Lesson 1: Farm Animals
Vocab Taught: Chicken, Cow, Dog, Donkey, Duck
Phonics taught: d-o-g
Preparation: Flashcards, “old McDonald had a farm” song, worksheets, pin the tail on the donkey.
Age/level: beginner about 5/6/7 years.
Time: About an hour, depending on class size.
Activity: Pin the tail on the donkey.
Possible sentence structures for this lesson:
1. What is it? It’s a cow.
2. What are they? They are cows.
3. How many nouns are there? There are seven.
Warmer: “Old McDonald had a farm” song. Play the song and do actions to the lyrics. 5 minutes.
Introduce the new language using TPR and flashcards. Drill the language using a variety of drills – all together, singular and st to st drills. Finish the drills with a line race. Students must ask “What is it?” to the next student who responds with “It’s a chicken.” The flashcard is passed to the next student and the process is repeated until it reaches the end of the line. 10/15 minutes.
Follow up with a game of hidden card. One student becomes the teacher. The teacher chooses a flashcard and hides it. Then, they ask “What is it?” Encourage sts to put their hands up so that the teacher (student) can choose someone to answer the question. 10 minutes.
Pin the tail on the donkey – 10 mins
Remember this game at birthday parties as a kid? It’s as much fun in the ESL classroom as it was in your single digit years! For those of you who don’t know how to play, or need a little refresher; here’s how to play:
1. Get a picture of a donkey without a tail (remove it if you have to).
2. Put a blindfold over your sts eyes (a beanie works really well).
3. Spin them around three times.
4. Give them the tail (with blu-tac/ sticky tac on the back).
5. Let them try to pin the tail on the donkey.
6. The student who gets the closest to the correct position is the winner.
Fun activity – Guess the animal sound. 10 minutes
Phonics: d-o-g
Drill phonic values. 5 minutes.
Play stations with phonic values. 5-7 minutes.
