Esio Trot

Teacher’s Book
Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

 Part I 

Teacher’s Guide and Teaching Plan

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

Students read an extract of Esio Trot by Roald Dahl (pp.21–25).

They do a reading comprehension and vocabulary exercise. Then
they focus on the use of the imperative and adverb. After that they
Description
do some activities about describing and looking after animals, and
a game of encoding and decoding messages written in a secret
language.

Mr. Hoppy has fallen in love with Mrs. Silver, a widow who lives
downstairs. But she cares only about her pet tortoise Alfie. One
The Story day, she tells Mr. Hoppy she would be happy to see it grow bigger.
He comes up with a magic plan to make it grow faster, and in the
end makes Mrs. Silver his wife too.

Knowledge dimension Interpret information

Present information
Learning Targets
Interpersonal dimension Participate in discussions

Experience Participate in a game

1. Collaboration skills
Generic Skills and
2. Creativity
Attitudes
3. Communication skills

Student are able

1. To understand the text and vocabulary of the extract.
2. To practise the use of the imperative and adverb.
Objectives
3. To raise awareness about how to look after animals.
4. To learn describe animals and looking after them.
5. To use language in a fun way by writing secret messages.

Vocabulary Names of parts of animals

Describing animals and physical features of
animals

Grammar Imperative form of verb

Language Focus Adverb

Text Type Narrative

Activities and
Skills Focused 1. Reading a text – whole-class work
2. Understanding the text and vocabulary – whole-class work

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book
3. Language focus – whole-class work
4. Describing animals and looking after animals – pair work, group
work
5. Playing a decoding game – pair work, group work

1. Extract from the story Esio Trot

2. Reading comprehension exercise
3. Vocabulary exercise
4. Worksheet on imperative forms of verbs
Materials 5. Worksheet on adverbs
6. Worksheet on description of animals
7. Worksheet on decoding game
8. Suggested additional activities

For weaker students, the teacher can provide more examples in the
following before students attempt the tasks given:
 vocabulary
 reading comprehension
 language focus
Catering for  describing animals
Learner
Diversity For pair work and group discussions, more able students can be put
together with weaker ones so they can help the latter complete the
tasks more easily.

A few additional activities are included for students of higher abilities

in English and greater creativity.

Suggested Number
10
of Lessons

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

Reading

Pre-reading activity
Ask students questions about animals and pets.
Focus on tortoises as pets, and ask students how much they know about them.
Introduce the story by going over the gist of the story with students.
Ask students if they were Mr Hoppy, what magic plan would they use to make Mrs Silver’s
tortoise grow faster.

While-reading activity
Read the extract up to the end of the secret message given by Mr Hoppy to Mrs Silver. Ask
students what the message might mean. Help them to work out the original message.
Read the rest of the extract.

Post-reading activity
Do the reading comprehension.
Tell students the answers may not appear in the same order as in the original text.
Do the vocabulary exercises.
For Question 2, tell students that some changes may be necessary to make the words
grammatically suitable for the sentences.

Language focus

Imperative
Start by giving students some orders.
Ask them what kind of sentences they are, and the form of verb used.
Do the exercises.
For Practice 2, elicit from students some ideas as examples. For weaker students, tell them to
work in pairs or groups.

Adverb
Ask students to deduce the form of an adverb from the first task.
Explain how to change adjectives into adverbs, and the exceptions.
If time allows, play a game Adverb Charade: a student mime an action in a certain manner
(e.g. row a boat angrily) for other students to guess.

Activity: describing animals

Show some flashcards of animals to students, and ask them for adjectives to describe them.
Ask students about the different body parts of the animals.
Go over the vocabulary lists and explain unfamiliar words.
For the draw and describe game, start off with a demonstration: prepare a drawing of an
imaginary animal of your own, and describe it for students to draw.

Game: secret messages

Tell students to write a few more secret messages in “tortoise language” for their classmates
to decode. Tell them not to make the secret language too complicated or difficult to decode.
Give some help to weaker students, and tell them to work in pairs or groups.
Suggested ways of writing secret messages:

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book
1. Use the letters that come before or after the original letters.
2. Write letters upside down, or as mirror images.
3. Replace certain letters with other letters.
4. Leave out certain letters.
This game can be held as a competition. In groups, students write a secret message. Collect
them and put them on the notice board. Students try to decode as many of them as possible in
a given time. The group with the most correct answers is the winners.

Additional activities

Chanting competition
To make sure students know how to read all the words, tell them to read after you the
message on p.24.
Divide the class into groups, and tell them to chant the message in an interesting way. Or they
can imagine they are Mrs Silver, and read the message to Alfie the tortoise with a lot of
expression.
For stronger students, do the same thing with the secret message. (Caveat: some work on
phonics may be necessary for this activity.)

Writing
Tell students to be creative in their writing. They can be humorous and imaginative in these
regulations.
Tell them to use both the positive and negative forms of the imperative.

Project
Tell students to work in small groups.
Information and pictures about animals can be obtained from the Internet.
The final products can be displayed on the notice boards.

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

 Part II 

Student Book with Answer Key

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

Reading
Key
Reading
Comprehension
Comprehension

Mrs Hoppy is telling a friend on the telephone what he said to Mrs Silver.
Complete the sentences in the speech bubbles.

Mr Hurley, I am so happy. Mrs Silver said she would be my slave

for ever, because I helped to make her tortoise grow faster .

What did you do?

I wrote something she could not understand on paper and gave it

to her.

What did you write on the paper?

I wrote some words spelled backward and said they were

tortoise language. Then I told her to say them to her tortoise.

That’s very interesting. But how should she say

them?

That’s easy. All she has to do is whisper the words to him

three times a day, morning, noon and night .
But she must remember to get a little more expression into it.

What will happen to the tortoise then?

In a few months, he will be twice as big as he is now .

Did she really believe your words?

I think so. I said a tribesman told me this when I was

working in North Africa .

Good luck to you, Mr Hoppy.

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

Key
Vocabulary
Vocabulary

1. Match the words/phrases in the first column with the

meanings in the second column.

A B
1. secret (13) two
2. slave (3) in the opposite direction
3. backwards (11) making mistakes when
speaking
4. magic (12) belonging to you for your
whole life
5. message (14) many
6. expression (7) speak softly
7. whisper (6) feelings
8. examine (10) animal
9. bewildered (8) look at closely
10. creature (2) a person who is owned by
another
11. stumble (1) something known by only a
few people
12. your slave for life (9) confused, not able to
understand
13. a couple of (5) a piece of information
14. an awful lot (4) power to make impossible
things happen

2. Put these words in the following sentences. Remember to

make changes if necessary.

1. The firemen will be ready in a couple of minutes when they receive a fire
alarm.
2. Although she was angry, she did not show any expression.
3. She told me a secret and I promised her not to tell anyone.
4. The student stumbled over the difficult words when he reading the
passage.
5. This robot can only go forward, not backwards.
6. When he saw his brother’s strange behaviour, he was bewildered.
7. There are many kinds of creatures living on the earth.
8. In the old days, many poor people worked as slaves.
9. In order not to disturb the sleeping baby, she whispered to her guests.
10. Work carefully! You have made an awful lot of mistakes in your writing.
11. The boss left a message for his secretary before he went out.
12. The old man said he knew magic and could turn stone into gold.
13. The dentist examined the teeth of the little girl.
14. To win his girlfriend’s heart, he said he would be her slave for life.

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

Key
Language
Language Focus
Focus II

A. The imperative form of the verb

1. What things does Mr Hoppy tell Mrs Silver to do?

Find 5 of them in the passage and write them in the spaces below:
1. Wait here!
2. Hold Alfie up to your face.
3. Whisper the words to him three times a day.
4. Let me hear you practice them.
5. Try to get a little more expression into it.

2. Mrs Silver should tell Alfie to do many things in order to make it grow
bigger.

Write 5 of them in the spaces below:

1. Get bigger.
2. Grow up.
3. Spring up.
4. Put on fat.
5. Gobble food.

Language notes:

When we give an order or instruction to someone, we use the imperative

form of the verb. For example:

Picture of man giving orders

to servant:
e.g. Give me a cup of coffee.
Bring me the
newspaper.
Wash this shirt.

Look also at the negative form below:

Picture of man giving orders
to servant:
e.g. Don’t turn on the fan.
Don’t make so much
noise.
Don’t close the door
Practices:

1. Orders to pets

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book
Mr Hoppy is training a dog. Write down the orders he is giving to it in the
pictures below.

( ) ( ) ( )

( ) ( ) ( )

2. Do’s and don’ts. Write 5 pieces of advice to someone who has a

bird/fish/lizard/etc. on how to look after it.

e.g. Give it a shower with warm water once a week.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

Key
Language
Language Focus
Focus II
II

B. Adverbs

Fill in adverbs in the following sentences based on the reading passage:

 Mrs Silver wanted to know how to make Alfie grow faster.
 To understand the magic words better, Mrs Silver looked at the paper
closely.
 At first, Mrs Silver could only read the words very slowly.
 If Mrs Silver said the words to Alfie properly, it would grow faster.

Language notes:

When we describe how someone does something, we use an adverb.

An adverb is usually formed by adding –ly to an adjective.
Adjective He is slow. Her voice is soft. Their discussion is
loud.
Adverb He walks slowly. She sings softly. They discussed
loudly.

Exceptions
Adjective He is a good The athlete is fast.
student.
Adverb He studies well. He runs fast.

Practices:

1. Look the pictures below and describe the action of each person/animal.

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

2. Describe your classmates:

Write 5 sentences about your classmates’ habits using adverbs.

e.g. Tommy Wong always plays noisily in recess.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

Activities
Activities

A. Find the differences (Pair work)

In the two pictures of the pet shop below, there are 10 differences.
You will look at Picture A, and your partner will look at Picture B.
Now describe your pictures to each other and find the differences.

Picture A Picture B

B. Describing animals
Vocabulary list (A): different parts of
Vocabulary list (B) describing animals
animals
long, short, square, triangular, oval,
head, neck, body, legs, tail, eyes, ears,
circular, rectangular, smooth, rough,
nose, mouth, beak, teeth, hair,
hairy, hairless, bushy, large, small, tall,
feathers, scales, horns, fins, limbs,
fat, thin, spiky, etc
paws, claws, etc

Look at the pictures of these imaginary animals. Describe the features of

each animal with the words on the vocabulary lists.

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

C. Draw and describe an animal of your own creation

Draw an imaginary animal of your own creation. Then describe it to your
neighbour. Your neighbour has to draw it without looking at your picture.

D. Oral discussion (Group work)

In small groups, find out from each other about their pets or favourite
animals, and then report to the whole class.
Questions for discussion
 Do you have a pet? If no, have you ever had a pet, or do you want to
have one?
 Describe your pet, or your favourite animal.
 How do you look after it?
 What kinds of food do you give it?
 Do you speak to your pet? What do you say to it?

E. Oral discussion (Group work)

Imagine you are an animal. How would you like others (human beings) to
take care of you?

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

Game

1. The message by Mr Hoppy is written in tortoise language. In the

message all the words are spelled backwards.
Here is another message in tortoise language. What does it say?

RM YPPOH SI GNIOG OT YRRAM SRM REVLIS

Write another short message in tortoise language and let you neighbour
work out its meaning.

MR HOPPY IS GOIING TO MARRY MRS SILVER

2. Look at the speech by the bird below. It is written in parrot language.

Can you work out the meaning of the message, and how the message
is written.

Original words: I LOVE EATING

FRUIT.
How to decode: use each letter
coming before it in secret message.

3. In pairs, invent a language for the goldfish below. Write a message in

goldfish language, then let your classmates work out its meaning.

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book
In the space below, explain how you wrote the secret message, and its
original words.

 state the original message

 explain how you wrote the secret message.

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Esio Trot Teacher’s Book

Additional activities

1. Chanting competition:

Read aloud in groups Mr. Hoppy’s message in tortoise language (p. 23)
and then in human language (p. 24) of the book.

2. Writing:

Write a list of regulations for your teachers/parents/friends/pets.

e.g. Regulations for teachers:
 Play a game in every lesson.
 Don’t give us too much homework.

3. Project:

Make a booklet or poster about your pet/ favourite animal including texts
and pictures.
Suggested contents:
 A description of the appearance of the animal
 A description of its daily habits
 A list of advice on how to look after it

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