Practical Teaching Ideas

Topic: The environment

Level: Intermediate

Time: 90 minutes

Skills: Reading, speaking , writing, listening

1. Look at the following picture attentively.

1.1. What is it trying to tell us?

1.2. Why is the world in such a state? Name possible causes.

2. Match the environmental problems that affect and harm the world we live in with
the corresponding picture.

Environmental Problems

a) Exhaust fumes
b) Deforestation
c) Garbage
d) Drought
e) Factory emissions
f) Endangered species
g) The hole in the ozone layer
h) Flood
i) Earthquake
 2.1. Are these problems caused by man or by nature? Give reasons for your answer.

3. Is our world far from the perfect world? What is the perfect world like for you?

4. Listen to the song attentively and fill in the gaps with the missing words.

_________ ___ __________ _____________, by Louis Armstrong

I see a) _______ of green, red b) _______ too

2 I see them c) _______ for me and you
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

4 I see d) _______ of blue and e) _______ of white

The bright blessed f)_______, the dark sacred g) _______
6 And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

The colours of the h)_______, so pretty in the sky

8 Are also on the faces of i) _______ going by
I see j) _______ shaking hands, saying “how do you do?”
10 They are really saying, “I love you”

I hear k) _______ crying, I watch them grow

12 They’ll l) _______ much more than I’ll ever know
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world
14 And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

5. What do you think the title of this song is?

6. Make full sentences by matching column A with column B.

Column A Column B
Ke
a) The singer describes… y: 1. …that it is a fabulous day.
a)
b) The clouds in the sky tell you… ___ 2. …and smiles paint people’s faces.
___
c) The rainbows paint the sky… ___ 3. … a colourful world where everyone is happy.
_ /
d) When people meet… b) 4. … grow up to be nice adults.
___
e) Little children… ___ 5. …they shake hands.
___
_ / c) __________ / d) __________ / e) __________
 7. The singer describes the things he sees and hears. Imagine you are the singer and
write one more stanza stating the fragrances you can smell in this perfect world.

I smell_________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world…

8. Look at the following image.

9.1.Describe this image.

9.2.Is it common to see dirty beaches? Have you already seen one?

9.3.Why do you think this beach has become so dirty?

9.4.What can we do about it? What measures can we take to put an end to this?

10. We are going to clean this beach! Here is the litter that was found on this beach.

_____________________ _____________________ ___________________

__________________ _____________________ ______________________ ___________________

__________________ ___________________ ______________________

 10.1. Label these pieces of litter.

10.2. Now put each piece of litter into the corresponding recycling box in order to
clean the beach as well as to protect the environment.

Paper Metal Plastic

11. Could you do more to help the environment? Answer the following quiz about
yourself.

Have you ever… Yes, I have No, I haven’t

a) separated the rubbish into organic, inorganic, paper and plastic?
b) taken your paper or metals for recycling?
c) left lights on after you have left a room in your house?
d) got your parents to drive you less than a kilometre to school or to a
friend’s?
e) used your bicycle or walked instead of going by car?
f) dropped litter in the streets?
g) left the tap running when you are brushing your teeth?
h) planted a tree?
i) cleaned up an area in your neighbourhood?
j) tried to teach people in your area about eco-issues?
Adapted from Crown
Key
You get 1 point if you said YES to questions a), b), e), h), i) and j).
You get 1 point if you said NO to questions c), d), f) and g).

Lesson planned by Sofia Rodrigues