in the morning; I have lunch in the afternoon and I have
dinner in the evening. Try to get it to go as fast as possible, swap directions and
places for variation.
Now would be a good time to have another practice of the greetings. Choose one
student to close their eyes away from the group. Show each of the other students a
flashcard from the morning; afternoon; evening; night pack. They remember their part
of the day and greet the closed eyes student when he or she rejoins the group. The
closed eyes student has the pack of flashcards, shows the appropriate card and
greets the other students back. Give everyone a turn.
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Change the roles of the teams around and do this again. You can give points if you
want, for a correct question, for a correct answer or however you feel.
Play this game until the end of the lesson. Using points and changing teams will help
keep the students interest.
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Target Structure:
Material:
Choose eight pieces of food vocabulary; the above are only suggestions.
Once you are satisfied that there has been sufficient practice, hold up, for example,
ice cream, and say, I like ice cream rubbing your stomach or do another gesture to
show that you like it. Gesture for the group to repeat the sentence and perform the
action in unison. Pass the picture to one student and say the phrase getting him to
repeat after you and do the action. Take the card back between each student and
say the phrase each time before passing it on. Keep going with this until everyone
can say the phrase confidently and with good pronunciation. Then, do exactly the
same with your other three words that you have chosen. This will show that I like
. is always constant and just the food changes.
Show something else, pull a face to show that you dont like it and say I dont
like.. Get the group to pull a face and repeat what you say. Again, do this all
together and then do it with individuals. Choose the student by passing the flashcard
that you want him to use and repeat, I dont like.. before everybodys turn. Again,
keep getting everyone to repeat until you are happy with the pronunciation.
Hold up one of the food flashcards and pull a disgusted face and say, I dont like
, pass the card to someone else and gesture for them to do and say as you just
did. Give everyone a go and then do the same but this time with I like.. Hold a
picture up and this time say, I like.., rubbing your stomach. Get the group to
repeat the phrase and do the action, and then do this with individuals passing the
pictures to indicate whom you are choosing.
To make it more fun, choose one person to go to one side of the room. They are
going to close their eyes, but do the example first. Show a flashcard to the class as
an example, and then either pull a face or rub your stomach at the same time say, I
like .. or I dont like.., depending on whatever gesture you choose.
The aim of the game is for you to mime (show the picture and do the action), a
student will then say the phrase to correspond with what you have mimed. The
person who is at the side of the room, with their eyes closed, will open their eyes, find
the food that has been talked about, hold it up and pull the face to represent I like or
I dont like. Change over the two students each time, but you keep choosing the
flashcard and the gesture each time.
Now, introduce the question: Do you like.? Go back to the first item of food that
you used, my example was ice cream. Say with questioning intonation Do you like
ice cream? gesture for the group to repeat the language together. Do this several
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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Target structures:
Im a..
Hes a.
Shes a.
Are you a .?
Is he a..?
Is she a.?
Yes, I am / No, Im not
Yes, he is / No hes not
Yes, she is / No, shes not
Materials:
Introduce seven words choosing from the above vocabulary or jobs that you think are
more appropriate. Play at least two games to practise the vocabulary. Stand
everybody in a circle, hold up one card and say Im a followed by whatever the
card is that you have chosen. Gesture for everyone to repeat what you say, as usual
first as a group, then, split the group in half and get one half to say it first then the
second half. See who can say it the best. Then, ask students to say it individually.
Pass the same card round the group and as the students take the card they say Im
a . Just use one card to start off with, as soon as everyone can say the phrase,
take that one away and pass a different card round, and then a third card. When
everyone is clear about both the vocabulary and the structure Im a .. give everyone
a different card each. Go round the circle and ask everyone to say what they are in
turn. Do this several times.
Next you can introduce the question. Ask one child to show his card to everyone. Ask
him something hes not e.g. Are you a doctor? If he struggles, help him with No, Im
not. Keep firing the questions at the students, prompting them to say, No, Im not
every time they are not something, and of course get them to say, Yes, I am when
you say the name of the profession on their cards.
E.g.
Teacher
Student
Teacher
Student
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Moving on to the next part, choose a boy to stand in the middle of the circle; this is to
introduce he. Ask him to hold up his card. Point to the boy and say what he is, Hes
a doctor, for example. Encourage the group to repeat all together, then ask
individuals to repeat. Ask the boy to sit down and choose another student to go up.
Do the same again e.g. He/Shes a chef. Do group repetition and then individual
repetition each time. Continue doing this until you have described everyone in the
group.
Let everyone keep the same card. Point at one of the students and say, Hes a
teacher. Point at another student and say, Hes a singer. Do this for the whole of
the group and then its the students turn. Point to the student to your right, and say,
Hes a Make sure that you address the group, not the student you are talking
about. Gesture for the student to your left to say what you are and their neighbour
goes next, moving round in a clockwise direction. (Everyone says what the person to
their right is.) Make sure that everyone gets the he and she pronoun correct. Do
this again, keeping the same flashcards.
E.g.
Everybody talks about and points to the student on their right.
Teacher
(Points to F.) Hes a fire fighter.
A
(Points to the teacher.) Shes a chef.
B
(Points to A.) Hes a police officer.
C
(Points to B.) Hes a doctor.
D
(Points to C.) Shes a teacher.
E
(Points to D.) Shes a singer.
F
(Points to E.) Shes a baker.
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Target structures:
Materials:
Show your means of transport cards, practise them (group, then individual) and
choose two vocabulary games to play afterwards (poisoned pass the parcel, etc.).
This isnt the first time the students have heard where are you?, is it?
- Where are you?
- Im in the garden. (Week 18 In the house.)
Yes, were looking for the same thing but in the first person plural (we form).
The transport vocabulary is new and the preposition changes now (in the car/lorry
and on the bus/train/plane/boat), but the idea is one they already know.
You can change the Go into game from the other lesson, it becomes Get in/on. Fix
the flashcards to chairs or on the wall around the room, with a decent space between
each means of transport. You say, Get in/on the . . .(vehicle), and students have to
find the right one (they go in twos at least, as they will do for the rest of this
lesson).Youre familiarising their ears to the in the and on the part necessary for our
sentences (it also starts to show that some are on and some are in).
Here, just like In the house, walk into one of the vehicles (this time taking a student
with you) and say, Were in/on the (vehicle) (pointing to both the student and you).
Move round a few times and say it again, to show the in the' ones and on the' ones
(then send the student who was with you back to the group). Take a couple of
students and put them in vehicles. Once they have said Were in/on the . . .
(together, with help from you), invite the rest of the group to get into vehicles in pairs
(you can let them choose where if you want). Go round the whole group and ask,
Where are you?. When each pair (or three) of students has said their vehicle with
Im in the in front of it, everyone moves on one to the next vehicle. Ask again, the
students reply, and then move round. Ask, Where are you? every time, so the
students can familiarise the question and answer. Once this has been done enough
times for the students to accept they have to say the were in/on the part, as well as
the means of transport, bring them back into a circle. Practise the question on its
own: you say and the next person repeats. Of course, theyve done this before so
you shouldnt need to spend long.
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Bring back the counters that were used with the dolls house. Put the flashcards in
the middle of the circle. Choose a student to go and close their eyes. In pairs (you
join a pair if there are odd numbers), the students put their counters in a vehicle.
They memorise them, take their counters back and the closed eyes student rejoins
the group. The closed eyes student asks each pair, Where are you?. You can get
them to reply together (strengthens the idea of we), or one after the other (allows
you to keep a tighter rein on pronunciation). The closed eyes student puts the pairs
counters in the vehicle they have said.
A
B+C
A
Teacher
B+C
A
D+E
Teacher
D+E
A
Teacher
D+E
Teacher
D+E
Teacher
Group
Teacher
A
Teacher
Group
Etc.
(Comes back to group and doesnt know where the others put their
counters.) Where are you? (Points at B and C.)
Were in the lorry.
(Puts B and Cs counters in the lorry.)
Is that right?
Yes!
Where are you? (Points at D and E.)
Were in the bus.
Were on the bus.
Were on the bus.
(Puts D and Es counters on the boat.)
Is that right?
No.
Where are you?
Were on the bus.
Is that the bus? (Looks at the group and points at the boat.)
No! Boat.
Wheres the bus? (Asks A.)
(Puts D and Es counters on the bus.)
Is that right?
Yes!
Like the In the house lesson (from which this activity is taken), use or dont use a
points system as you see fit.
The next task we are going to use is the chooser and flashcarder task from that
same previous lesson. Choose one student to take the flashcards and stand at the
other side of the room (the flashcarder). Put the other students into pairs. You need
another set of flashcards for this part. Give the second set of flashcards to one of the
students in the first pair (the chooser). That student shows one of the cards to their
partner (this is where they are). When the flashcarder asks, Where are you?, the
partner answers, Were in/on the . . .. The flashcarder holds up the card that
matches what has been said. The pair swap roles (chooser becomes sayer, sayer
becomes chooser) and the flashcarder asks the question a second time. The chooser
chooses, the sayer says and the flashcarder shows the appropriate card. The pair
then go to the back and are replaced by a new pair. This has to move fast so
everyone can have a turn as flashcarder, and also so that the students who arent
involved dont get bored. If you have a large group you can have two games going at
the same time (although you would need four sets of flashcards instead of two).
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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Divide the group into two, half sit on one line of chairs and the other half sit
diagonally opposite (a bit like this: / \ ). One of the flashcards is placed on the floor
or on a chair in front of each line of students. Practise, Where are they? (just
repeating for the moment). Introduce, Theyre in/on the . . . to one half of the group,
pointing at the other. They repeat and point at the other group, like you. Do both
groups like this, in chorus and individually. Bring a student from one of the groups up
beside you, in front of the two lines. They have to ask both groups (one at a time),
Where are they?. They chorus back, Theyre in the . . . Give every student a turn
to ask the two groups and change the flashcards with each new asker.
A
A
A
B
B
B
A
Keep the set up of lines for the team game that we are going to play, but put them
directly opposite each other this time (see below). A student from team A comes to
the front. His team (A) asks him, Where are they?. Someone from the other team
(or you) chooses a flashcard for team B (this is where they are). The student from
team A gets to see the flashcard and tells his group, Theyre on/in the . . .. Team A
shows the flashcard that its representative has said. If he says it correctly (the full
sentence), and the team show the right vehicle, team A gets a point. All the students,
from both teams, have one or two turns before a winning team is declared. As with
any team game that you might play make sure you balance the teams (in terms of
ability).
Change the teams and play again.
A
A
A
A
B
B
B
B
B
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E.g.
A has a plane flashcard when the teacher says stop.
B has a boat flashcard when the teacher says stop.
C has a plane flashcard when the teacher says stop.
D has a car flashcard when the teacher says stop.
E has a car flashcard when the teacher says stop.
F has a boat flashcard when the teacher says stop.
Teacher
A+C
Teacher
A+C
Teacher
Group
A+C
Teacher
D+E
Teacher
D+E
Teacher
Group
D+E
Teacher
B+F
Teacher
B+F
Teacher
Group
B+F
When all students have been asked where they are change the vehicles (or bring
back rooms of the house if youre confident that they remember them) and pass the
flashcards around for another try. In addition, if you do have odd numbers, a student
can take your place to ask the questions after the first turn.
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Week 29
Revision Lesson F
Lessons to revise:
Week 25
Mealtimes
Week 26
Food
Week 27
Jobs
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Target structures:
Materials:
Begin by revising the numbers from 1 to 12 and play a vocabulary game to practise.
This shouldnt take too long, they know them well by now. Bring out the digital times
and repeat, Its . . . oclock with the students as you show each time. (I found they
could identify the digital times better than analogue ones.) Set all the oclock times
out on a table in order. Call out times and choose individuals to find the correct cards.
Leave the cards and play a game of circles. With each turn a student must say, Its
. . . oclock. I brought in extra rules for this, because I found there were students who
had a problem with the number eight. With each four numbers everyone had to sit
down or stand up as fast as possible: Its one oclock; its two oclock; its three
oclock; its four oclock (all stand up); its five oclock; its six oclock; its seven
oclock; its eight oclock (all sit down); its nine oclock; its ten oclock; its eleven
oclock; its twelve oclock (all stand up).
Go back to the table on which with the times are laid. This time you point to a time
and choose a student to call it out. This is where What time is it? comes in. Ask the
question each time you point to a card.
Bring the students back into the circle. Practise the What time is it? question, and
then give each one a time card (they dont let anyone see it). A student asks his or
her neighbour what time it is, the neighbour has to say the time on their card. They
show the time and everyone tells them if its wrong or right. This chain continues until
everybody has asked and been asked the time.
Put the time labels back onto the table (in order). Invite the students to take a time
each, they have to memorise it and put it back. You ask each of them what the time
is, they answer and you give them the card that shows their time. Choose a student
to close their eyes in the corner. While that person is not there, the others take a
label, memorise it and put it back. The closed eyes student comes back and asks
the other members of the group, What time is it?. As you did, the chosen student
has to give the time labels to the others, according to their answer.
Clear the oclock times away for the moment and bring out the half past times.
Repeat the lesson so far using half past - until the end of the task where you point to
a card, say, What time is it? and a student tells you the time.
At this point, seat all the students but one in a row. Show the half past twelve label
to the students and say, Its half past twelve. Stand up and put your hands on your
head. Encourage everyone to do the same. Give a few examples, showing that they
only have to stand up and put their hands on their heads at half past twelve. Give
each student one of the half past time labels, they cant show anyone else. The
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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(Everyone jumps to their feet and puts their hands on their heads. G is the last
person to do it. G comes out to ask the questions, while A takes Gs place in the row
of chairs.)
Play this enough times for everyone to have a turn to ask the questions. If its always
the same students who lose, you should step in and choose someone else to come
and ask the questions.
The job is going to become harder now. We are going to combine the oclock times
and the half past times. The problem here is that we say, Its three oclock, and,
Its half past three. The three moves, and this makes it confusing for the students.
Go back to the first table exercise, in this instance with all the times in order: one
oclock; half past one; two oclock; half past two etc. You say, they point.
Its easy for them, they can recognise any one of the twenty four times on the table.
This is both for their confidence and to make it clear that the ones that end :00 are
oclock and the ones that end :30 are half past.
When you have done a few rounds of this change the game to you point, they say.
This is where you may have to help with word order, as numbers get moved to the
wrong side of oclock and half past. Reinforce the fact that :00 is oclock and :30
is half past.
Do the task from earlier on in which you choose a student to close their eyes in the
corner. While that person is not there, the others take a label, memorise it and put it
back. The closed eyes student comes back and asks the other members of the
group, What time is it?. The difference is that it could be . . . oclock, or half past . . .
Give everyone a turn.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski
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Our game that incorporates all the language from the lesson is a variation of Hands
on heads at half past twelve from before. Arrange enough seats for all but one
student into a circle. Put a time label on each seat (a mix of half pasts and oclocks,
of which one is half past twelve). Choose one student to be time master. The other
students have to ask this person what time it is, so they know where to sit down. The
time master chooses to say, Its . . . (whichever of the times he or she wants) and
the student who asked must sit on that chair. When the time master replies, Its half
past twelve! however, all the other students must try to be the first to sit on the chair
with the half past twelve label. The first one to do so wins and becomes the time
master for the next round. (This could be too much for some classes, it could get
rough. If youre worried that this might happen, the goal can be first to stand up,
behind a chair, with hands on head. Less fun, but less dangerous.) You can play this
until the end of your class, but cheat a little to give everyone a turn as time master.
Make sure you calm them down before they go! (Sit down, be quiet, close your eyes,
count to twelve . . oclock. One oclock, two oclock . . .)
What time is it? Time to go!
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Lessons to revise:
Week 28
Transport
Week 30
Time
The revision part of this lesson is supposed to take you to the halfway point, leaving
you with half an hour to play games (dont have to be language based), have cakes
and soft drinks or whatever you decide.
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