Adjectives for Animals: quick, aggressive, useful, exotic, strange, zebralike, intelligent, noisy, venomous, elegant, tasty, majestic, tropical
Expressions for Agreeing & Disagreeing on a topic: perhaps, sure, you’re absolutely right, if you ask me, I see, definitely, for me, in my opinion, on second thoughts, so do I
Max and Sarah need to choose the world’s most amazing animal story. From pigeons to rats to quokkas, there are so many incredible animals out there. How will they decide which one is the best?
Checking understanding of the video.
How much do you remember from the video?
After you watch the video: go to ACTIVITY 1
Students play in teams of 2 or 3. They choose the category and level of difficulty.
They get points for every correct answer.
Decide how many teams will play against each other – two or three?
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Target grammar reinforcement– comparative and superlative adjectives.
Work in pairs or groups.
A-Z adjectives: Go to ACTIVITY 2 or scan a code generated by your teacher.
Go to the frame assigned to you by your teacher. Write one adjective, preferably an animal adjective, that begins with the corresponding letter of the alphabet (double click on the corresponding letter to be able to fill in the adjectives).
Your group gets 1 point for every correct adjective.
Chain game: Make sentences about animals, using the adjectives which your teacher shows on the screen in a comparative form. Your sentence starts with the last noun (=animal) of the previous sentence, e.g.: Elephants are bigger than tigers. => Tigers are smarter/ faster/ bigger than pigs. => Pigs are…
A-Z of adjectives:
Go to: ACTIVITY 2
Use your copy with your students: Click on the three dots in the top right corner and click on “Make a copy”. Then click on “Share” and change the setting from “Restricted” to “Anyone with the link” and from “Viewer” to “Editor”. Send the new link to your students or generate a QR code.
Students work in pairs or small groups (3-4) and write one adjective for each letter, preferably an animal adjective (2-3 minutes)
Assign 1 frame to each group where they write the adjectives (double click on the corresponding letter to be able to fill in the adjectives). There are 10 frames. Check the adjectives with the class – project the answers on the screen.
Groups get 1 point for an adjective
Chain game:
students make sentences about animals, using given adjectives in a comparative form. Write the following sentence in the chatbox (on the board): Elephants are bigger than tigers. Students must make a comparative sentence starting with the last noun of the previous sentence. In this case, the next sentence must start with ‘Tigers‘ (e.g. ‘Tigers are smarter/ faster/ bigger than pigs.’) Students must use the adjectives from the random word picker – open the link, click on “single name” in the top bar of the website, use the arrows to change the adjectives: RANDOM WORD PICKER
Groups get 1 point for every correct sentence
Jamboard works best with a Google account. You need to download a jamboard application to be able to open jamboard on mobile devices.
You can also ask students to use the adjectives and make sentences with superlative forms of the adjectives
Suggested adjectives: arrogant, brave, cute, dangerous, endangered, fast, great, heavy, intelligent, joyful, kind, long, moody, noisy, optimistic, patient, quiet, rare, slow, tall, useful, venomous, witty, (xeric), yellow, zebralike
Pronunciation of common words with silent letters.
Go to TASK 1 and generate a QR code for students. They play the words and write them down. When they finish, ask them what these words have in common.
TASK 2
Go to TASK 2 and generate a QR code for students. They need to put the words in the right columns. Check and focus on the correct pronunciation.
Possible lead-in: before this activity, play the quokka part of the video. Ask students where quokkas live and focus on the pronunciation of the word “island”. What do you notice?
Optional extension: Ask students to come up with other words that contain a silent letter.
1. They are words with a silent letter.
Connecting the topic with real life.
After you watch activity:
Work in pairs and prepare your invitation to the animal rescue centre:
Imagine that you are preparing to open a rescue centre for animals in need. The problem is that you are missing part of the funding, and therefore you need visitors and potential sponsors. Prepare an invitation that informs visitors not only about the animals but also about other activities that can be done at your centre, including your rescue program. Convince them that your project makes sense.
Perform your invitations for the class or upload them to Padlet, watch all the invitations and decide which animal rescue centre you would donate some money to.
Watch the invitation to Chester Zoo with the students: ACTIVITY 4
Before you watch: What animals do you expect to see? What else can people do when visiting a zoo?
While watching: Students order the adjectives as they appear in the video. Write the adjectives on the board: endangered, cute, tropical, smallest, exotic, amazing, majestic, largest, tasty, strangest, tallest, or go to: FLIPPITY
After you watch:
put students in pairs and ask them to prepare their invitation to the animal rescue centre.
“You have just seen an invitation to Chester Zoo. Imagine that you are preparing to open a rescue centre for animals in need. The problem is that you are missing part of the funding, and therefore you need visitors and potential sponsors. Prepare an invitation that informs visitors not only about the animals but also about other activities that can be done at your centre, including your rescue program. Convince them that your project makes sense.”
To add an element of competition, create a Padlet page where students can upload their invitations, watch them together and decide which centre they would donate some money to.
2. the order of adjectives from the video: majestic, tropical, exotic, endangered, largest, smallest, strangest, tallest, cute, tasty, amazing
Learn key phrases for making suggestions, responding, and giving an opinion. Practise the use of these phrases.
STUDENT A
You are fascinated by Africa. Your parents visited Safari last year and told you about giraffes, lions, elephants, and rhinos. You want to visit Chester Zoo because you can see these animals there. You know visitors can feed giraffes at the park. That’s what you’ve always wanted. You always like to have something to eat when you are on a trip. You don´t like playgrounds. It´s too crowded and noisy there.
Start the conversation: Did you hear about Chester Zoo?
Use some of the following expressions: What do you think, I would like, I´m not sure, That´s a good idea, In my opinion, Why don´t we, What about, I have no idea, If you ask me, I guess you are right, Absolutely, …
STUDENT B
At home, you have 2 aquariums with tropical fish, two snakes, and some frogs. You would like to see these animals at Chester Zoo. You know there are boat rides in the zoo which enable visitors to see water animals in their natural environment. You think it is fun to spend some time at playgrounds. You always take a snack with you when you go on a trip because restaurants are expensive.
Use some of the following expressions: What do you think, I would like, I´m not sure, That´s a good idea, In my opinion, Why don´t we, What about, I have no idea, If you ask me, I guess you are right, Absolutely, …
Your partner starts.
Role play: Divide the students into pairs and give each of them a card with instructions (student A and student B). They are going to prepare short dialogues. They have to use expressions to make suggestions, ask for an opinion, or give an opinion.
Students perform their dialogues for the class. Check the use of the expressions to make suggestions, ask for an opinion, or give an opinion. (*)
You can play it as a whole class together = students don’t need their devices. If you have a big class, put students into small groups of two or three. Each group has one device to play on. Students complete the responses using the given prompts. They get points for correct answers.
About Baamboozle: This game works better if you have a created account, which is free. When you open the link, click on play, choose the Baamboozle tile, number of teams and choose a mode in which you want to play – with power ups or just questions.
If you don’t create an account, you can only play with 2 teams and with power-ups.
(*)Try to make the role play activity competitive and challenging. Give each pair a point for the use of functional language that relates to suggestions, responses, or opinions. You can use the table in learningapps to mark the expressions: TASK 3
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The BOOST Project (Building Open Online Series for Teaching) aims to improve the digital readiness of teachers of English as a foreign language to students aged 8 -14 by providing an open-access series of engaging native-speaker content videos linked with a Resource Pack of ready-made activities to stimulate production of the language in online learning.
