TeachingEnglish | Lesson plans

The fastest and the slowest

Topic: Animals
Aims:
To teach students how to use comparatives with quantifiers
To revise irregular adjectives
To practise agreeing and disagreeing and giving opinions
To develop students speaking and listening skills
Level: Lower intermediate B1
Introduction
In this lesson students practise speaking, reading and writing while talking
about the fastest and slowest animals. The grammar focus is comparatives and
superlatives with quantifiers. Students also learn some unusual animal
vocabulary.
Procedure
Lead in: Brainstorming animals
Draw a spider map on one side of the board with animals in the middle
and three branches of wild animals (with sea, land, air) farm
animals, pets. Elicit lots of animal words and write them in the diagram.
Have a limited time for this brainstorming stage (4 or 5 minutes)
On the board write:
_______ is a lot faster/slower than _______.
_______ quite a bit faster/slower than _______.
_______ not much faster/slower than _______.
Circle two of the animals in the spidergram and invite a student to make
a sentence comparing their speed. E.g. A horse is a lot faster than a
hedgehog.
Choose three students; A, B and C. Student A chooses an animal from
the spidergram. Student B chooses a different animal. Student C makes
a sentence comparing their speed.
Write these phrases on the board for giving your opinion and agreeing &
disagreeing.

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BBC | British Council 2012

TeachingEnglish | Lesson plans

Giving your opinion

Agreeing & disagreeing

In my opinion

I agree (with you)

I reckon/think

I disagree (with you)

Invite the other students to say whether they agree or not with Student
Cs sentence. Encourage students to use some of the useful language
on the board.
Task 1: Ordering animals according to their speed
Dictate these twelve animals for students to write:
elephant; giraffe; giant tortoise; Peregrine falcon; spider; black mamba snake;
chicken; garden snail; human; cheetah; ostrich; greyhound.
Students compare their words in pairs. Write the animals on the board for
students to check their spelling.
In pairs, students rewrite the list of twelve animals from the fastest (1) to
the slowest (12). The two students have to agree so they need to discuss
each animal. Remind students to use the structures from the board. Give
students a time limit of 5-6 minutes for this stage.
Join up pairs of students into groups of four. They compare their lists
and, if there are differences, they compile a new list on which they all
agree.
Compile one class list with all of the students. On the board write:
Which is the fastest/slowest animal in the list?
1 ____________________

7 ____________________

2 ____________________

8 ____________________

3 ____________________

9 ____________________

4 ____________________

10 ____________________

5 ____________________

11 ____________________

6 ____________________

12 ____________________

Elicit the fastest and slowest animals from students (groups will probably
agree on these two) and write them in the list. Then have a class
discussion and decide on the order of the other animals, compiling the list
as the class reaches agreement.
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BBC | British Council 2012

TeachingEnglish | Lesson plans

Give students Task 1.

Animal

Speed (mph)

Animal

Speed (mph)

Peregrine falcon

200.00+

Giraffe

32.00

Cheetah

70.00

Reindeer

32.00

Pronghorn antelope

61.00

Cat (domestic)

30.00

Lion

50.00

Kangaroo

30.00

Thomson's gazelle

50.00

Grizzly bear

30.00

Wildebeest

50.00

Wart hog

30.00

Quarter horse

47.50

White-tailed deer

30.00

Cape hunting dog

45.00

Human

27.89

Elk

45.00

Elephant

25.00

Coyote

43.00

Black mamba snake

20.00

Gray fox

42.00

Six-lined race runner

18.00

Hyena

40.00

Squirrel

12.00

Ostrich

40.00

Pig (domestic)

11.00

Zebra

40.00

Chicken

9.00

Mongolian wild ass

40.00

House mouse

8.00

Greyhound

39.35

Spider (Tegenearia
atrica)

1.17

Whippet

35.50

Giant tortoise

0.17

Jackal

35.00

Three-toed sloth

0.15

Mule deer

35.00

Garden snail

0.03

Rabbit (domestic)

35.00

www.teachingenglish.org.uk
BBC | British Council 2012

TeachingEnglish | Lesson plans

Students read the text quickly to check their list against the actual animal
speeds.

Students read the text again, looking at the information about the other
animals. Help with any unknown vocabulary or encourage students to use
dictionaries or an online search.

Extension
On the board write: heavy light big small
Choose three students; A, B and C. Student A chooses an animal from
the list. Student B chooses a different animal. Student C makes a
sentence comparing them using a quantifier and heavier, lighter, bigger
or smaller. Invite students to agree or disagree.
Students write four sentences using animals from the list, a quantifier and
heavier, lighter, bigger or smaller. Monitor students as they write. Walk
around the room, reading the sentences and telling students whether you
agree with them or not.

www.teachingenglish.org.uk
BBC | British Council 2012