Real English The Teacher Guide

THE TEACHER GUIDE
FOR A YOUNG CHILDREN’S COURSE
material to use with very young learners of English

(3-11 years)
Luc Ciotkowski
(with contributions from Lydia Brear)
First edition published by ILCEA Linguistic Ltd. 2005

Introduction II
Are we missing the point? V
Lexical and grammatical fields VIII
Materials XII
Vocabulary games XIV
The ‘chairs’ game XVI
Language specific games XVII
Week Lesson
1 Introductions 1
2 Numbers 3
3 Commands 5
4 Halloween 7
5 Colours 10
6 REVISION A 12
7 Emotions 13
8 This and that 15
9 This and that 15
10 Weather 19
11 Christmas 21
12 REVISION B 23
13 Family and pets 24
14 Body parts I 27
15 Body parts II 29
16 Animals 31
17 REVISION C 34
18 Can you? 35
19 In the house 39
20 Hair and eyes 42
21 Easter + REVISION D 45
22 He’s big 47
23 Clothes 50
24 REVISION E 53
25 Mealtimes 54
26 Food 57
27 Jobs 59
28 Transport 64
29 REVISION F 68
30 Time 69
31 REVISION G + Goodbye 72
©2005 I
Introduction
This guide was originally conceived for the PROXILANGUE language

school program and provides material for an English language course
for children between the ages of three and eleven years old. The
course consists of thirty one lessons of one hour which, at one hour a
week, represents a full academic year. It can be no more than a basis
due to the large differences in development between these age
groups. Therefore, the guide should not be looked at as a ‘one-size-
fits-all’ but as a cloth ready to be tailored to specific groups and
ages. Clearly, you will spend longer using the more simple practice
activities and games with groups of younger students, while you will
be able to move onto more complex activities and games more quickly
with older groups. The course is very light on materials and teaches
spoken English. This allows for maximum communication, interaction
and participation, while promoting a new language as an interpersonal
tool and not an academic discipline. As a result the course is more
demanding than many others: the teacher is neither able to rest nor
hide behind materials and written exercises. However, this is also
the very thing that makes it more rewarding for teachers than many
other courses.
The Teacher Guide was developed on these principles: children learn

most naturally and effectively through play; learning a language can
and should be a pleasant experience. I hope the Teacher Guide will
be used with motivation in mind. I believe that this is the most
important factor for increasing the effectiveness of learning (see
the piece entitled ‘Are we missing the point?’) and should be a key
consideration in any course. The activities are designed to promote
cooperation, participation and some friendly competition that doesn’t
exclude less able students in favour of the more able ones. The
students are discouraged from reverting to their mother tongue or
not participating by the risk of ‘losing’ or isolating themselves from
the group; they must participate in order to ‘survive’. This is coupled
with the way that activities are presented as play rather than work;
©2005 II
it is much easier to get students to do something because they want
to rather than forcing them to.
No reading or writing activities are directly mentioned in the

Teacher Guide. This is not attempt to deny the importance of the
written language. It is important as a means of making sense of what
has been learned, in addition to being a communicative tool. However,
in a thirty-hour course that consists of one lesson of one hour a
week (as this was originally intended) the contact time for actual
human communication is too precious to be spent on something which
is essentially an individual activity and penalises students with a less-
developed level of literacy. I recognise that some teachers work
under the obligation of teaching written English and the Teacher
Guide remains a useful resource to them: reading and writing
activities can be added to the end of every lesson to reinforce what
has been learned. I strongly advise that if a written element must be
added then it be added after new language has been introduced
through listening and speaking. Phonology has to come before
phonics, otherwise interference from the phonics of the mother
tongue will have a significantly negative effect on pronunciation.
This is a guide and, as such, is not exclusive: your own ideas and
games would be a welcome expansion and if, without losing cohesion
or coherence, you can do something better you should feel free to do
so. We are breaking away from the tradition of the textbook; to
follow the entire guide without adding, taking away or changing
anything would be to kill the dynamism we are trying to attain. I have
tried and tested all the lesson plans and ideas with every age group,
although I have never followed a single one to the letter and never
delivered a lesson in exactly the same way twice. The reason for this
is that the needs of each group are as different as the abilities,
personalities and needs of the individuals who are in it. We need to
adapt our ideas constantly if we wish our students to reap the
maximum benefit from our classes.
©2005 III
What we teach children first may be no more important than which
leg we put into our trousers first in the morning, but the Teacher
Guide tries to cover some of the most frequently occurring and
relevant topics and language areas. The Guide doesn’t work through a
progression of structures and you will be able to see that present
tenses appear most frequently (as they do in real life spoken
English). However, the context is the deciding factor in choosing
tenses; if an activity creates a situation where a certain tense is
most natural we will not avoid it because it is a ‘higher level’ tense.
Equally, approaching activities in a different way open up the
possibility of using different tenses to those mentioned. The games
are designed to satisfy both the fun and language aspects of the
course. No thirty-hour course will produce fluent speakers of
English, but it can be a foundation and, more importantly, a positive
first experience of learning English.
You will find a list of the most useful vocabulary and language
specific games that are referred to in the lesson plans; these can
also be used in lessons where they are not mentioned. There are
language specific games that are not at all mentioned in the lesson
plans; these are designed to be slotted in according to age and ability
where you feel they may be appropriate. You will see that the
vocabulary included follows the norms of British English; this can
easily be adapted if you wish to teach another variety of English.
Finally, I have taught students between the ages of three and

eighty-three, of all levels and abilities, and have often asked their
opinions of what makes a good teacher. The most valued
characteristics are almost always the human qualities that are
independent of teaching methods or styles. I believe it is important
to bear this in mind in any teaching situation.
©2005 IV
Are we missing the point?
Applied linguistics has still to uncover exactly how we acquire a second

language. When applied linguists and second language acquisition experts
theorise about how best to optimise the acquisition of a second language,
it seems to me, the overriding theme (consciously or unconsciously) is
invariably motivation.
Methodology in English Language Teaching has moved through many

different trends in its history (mostly over the last century) and yet no one
method has been universally agreed upon. The followers of each ‘new’
method have been quick to attack the shortcomings of previous ones and
declare that they have found the ‘right’ way to teach English. The fact that
every method has, to a greater or lesser extent, been able to yield
success (people using them have learnt to speak English) prevented any
one particular method from discrediting the others and permanently
establishing itself as the accepted model. The use of the word ‘method’
has even become unfashionable, the word ‘approach’ is now preferred. In
this sense an approach is taken as an umbrella term indicating an attitude
to teaching and justifying the use of several methods.
The Communicative Approach, which enjoys the most widespread
popularity in English Language Teaching today, works on the principle that
the goal of learning a language is communication. This attitude
differentiates it from the idea that a language is learned for its own sake,
to study and appreciate its structures (linguistics). While the
Communicative Approach holds to the primacy of fluency over accuracy
and that this is achieved through authentic communication, it is non-
committal enough to allow the use of a variety of methods to accomplish
this. In reality, this has allowed practitioners to use methods with which
they are most comfortable (often grammar methods), inserting some
communicative activities and games. Recently an evolution of the
Communicative Approach has produced the Lexical Approach, which
theorises that fluency is best attained by learning prefabricated chunks of
language rather than grammatical structures. Once again, students have
become proficient users of English with both sets of techniques.
My aim here is not to criticise or discuss the merits of existing methods

(approaches, techniques, etc.) in detail. What interests me is that, while
the various methods sometimes allude to motivation, the method is
generally implied to be separate from motivation. I suggest that
motivation should not be viewed as a separate consideration in any
methodology (and certainly not a subordinate one), but the fundamental
base around which it is built and applied. What I am promoting is not new
or revolutionary in any way, but a refocusing of something that is far too
often neglected or forgotten. Indeed, it is my hope that these suggestions
sound self-evident, in which case let us pay more attention to them.
©2005 V
Survival/Desire Theory
I intend to talk about motivation in the context of English as a Foreign

Language, dividing it into two kinds which I call DESIRE MOTIVATION and
SURVIVAL MOTIVATION. DESIRE MOTIVATION is motivation to do
something because you like it, enjoy it, want to or are interested in it.
SURVIVAL MOTIVATION is motivation to do something because you feel
you need to do it.
The reason for learning the language in the first place is a survival
motivation. Here are a few examples: the student lives in an English
speaking environment; the student needs to pass exams or get good
marks; the student’s boss wants him/her to learn English; the student’s
parents want him/her to learn English; the student feels he/she needs
English for his/her career; the student would like to integrate into an
English speaking community; the student likes the thought of being able
to speak English; etc. Coercion is a form of survival motivation. Examples
of coercion are: fear of punishment from parents, teachers or bosses if a
student does not learn; fear of social exclusion (isolation from other
students or people in general). Rewards are also a form of survival
motivation, whether that is praise from parents/teachers/other students
or pay rises, etc.
Everyone (that is able to) eats, sleeps, learns to walk and learns his/her
mother tongue. Why do you eat? Why do you sleep? Why do you learn to
walk? Why do you learn your mother tongue? These are all examples of
survival motivation at its most potent. However, ‘Why do you learn a
second/foreign language?’ is not a rhetorical question and it is unlikely in
the extreme that the survival motivation for this could reach the same
strength as in those four examples. Let us look at when survival
motivation for learning a foreign language is at its strongest: when
learners live in a foreign country where their native language is not
spoken. A British family of five moved to France. Amongst the family
members were a five year-old boy and his forty year-old father. The five
year-old boy spoke no French at all and the father had learned a little at
school, but had barely an elementary level. The boy had done six weeks of
his first year of school in the UK and said that he did not want to learn
French. The father, skilled as a builder, said he wanted to be able to speak
French for work purposes and to integrate into the local community. The
son reluctantly began French primary school and cried every day for the
first three weeks as his parents left him at the school. His teacher
reported that after a month he started to speak French in class with no
accent. After six months his fluency was exactly the same as the other
French children in his class. The father took intensive classes in French
and studied specialised vocabulary in the field of construction. He secured
building work after two months but relied a lot on help from his wife for
communicating in French. After a year he felt his French had improved,
but still found it a struggle and said there were lots of misunderstandings
at work due to the language barrier. There were several factors that might
explain the differences in proficiency of the father and son after a year.
©2005 VI
The difference in age and the theory that there may be a ‘sensitive period’
for learning language could certainly be a factor but that is a different
discussion, especially as this is not a scientific experiment. The level of
exposure to French was clearly different, also. What interests me is the
difference in survival motivation. The father could use lots of different
ways to ‘survive’ without having to use French. He could rely on his wife
to communicate for him when he got stuck. He could use the similarities
to English words when he saw written French to understand signs. He
could go about his day-to-day business speaking very little French. He
could fill in official forms using dictionary translations without needing to
assimilate the words he was writing. In interpersonal relationships he
could speak English: with his wife; with his children; over the telephone
with his family and English-speaking friends. Only in the workplace was he
truly forced to use French to survive (and still, lots of gesturing and
waving could see him through). On the other hand, the survival
motivation was quite different for the son. His world consisted of home
and school. Of course, at home he spoke English and at school he spoke
French. He could not fall back on the survival strategies that his father
was able to. Once at school, everything depended on learning French. If
he did not use French he could not participate; he could not make friends;
he could not be accepted . . . He could not ‘survive’ without it.
Desire motivation is the stimulation of curiosity and enjoyment that has

an effect during learning. If people think of what their favourite subject
was at school, followed by the subject in which they achieved the best
grades or put the most effort into, I am sure a high percentage would give
the same subject for both answers. The same is true if we look at it the
opposite way round: we tend to enjoy the things we are ‘good at’. This is
why it is so important to give students a sense of achievement. Desire
motivation, or lack of it, is what makes someone go the cinema twice to
see the same film and leave half way through another. Newer ‘methods’
and ‘approaches’ advocate the use of authentic materials instead of
contrived and wooden examples of English. What is the difference if they
both give the same end result?..
There are two reasons: if students can ‘see the point’ they will invest
themselves more willingly; if activities or subjects are more relevant to
their lives and interests they want to do them. The movement towards
‘student-centred’ activities and classrooms away from ‘teacher-centred’
ones is also based on desire motivation (as well as promoting learner
autonomy). ‘Student-centred’ activities exploit students’ two greatest
interests: themselves and other people.
While considering these observations allows us to recognise what

motivates students, it is our job as teachers to exploit them in order to
optimise student motivation. Indeed, there are more and more teachers
who believe the ability to get students motivated and help them to
become autonomous learners is as important as (if not more than) the
teacher’s knowledge of the language.
©2005 VII
Lexical and Grammatical Fields
Topics
Numbers (12+): One; two; three; four; five; six; seven; eight; nine; ten;
eleven; twelve…
Halloween (6+): Ghost; witch; vampire; pumpkin; devil; skeleton…
Eating/drinking (5+): Knife; fork; spoon; glass; plate…
Seasons (4): Spring; summer; autumn; winter.
Christmas (6+): Father Christmas; snowman; presents; stocking;

Christmas tree; reindeer…
People/Family (10+): Me; you; boy(s); girl(s); man(men); woman(women); mum;

dad; brother; sister…
Animals (7+): Dog; cat; rabbit; fish; bird; mouse; spider (+ students’
pets)…
In the house (7+): House; bedroom; bathroom; lounge; dining room; kitchen;
garden...
Easter (2+): Easter Bunny; Easter eggs…
Body parts (15+): Arm; ear; eye; fingers; foot; hand; head; knees; leg;
mouth; neck; nose; shoulders; stomach; toes…
Clothes (8+): Jeans; jumper; shirt; shoes; skirt; socks; trousers; T-

shirt…
Times of day (6+): Morning; afternoon; evening; night; o’clock; half past…
Meals (3+): Breakfast; lunch; dinner…
Food (8+): Apple; bread; cheese; fish; ice cream; meat; potato;
tomato…
Jobs (7+): Baker; chef; doctor; fire fighter; police officer; singer;
teacher…
Transport (6+): Boat; bus; car; lorry; plane; train…
©2005 VIII
Descriptions
Weather (6+): Sunny; raining; cloudy; snowing; foggy; windy…
Colours (9-12+): Blue; red; yellow; green; black; white; brown; purple;
blond. (Orange; pink; grey…)
Feelings/
Other adjectives (11+): Fine; happy; sad; angry; fed up; hot; cold; big; small; good;
bad; thirsty; hungry…
Possessive (2+): My; your…
Prepositions (6+): In; on; behind; in front of; next to; under…
Actions
I can / Can you? (5+): Climb; fly; jump; run; swim…
Commands (21+): Be quiet; clap your hands; close your eyes; come here;
count to twelve; do this; do that; go over there; hands on
heads; jump; open your eyes; ready, go; sit down; stand
up; step backwards; step forwards; stop; touch your . . .;
turn around; wait…
(With ‘don’t’ for negative imperative.)
Miscellaneous (taught directly or indirectly)
If; and; but; or; with; to; the; a; an; of; this; that; these;
those; I; you; he; she; it; we; they; for; at; from; here; there;
by; not; all; everyone; everybody; not; which; how; where;
who; what; when; again; another; other; now; then; some;
any; more; up; down; him; her; them; yes; no; out; first
(and any other frequently recurring language that the
teacher uses).
This list is flexible and non-exhaustive and is meant as an indication of the

language to which the students will be exposed during the course. It is NOT a
restriction on what can be taught.
©2005 IX
Questions
Basic question structures ‘Question word’ questions
How are you/How’s it going?

How old are you?
Am I . . .? How many . . . are there?
Are you . . .? How many . . . has it got?
Are you a . . .? What’s your name?
Are you in the . . .? What colour is it?
Are you wearing (a) . . .? What colour have you got?
Is this your . . .? What colour . . . have you got?
Is that your . . .? What’s this?
Is he . . .? What’s that?
Is she . . .? What’s the weather like?
Is he a . . .? What time is it?
Is she a . . .? What’s wrong?
Are you scared of . . .? When do you have . . .?
Are these your . . .? Where do you live?
Are those your . . .? Where’s my . . .?
Can you . . .? Where’s (the) . . .?
Do you like . . .? Where are you?
Have you got any . . .? Where are they?
Where are my . . .?
Phrases / sentences
To be
Yes, I am.
No, I’m not. It’s (colour).
Yes, it is. It’s (weather).
No, it’s not. It’s (time) o’clock.
It’s half past (time).
I’m fine thank you. This is a . . .
I’m (age). That’s a . . .
I’m scared of . . . There’s . . .
I’m not scared of . . . He’s (adjective).
I’m (emotion/feeling). She’s (adjective).
I’m not (emotion/feeling). He’s not (adjective).
I’m a (job/profession). She’s not (adjective).
I’m wearing [a] (item of clothing). He’s a (job/profession).
I’m in the (place). She’s a (job/profession).
The man/woman is (adjective).
There are . . .
They’re on/in the (place). We’re on/in the (place).
The men/women are (adjective).
©2005 X
To have (got)
I’ve got (number). It’s got (number + body part).

I’ve got (number + family/pets). I’ve got (colour + body part).
I’ve got some . . . I have (meal) in the (time of day).
I haven’t got any . . .
Can
Yes, I can. I can(‘t) swim.

No, I can’t. I can(‘t) jump.
I can(‘t) fly. I can(‘t) climb.
I can(‘t) run.
.
Greetings
Hello. Good afternoon.

Goodbye. Good evening.
Good morning. Good night.
Various
My name’s . . . My (body part) hurts.

I live in (place). I like (food).
Ouch! I don’t like (food).
©2005 XI
Materials
Week 1 None
Week 2 3 sets of number flashcards (numbers 1 – 12)

8 boy flashcards
8 girl flashcards
Week 3 None
Week 4 Halloween flashcards

10 scared faces
10 not scared faces
Week 5 3 sets of colour flashcards
Week 6 Revision of weeks 1, 2, 3 and 5
Week 7 2 sets of emotion flashcards (happy, sad, angry, fed-up)
Week 8 1 set of real cutlery and crockery (knife, fork, spoon, plate, glass)
1 set for each student of paper cutlery and crockery
Week 9 1 set of real cutlery and crockery (knife, fork, spoon, plate, glass)
1 set for each student of paper cutlery and crockery
Week 10 2 sets of weather flashcards

Weather bingo and tokens
1 set of big country flashcards
1 set of season flashcards
Week 11 3 sets of Christmas flashcards

A set of small Christmas flashcards for each student
Card
Felt tips
Glue
Week 12 Revision of weeks 7, 8/9 and 10
Week 13 1 large picture of the Funky family

1 set of members of the Funky family
Animal flashcards
Week 14 1 set of body part flashcards

Plasters
Week 15 Body part flashcards

1 set of monster’s body parts for each student
blutack and drawing pins
Week 16 2 sets of animal flashcards
©2005 XII
Week 17 Revision of 13, 14 and 15
Week 18 Animal flashcards
Week 19 Garden and room pictures

The doll’s house (open and closed)
Counters to represent the students
Week 20 1 set of man, men, woman, women flashcards

Flashcards of hungry and thirsty
12 pictures of Funky with different hair and eye colour
Week 21 Easter Bunny

Easter eggs
Revision of weeks 16, 18 and 19
Week 22 8 large pictures of a girl

8 large pictures of a boy
8 small pictures of a girl
8 small pictures of a boy
8 ‘bad’ pictures.
8 ‘good’ pictures.
Week 23 1 set of real clothes

1 set of clothes flashcards
1 large picture of the wee man
8 little pictures of the wee man
colour flashcards
Week 24 Revision
Week 25 1 set of parts of the day flashcards

Breakfast, lunch and dinner flashcards
Week 26 3 sets of food flashcards
Week 27 2 sets of job flashcards
Week 28 2 sets of transport flashcards

Counters to represent the students
Week 29 Revision of weeks 25, 26 and 27
Week 30 Digital times to represent 1 – 12 o’clock

Digital times to represent half past 1 – half past 12
Week 31 Revision of weeks 28 and 30
©2005 XIII
Vocabulary games
This is just a small selection of vocabulary games that you may find helpful.
Circles
This game works for any vocabulary that is used in sequences. (I have used this
game to teach cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers, days of the week, months of the
year, meals and parts of the day.)
We practise the words together to begin with. Repeat with individuals to check
pronunciation and when you’re happy, put the students into a circle. For example,
we’re doing morning, afternoon and evening (and perhaps night), and we have to go
round the circle in order. So in this case, begin with morning and the next person
must say afternoon, and so on. Sounds a bit rubbish, doesn’t it? Well, they’re
practising new words and the order they go in, it’s not so rubbish for them. Make sure
the group is not divisible by three (or four), so each student’s word changes with
every turn (I join in if needed). The better they get, the faster they have to go. They’ve
got to remember the word, pronounce it properly, say it in the right order and as fast
as they can.
Start again, this time with meals. Show them pictures of breakfast, lunch and dinner.
We practise as before, then we go into our circles.
Once we’re really good at this, the hard part comes. We want to put these pieces of
vocabulary together and make a sentence. We now need the ‘glue’ that sticks a
sentence together. We’re going to learn ‘I have breakfast in the morning’, etc.
It depends on the vocabulary as to the ‘glue’ needed, and you might choose to move
on to a different task to teach this.
Pick up a pair
You need a set of flashcards with two copies of each picture. After the vocabulary
has been introduced and repeated, shuffle the cards and lay them face down on the
table or floor. A student turns one card over, revealing a picture. To have their
second turn, the student must say the vocabulary item out loud. If they can, they turn
over a second card of their choice and say the word that it represents. If the two
cards match, they keep the cards and have another go.
Keep the card
Show a flashcard, the first person to say the English word for what it represents
keeps the card. It’s as simple as that. When there are no flashcards left, the person
with the most cards is the winner. You can show only a part of the flashcard, reveal it
slowly, or show the card for just a split-second.
©2005 XIV
Poisoned pass-the-parcel
In a circle, students pass several flashcards or items to one another. When you say
stop, those who are holding an item must say what it is in English. This can also be
used for specific structures such as ‘to have (got)’ and ‘to be’.
What’s missing?
For this activity you need objects for the vocabulary you want to teach, it can be used
to teach just about anything you can fit on a table. It’s up to you how many objects
you use, although you run the risk of the students retaining very little if you confuse
them with too much new vocabulary. I normally use six or seven objects maximum if
they are all words that are new to the class. If only a couple are new and the rest are
pretty well known to the class (You just want to reinforce, revise a little, or test
retention if they learnt the words a while ago), I might use up to ten. If you use more
than that you’ll more than likely be wasting your time – you want them to learn
English, not develop a photographic memory.
Choose a student to go into the corner and close their eyes. Repeat the names of the
objects in no particular order and, showing the rest of the class which one, take an
object away and hide it. Then it’s, “Ready, go!” and the student comes back to find
the missing object. If they get it right, great, start hiding several objects at a time.
When they can’t do it go through the objects that are there to see if it jogs their
memory. If they still can’t do it, see if the other students can remember, only then
should you give in and tell them (showing the hidden object). Even if they get it right
you need to show them the object and repeat it, reinforcing it for those who knew and
reminding for those who didn’t. After a while, you can start giving the students the
chance to pick an object to hide. They have to remember the one they picked in
particular, and when the student who closed their eyes says which objects were
missing they have to say which one they chose. It’s just a way to stop the students
who aren’t doing the guessing from switching off.
If they get really good at it, hide all the objects and see if the students can remember
them all.
Change chairs/places
The students sit in a circle and each one has a flashcard. Call out two or three items
(shown by images on the flashcards) and the students holding these items change
places.
You can have one less chair than students, in which case one student stands in the
middle. This student must try to get a chair when others change places. This second
variation is more fun, but play it at your own risk! If you have more than one over-
competitive student, mayhem and injury can ensue.
©2005 XV
The ‘chairs’ game
The next activity is meant to be used little and often: In lessons where you need to
change the focus if your students are bored or need a break from the main topic; if
you go through your material too quickly or if you have a spare five minutes to fill. It
can actually be a free-standing lesson on prepositions, but its value as a ‘get out of
jail free’ card is the reason we’re including it here.
For this activity you will need a chair and a stuffed animal or doll.
After making sure the students know the word ‘chair’, place your doll in the various
positions in relation to the chair and tell them where it is, i.e. on; under; next to; in
front of and behind the chair. Signal to a student to repeat ‘on the chair’, repeat it
back to them and give them a second or more chances if the pronunciation is poor.
Do the same with the rest of the class, then get an ‘on the chair’ in unison.
Do another couple of rounds of telling them the different positions before
concentrating on another in particular, perhaps ‘under the chair’, giving everyone a
chance to repeat the position of the doll. Before you repeat this process for the
remaining prepositions go back and test some students on the first one.
Now that everyone has had a chance to say each of the prepositions, you can
encourage them to repeat together each time you move the doll. This was also the
point at which I decided to say, “Where is . . .(name of the doll)?” each time I moved it
to a new position and before I told them where it was. Of course, you can do this from
the start, but I chose to wait a little to avoid any confusion.
When you feel that the prepositions are starting to sink in you can start to test their
retention of the language individually.
If all you get is blank looks, you can always go back and work on positions they find
more difficult to say or remember. The first time I used the exercise I found that the
students had particular difficulty in remembering ‘in front of the chair’, and that some
were saying ‘on de de chair’ for both on and under the chair. It is best if you alternate
between two positions for a few goes before they get better. You will know if they
have cracked some and not other positions, so you should be able to judge which
areas to work on.
To get more participation from the students you can have volunteers to move the doll
or teddy, while you pick another to say where it is. If they cannot answer, it is for the
person who moved it to answer. If neither they, then nobody else from the class can
answer, you tell them. In addition, you may want to bring students to the front, give
them the doll and tell them to place it, for example, under the chair. They place the
doll and you ask the rest of the class if they are right - Yes (Big smile, thumbs up,
nodding head) or no (Sad face, shaking head). If they are right, give them praise, if
not tell the students where it actually is, show them where the doll should be and
repeat ‘under the chair’, or wherever. If a student gets it wrong, give them another
chance and try and make sure they get one right. They will get extra confidence from
the praise of their peers as well as yours.
This is the simplest form of the ‘chairs’ game, it can be expanded with commands like
‘sit in front of the chair’ or ‘stand behind the chair’. A game can be played where
everyone moves in front of the chair, another where one person does it and someone
else says whether it is correct, or even where one student tells another to move
somewhere in relation to the chair.
This activity can be revisited later to practise a variety of vocabulary, by placing
different objects around the chair, e.g. “What’s under the chair?”. It can also be
helpful for familiarising the verb to be. – Where am I? _ You’re on the chair. Where’s
Paul?_ He’s in front of the chair, etc.
©2005 XVI
Language specific games
Time
Language What time is it? It’s…..
Everyone stands in a circle and asks in unison, “What time is it?” Choose a time such
as 4 o’clock. Say, “It’s 4 o’clock.” The group mime the time by using their arms. The
results can be funny. Anybody who gets it wrong is out of the game and sits down.
The game continues until there is one person left standing, they are the winner. You
could vary this by choosing a student to say the times.
First to 20
Language Numbers
Sit the students in a circle and count to 20, first together and then go round the circle.
Each person says one, two or three numbers each. They can choose how many they
want to say. The person who falls on 20 gains a point. Play the first to 3 points.
Directions
Language Directions: left; right; forwards, backwards; stop.
One child stands in the corner of the room and the group or individuals give him
directions to get to another part of the room. Continue until everyone has had a go.
Your wish is my command
Language Giving instructions
This is an extension of the idea in ‘Directions’. Ask two students to go to the side of
the room. Give them instructions on how to cross the room. For example: walk
slowly; put your arms in the air; wave. Give one instruction, and then another, and
then another. The students are not allowed to stop doing one action before they start
another; they do them all simultaneously. As soon as the students reach the other
side of the room they stop, take over the role of giving instructions and two more
students go up to be commanded.
Colours and clothes
Language What colour is ……?
Stand in a circle and ask a few questions about the colour of clothes that the
students are wearing. For example, “What colour is Jack’s T-shirt?” After a few
examples, blindfold one of the students. The rest of the group ask the blindfolded
student questions about the colour of students’ clothes. When the blindfolded
student answers correctly, he gives the blindfold to the student whose clothes were
being talked about.
©2005 XVII
With this game you could also use different structures:
1. A Is John’s jumper blue?

B Yes / No.
2. A John’s shoes are yellow.

B True / False.
3. A What’s John wearing?

4. B He’s wearing…..
Telephone game
Language Simple conversation e.g. Hello, how are you? Do you want to….?
Bye.
Give the children a ready made telephone out of cardboard. Let the students spend a
few minutes colouring in their telephones, practising the colours they use to draw
with. Give each child their own phone number in written in one colour and a phone
number that they will dial in another colour. In turn, the children dial their dialling
number, saying the number out loud as they dial. All the others look at their own
number to see if they are the one being called. If so, they answer and have a short
conversation. The person who receives the call is the next person to make a phone
call.
Question and answer activities
Conveyor belt
The students sit on chairs in a line and you sit on a chair facing them. Ask the
question that you want to practise, beginning with the student on the end of the line.
Each student replies as you ask them the same question. When you have asked all
the students, everyone moves round one place: you join one end of the line and the
student at the other end takes your place. Continue until everyone has been up to
ask the question. (The person who asks the questions can wear a hat. This can be
funny and can help to distinguish the roles.)
Answer, quick!
Using the same lay out as the conveyor belt, the person at the front directs questions
at everyone. There must be a choice of several questions so that the group must
recognise what the question means and give the appropriate answer. As soon as
they know the answer, they stand up and shout their answer out. They students must
try to be the first to shout the correct answer.
©2005 XVIII
www.realenglish.tk Teacher Guide for Young Children’s Course 3-11 years
Week 1
Introductions
Target structures:
Hello
How are you? I’m fine, thank you.
What’s your name? My name’s…..
Where do you live? I live in…
Materials: None.
This is always going to be the hardest and most stressful lesson of the course.
However, this is not only true for you; your students feel exactly the same. If there is
one lesson plan that you are going to completely disregard and do things your own
way let it be this one. If you want to put your students at ease, you need to be as
comfortable as possible with what you are doing. Read the plan, understand what
you are trying to get from the lesson and adapt it so that you are comfortable with it.
“Hello”, introduce by shaking hands with everyone in the room, then get them to
shake hands with each other.
Ask a student, “How are you?” (Think about intonation, it’s got to sound like a
question, we want them to learn a realistic and interesting style of English from the
start. Maybe it’s obvious, but unfortunately there are still a lot of foreigners learning
HOW ARE YOU robot English.)
In a circle each person asks his or her neighbour, “How are you?” Do the same with,
“I’m fine, thank you.”
Ask all the students individually, “How are you?” and get them all to answer in turn.
They might think you are looking for them to repeat again. If they do, you step in with
a pre-emptive, “I’m fine thank you.”, so they know that you’re now looking for an
answer. Now in the circle, they can ask their neighbour the question, before their
neighbour replies and then in turn asks the next student.
Point to yourself and say, “My name’s…....” Point to somebody and ask the question,
“What’s your name?”. If you need to help them, say it and get them to repeat. The
first child then asks their neighbour “What’s your name?” the neighbour replies “My
name’s…..” and then asks his neighbour and so on.
Go round the circle again, this time shaking hands and asking everything, “Hello”,
“How are you?” “What’s your name?” Put the children in pairs and get them to shake
hands and ask each other the questions, change the partners until they’ve all spoken
to each other.
Do the same for, ‘Where do you live?’ this time, if you want, showing a map or
pictures drawn on the board of France and the UK.
Now stand up in front of the children. Say, “My name’s . . .” and each child does the
same. Then go round again, but this time ask, “What’s your name?”. If the first
student begins to repeat the question stop them in their tracks by starting “My
name’s….” so that it’s clear you’re looking for the answer. Between each student ask
2005 Luc Ciotkowski -1-
the question so that they associate it with the answer. Then, get each student to have
a go at asking everybody the same question. Do this with each question and answer,
starting with the teacher asking the question and then the students having a go.
You can change the focus by introducing the chairs game if you feel you need to. As
necessary and logical as introductions are, a taste of the more fun and inspiring
activities that are to come may do both them and you some good.
Then at the end, you can put all the questions and answers together. Stand up and
ask one student all the questions and he replies. Do this with all the students in turn.
Then one of the students can ask the questions, taking the role of the teacher.
Everyone has a go.

Week 2
Numbers
Target vocabulary: 1. Numbers.

2. Boy; boys; girl; girls.
Target structures: 1. How old are you?

I’m ……..
2. How many………are there?

There’s /there are……..
Materials 3 sets of number flashcards (numbers 1 – 12).

8 boy flashcards.
8 girl flashcards.
Introduce the numbers 1 – 12. Say them slowly and show the relevant figure at
the same time. Getting all the children to repeat after each number, do this twice.
Then, do it with each child individually, you saying the number first then them.
All count in a circle together, then go round with everyone saying a number each
in sequence. Continue getting faster and faster, checking that everyone knows
the numbers and can pronounce them correctly.
Choose one of the children to go and close their eyes and move them away from
the group. Show the rest of the group a number of your choice from the set of
cards, which are lined up in order. The group say the number together (this
reinforces for those who are struggling). “Ready, go!” the one that has not seen
the number rejoins the group and has to find the number that has been said. A
possible problem could be if someone blurts out the number in French. If this
happens you need to make it clear that it’s not allowed. Stamp this out now and
you’ll save yourself a lot of problems in future lessons. One way to do it is to tell
them that they lose a point if they say the word in French. They take turns until
everybody has had a go.
Divide your class into two teams. One student from each team comes over to you.
Their remaining team members have a set of cards with the numbers on. You
show the child from team one a number. He says the number in English to one of
his team-mates, who finds the number. If he can’t find it, or gets it wrong, the rest
of the team can say. If they still don’t have the right answer the other team can try.
If they get it right first time they get two points, if their team gets it right they get
one point and if the other team get it, they steal a point.
To make the link between numbers and age write how old you are in figures on
the board and point to yourself. Point to the number on the board and to yourself
again and elicit what you are trying to convey. If they can guess it will be in their
own language, that’s ok, you are merely looking for them to understand the
concept of numbers representing your age (also, they haven’t learnt as far as the
number you will have written). Tell the students, “I’m . . .(your age)”. If you get
blank looks you can take a picture of the boy and hold, for example, the number
five next to it and say, “I’m five”. Take a picture of the girl and hold, for example,
the number six next to it and say, “I’m six”. Point to a student, asking, “How old
are you?” and motion to the number pictures, “Four, five, six, seven?” When the
penny drops and your students realise you are looking for their age go through
with each of them how to tell their age, insisting on ‘I’m’ before they say the
relevant number. Set up they conveyor belt activity to practise the question and
answers.
Show the students two pictures, one of a boy and one of a girl. You say them, the
students repeat together. Do the same individually. Take another picture of a boy
and put it with the other. Take another picture of a girl and put it with the other.
You’ve now got boys and girls. Introduce these the same way as boy and girl.
Now you need them to recognise the difference between the singular and plural.
They have done enough repeating, so you can show them one or two pictures at
a time, the students reply together. Some might get it right, some might get it
wrong, make sure you reaffirm the correct answer.
Test individuals by saying boy, boys, girl or girls for the student to point to the
appropriate cards or cards. After that you can point to the cards and they can say
what it is. Once you’re confident that they can distinguish between the singulars
and plurals you can combine the numbers with the people.
You need several more pictures of boys and girls on individual cards, so that they
can be counted. Give a few examples, such as “There are two boys”, pause and
pick up two cards with the boy picture on. Go around the group telling individuals
how many girls or boys there are, while they find the pictures to represent it. Don’t
spend long on this; what you’re really looking for is for them to use the language
themselves. This time you show the cards, ask “how many ……. are there?”, and
the children reply saying, “There are …….” Split the group into two teams;
choose one member of each group. One is going to ask the question, “How many
boys are there?” and the one from the other team is going to make up an answer
e.g. “There are three boys.” The child who asked the question then goes to find
the correct number of boys to represent the answer, from a nearby table for
example. If he gets this right, his team wins two points. If he gets it wrong his
team has a second chance as another member of the team can go up to find the
cards, if this one gets it right, his team wins one point. Then, choose another two
children, one from each team and start again, this time with the other team asking
the question first.
At the end of the class, ask the question, “How many boys / girls are there?” Point
at the students to show that you mean them. They can shout out the number of
boys or girls in the class. This is just to make it authentic; they apply the words to
real life girls or boys. You can then integrate this into your lessons for the future,
starting at the beginning of each class, by asking “How many girls / boys are
there.” All the children count and reply. This is very good to do on a regular basis;
it’s both fun for the students and consolidates the language.

Week 3
Commands (Total Physical Response)
Target structures: Positive and negative imperatives

(Orders/instructions).
Materials: None.
It’s more than possible that you didn’t get through everything in Week 2, so begin
this one by finishing the last if you need to. Even if you did, it would be a good
idea to go back and do any points that were rushed or do the activities that
involved the students producing the language. Most importantly make sure that
the students recognise the difference between there is one . . . and there are
two/three etc. . . They will have less problems with the numbers and girl or boy,
but you’re also teaching them an extremely useful structure with the how many
and there is/are.
Start the habit of asking how they are and how many girls or boys there are now,
doing this at the start of every class will make it second nature. Further on you
can add all sorts of extra everyday things: What day it is; what the weather is like
etc.
Arrange the chairs into a line, including your own. (It’s preferable to have no
chairs or other obstacles in the middle of the room, and as much space as
possible.) You are going to give orders, which are carried out by moving. Begin
with “Stand up”, you stand up to show the students what to do. “Sit down”, you sit
down and they follow, they know what you’re doing now. The orders are up to
you, but I recommend: Jump; turn around; step forwards; step backwards; be
quiet (finger on lips, short silence), clap your hands; close your eyes; open your
eyes; count to ten. Sit down and stand up are obvious, but also essential for
controlling the class and setting up games. Deep breath, close your eyes,
followed by count to twelve (Everyone counts to twelve slowly), open your eyes,
this is amazingly useful for calming the group after a boisterous game or to curtail
any messing about.
Once you’ve introduced all the different orders you want to use, bring in ‘don’t’.
When you don’t move they see that they’re not supposed to either. You can use
positive and negative together now, “Do this!” “Don’t do that!” You no longer need
to show them first, so take a chair opposite the line of students and give the
orders without performing the actions. This is fun for them, but it can’t last too long
(especially for the very young groups). We’ll come back to it later in the lesson.

We’re going to go back to Week 1 now, to practise the introductions in full

(including how old are you, from Week 2). You can choose how to do it from the
activities in Week 1. Ideally you want the full interview in an order a bit like this:-
A “Hello!”
B “Hello!” (Shake hands)
A “What’s your name?”
B “My name’s . . . What’s your name?”
A “My name’s . . .”
B “How are you?”
A “I’m fine thank you. How are you?”
B “I’m fine thank you.”
A “How old are you?”
B “I’m . . . How old are you?”
A “I’m . . .”
B “Where do you live?”
A “I live in . . . Where do you live?”
B “I live in . . .
The order isn’t important, of course, you’re looking for the right question with the
right answer and pronounced as well as possible. The better the students
become, the more likely it is that you’ll be able to put two of them in the middle.
This is what you’re aiming for, but of course you’ll need to help.
If your group find this too difficult (which is likely), conveyor belt questioning (see
‘Games and activities’) is an excellent way to practise question and answer
recognition.
Go back to your orders now. Don’t give them any clues this time; see if they can
remember from before. Once they get good again (they need to be good for this
bit), put a student in your place in front of the other students. They now give
orders for the rest of the group to follow. If a student struggles, swap over quickly.
The better someone does, the more it will inspire the others to try (They should
enjoy it, they get to tell everyone what to do). The younger the group is, the more
help you’ll need to give and it may help to limit the orders they can choose from.
It’s obvious that you need to keep a younger group under tighter control, but you
can get good participation if you give just enough freedom. You’ve got a handy
calming technique now (“Sit down, be quiet, close your eyes, count to twelve.”).
‘Commands’ should make frequent comebacks in future lessons to revise, warm

up or change emphasis to re-capture short attentions spans (slowly introducing
more and more verbs or actions through mime).

Week 4
Halloween
Target vocabulary: Ghost; witch; vampire; pumpkin; devil; skeleton.
Target structures: Are you a ……?

Yes, I am / No, I’m not.
Are you scared of …..?
Yes, I’m scared of ……
No, I’m not scared of……
Materials: 2 sets of Halloween flashcards.

10 scared Funky faces.
10 not scared Funky faces.
Introduce the vocabulary. Go through it a few times, as a group and then individually
until you are satisfied with the pronunciation. Then play two vocabulary games to put
it into practice. An example would be to hand out the cards, say one of the words
and get the child with that card to hold it up. Another would be to play the ‘What’s
missing game.’ This is good to get the students to practise pronunciation.
Go on to teaching the structure, “Are you a ……?” Do this by giving everybody a

flashcard each. Turn to the person next to you and say, “Are you a ….?” followed by
the name of whatever they are holding. Prompt them to answer, “Yes I am”, do the
same for each student in turn. After you have gone round the circle once, go round
again this time asking, “Are you a …..?” followed by something they’re not. This time
prompt them to reply saying, “No, I’m not.” Go round a third time with the aim of
mixing up the two answers. You might be tempted to say, “Are you the ghost?” for
example, as you are talking about the picture of the specific ghost on the flashcard,
but if you were outside the classroom, you would be more likely to use the indefinite
article ‘a’ if you were talking about things in general. So be careful not to slip into
saying “the ghost” which might be an easy thing to do.
E.g.
Teacher (A has the ghost) Are you a ghost?
A Yes, I am.
Teacher (B has the pumpkin) Are you a witch?
B No, I’m not.

Continue doing this until you are happy with what the students are saying. Go onto
play a game. Hold up the picture of the witch and give it to the person next to you.
Ask them, “Are you the witch?” the student answers, “Yes, I am.” Take the card from
the student and give it to the next student, ask the same question again and gesture
for the first student to repeat the question after you. He should say this with a
questioning tone and he should direct it to student number two. Student two answers
and then asks number three the question and so on, until it has gone round the circle
twice or three times. For the game, split the class into teams and sit them at either
sides of a table. Give everyone in the first team a different flashcard, and give the
second team copies of the cards you’ve given the first team. Make sure everybody
hides their cards so that nobody can see. We’ll call them team A and team B. Team
A are going to start. The first member looks at his card, say it’s the skeleton. His aim
is to find the skeleton in the other group, so he picks someone and asks, “Are you the
skeleton?” They reply accordingly. If they say, “Yes, I am.” the two players but their
cards down on the table. If they say “No, I’m not.”, it’s the next member of team A to
have a go. If the answer was yes, team A get a point, but only if they guess right first
time. Let every team member find their partner (even if it’s the second or third time of
them asking the question.) Now, all the cards should be laid down on the table. Pick
up the cards and deal them out again, keeping one set of cards for team A and the
copies for team B. If you haven’t used all the flashcards in the first round, (because
you have a small class), use this as an opportunity to swap over and use the
remaining flashcards. Do exactly the same but this time with team B asking the
questions. Record the points each time they guess correctly the first time and get
them to keep taking turns until all their partners have been found. At the end, add up
the points and see who has got the most. Play the game again If you feel that the
students would benefit from it.
For the next part of the lesson, use the ‘scared’ and ‘not scared’ flashcards. Hold one
up at a time and say what they are using the phrases, “I’m scared” and “I’m not
scared”. Then, choose one of the Halloween flashcards, hold it up in the air and say,
“Oooh, I’m scared.” Choose another one of the flashcards, shake your head and say
“I’m not scared.” Hold up the “scared” card and the “not scared” cards once again,
and repeat the phrases that they represent. Then, the students can have a go. Put
the pictures down on the table and get the students to point to the correct picture
when you say “I’m scared” and “I’m not scared”. After they are getting them all right,
point to the pictures and get the students to say what they are, first altogether then
individually.
Moving onto the question, get everyone to stand up and stand in a circle. Say the
question this time, “Are you scared?”. Say it several times getting the students to
repeat after you as a group. Ask individuals to repeat after you. Do some more
repetitions as a group and then go round the circle, encouraging everyone to say the
question in turn. (If it is a small, well behaved group, throw round a cuddly toy to
choose the student who speaks.)

Sit back down again, and show the Halloween flashcards. Say if you hold up the
ghost flashcard ask, “Are you scared of the ghost?” The students can reply how they
want to. Practise with all the flashcards and go through them several times. Then,
play the game. Choose someone to ask the question and the first person who is
going to answer. Give the scared pictures and all of the Halloween flashcards to the
person who is going to ask the question – Student A. Student A picks up one of the
Halloween flashcards e.g. the pumpkin and asks student B, “Are you scared of
pumpkins?” Student B replies how he wants to. “Yes, I’m scared,” or “No, I’m not
scared.” Student A, then gives the corresponding scared picture to Student B.
Student A asks Student C the same question, and gives him one of the scared
pictures, depending on student C’s answer.
A (Picks up the pumpkin card.) Are you scared of pumpkins?

B (He’s not scared.) No, I’m not scared of pumpkins.
A (gives the not scared card to B.)
A Are you scared of pumpkins?

C (He is scared.) Yes, I’m scared of pumpkins.
A (gives the scared card to C.)
Student A asks everybody a question about one Halloween flashcard. After he has
asked everyone a question, use some TPR.
E.g. Stand up if you are scared of pumpkins.

Clap your hands if you’re not scared of pumpkins.
Then it is student B’s turn to ask the question, so do the same again with a different
Halloween flashcard. Finish the round with some TPR. An idea to finish off the lesson
is something like a Halloween jigsaw or some Halloween colouring in.

Week 5
Colours
Target structures: What colour is it?

It’s . . .
What colour have you got?
I’ve got ……
Target vocabulary: Blue; red; yellow; green; black; white; brown; purple. (Pink;
orange; grey.)
Materials: 3 sets of colour flashcards.
Hello, how are you, how many boys are there, how many girls are there? Easy,
obvious, but don’t forget to keep this going. Also, take your first five minutes or so to
go over the previous lesson. This is another habit to get into early, it’s essential for
two reasons: To internalise the language, iron-out any faults and to make the
students feel good about themselves (they are doing something they already know,
so they can express it confidently and begin the class on a high).
Using pieces of coloured cardboard, introduce the colours above or of your choice,
but ideally no more than seven colours, as this is the average number of words we
can retain in the space of an hour. Hold the pieces of cardboard up, saying the name
of the colour as you do so. Get the children to repeat the names all together, at least
three times. Then ask the children to say the names of the colours individually as you
hold the colours up. ‘Red’ and ‘green’ are often the most difficult, due to the
pronunciation of the English ‘r’.
To reinforce the names of the colours, play a game. Split the group into two teams
and get them to sit behind each other on the floor. Give the two children at the back
of the line a set of the colours each that you have just taught them. Ask all the
children apart from the two at the front to close their eyes. They should know how to
do this, after Week 3. Show the front two children a colour. Shout, “Open your eyes.”
to the other children, and then get the first two children to turn around and whisper
the name of the colour to the second child, the second child to the third etc. Try and
make sure that they whisper and that they say the name in English. You can
reinforce this by taking away points if they say the colour in French. When the
‘Chinese whisper’ has got to the child at the back of the line. He selects the correct
colour from his set and holds it up in the air. The first team to do this correctly gets a
point. Unfortunately this game will only work with a fairly large group, so use your
judgement as to whether it will work in your class.
Stop the game when one of the teams has got a set number of points, for example
play the first to 5. Then you can move on to the question, ‘What colour is it?’
Ask this question and then point to the red piece of cardboard and say, “It’s red”.
Repeat the question and this time point to the blue piece and say, “It’s blue”.
Repetition of the question and answer form one after the other will help associate the
two together.
2005 Luc Ciotkowski - 10 -

Get the children to repeat after you, “What colour is it?” first together, and then
individually, correcting any mispronunciation. Then, all ask the question together.
Point to one of the colours and all say in unison, “It’s …….”. It is quite likely that the
children will just blurt out the name of the colour without “it’s”, in this case insist on
them saying “it’s” by getting them to repeat the answer after you each time.
Now, you can play another game. Give each child in the circle a colour. Start by
saying, “I’ve got red”, for example. Prompt the child next to you to say “I’ve got …..”
whichever colour he has. Go round the circle until everyone has said which colour
they have. Give everyone a different colour and do it again. Lay out a set of the same
colours that the students have on a table or on the floor. Then, introduce the
question, “What colour have you got?” ask everyone individually and get them to
reply. They mustn’t show you the colour, but say, “I’ve got . . .”(Green for example).
Find the corresponding colour, (so the green card in this case) and hold it up. Beckon
for the student to show you their card. The two cards should match. (If they don’t the
student is wrong.) Ask, “Is that right?” The students reply yes or no. If no, give them
and the others a chance to correct before you do. Make this a habit for everything,
always let the class correct themselves first. Doing this keeps the attention and
involvement of the whole class, while being corrected by your peers is less harsh.
Repeat the colour one more time as a group, just to reinforce. When everybody is a
bit more confident, you can start the game. Divide the class into two teams (This is a
game played individually, but keeping the points in teams avoids an individual loser).
Choose a student to play the role of the teacher, asking everyone the question in
turn. If the student picks the correct colour from their classmate’s reply, they take the
pair. Give a point for each pair of cards chosen correctly. If a reply is wrong, e.g. a
student says, “I’ve got blue” when they have a red card, that student’s team loses a
point. The student counts their points in English at the end of their turn. Everybody
having a turn at this should enable them to retain the question and how to reply.
You can keep this game going until the end of the lesson, changing teams to keep
interest, or revisit something from earlier in the lesson. Of course, you can also add
any game of your own, but nothing involving new vocabulary (they’ve had enough to
deal with already).

Week 6
Revision Lesson A
Lessons to revise:
Week 1 Introductions
Week 2 Numbers
Week 3 Commands
Week 5 Colours

Week 7
Emotions/feelings
Target structures: I’m . . .

Are you…..?
Yes, I am / No, I’m not.
Am I . . .?
Yes, you are / No, you’re not.
(Present simple - to be + feeling.)
Target vocabulary: Happy; sad; fed up; angry.
Materials: 2 sets of emotion flashcards (happy, sad, angry, fed-up).
This week, we’re going to concentrate on teaching the present simple of ‘to be’ (I’m
and you’re in this lesson). You can also see that it is contracted (I’m, not I am etc.). If
you think about it, pretty much the only people who say I am in normal spoken
English are foreigners (apart from in the affirmative – “Yes, I am”). Don’t worry; they
will most certainly learn to write I am at school in the future. So once you’ve used
your first five minutes or so to look back at the last lesson, you can start to teach
these emotions.
Start by showing the students the ‘happy’ flashcard; pull a big happy face and signal
for the students to do the same. “Happy!”, you say, and the students repeat. “Sad”,
everyone pulls a sad face and says “Sad”. Practise all four as a group, and then
individually. Move onto ‘You point, they say’ (You can probably skip ‘You say, they
point’, as there are so few words to remember), again as a group and after that with
individuals.
Give each student a flashcard, organise them into a circle and start with yourself, “I’m
. . .”. Each student says “I’m . . .(emotion shown on their card)” when it’s their turn .
Swap the flashcards around and do the exercise again a few times (you’re insisting
on the I’m now).
Once the I’m has sunk in change the cards again, this time showing the students that
they are not allowed to let anyone else see their card.
Teacher- Are you happy? –Yes or no?
A- No.
Teacher- No, I’m not.
A- No, I’m not.
Teacher- Are you angry?
A- Yes!
Teacher- Yes, I am.
A- Yes, I am.
Teacher- (Turns to B.) Are you happy?
B- Yes, I am!
Teacher- (Turns to C.) Are you fed up?
C- No, I’m not.
Etc.

That’s how it should go. In reality it will take longer than that to get ‘yes, I am’ and ‘no,
I’m not’ replies to come out naturally, but we’re going to practise until they do.
Choose a student to replace you, i.e. they ask the others, “Are you . . . ?”. When they
get one right they take the card. You decide how long to let each student ask the
questions. It’s the guessing game part that the children will like, but you’re interested
in making them confident and able to use the question; the answer and the
vocabulary. Give everyone a turn to ask the questions before you end the game.
The next task is to teach ‘Am I . . .?’, ‘yes, you are’ and ‘no, you’re not’. Take a
flashcard and ask, “Am I . . .(happy)?”. (You’re actually angry.) The group tells you,
“No!”. -“No, you’re not” , you correct. “Am I . . .(angry)?”, you ask. “Yes!”, they reply. -
“Yes, you are”, you correct this time. Continue this, deliberately getting ones wrong
now and again to practise ‘no, you’re not’ as well as ‘yes, you are’.
Pick one or two students to go and close their eyes away from the rest of the group.
The remaining group members pick an emotion for them. They come back to the
circle and ask the others, “Am I . . . ?”. You choose who replies, to make sure they all
participate. You can get this to go quite fast as the students get quicker and better
with the language. They may get quite excitable. If so, warm them down with a “Sit
down, be quiet, close your eyes, count to ten, be quiet, open your eyes”.
This should take you pretty much to the end of the lesson. If you do have some time
left, you can try another version of the activity where everyone is in a circle and each
student has a flashcard. They look at the flashcard, hold it so that the rest of the
group can see, and instead of saying “I’m . . .”; they have to say “I’m not . . .”. They
know what they are, so they have the freedom to choose from the other three
emotions that don’t apply to them.
A (Has ‘angry’ flashcard) I’m not happy.

B (Has ‘fed up’ flashcard) I’m not angry.
C (Has ‘happy’ flashcard) I’m not sad.
Show them what you want with a few examples. E.g. You have a ‘happy’ flashcard.
Show the card to the students and say, “I’m not sad”. Change the card for an ‘angry’
and say, “I’m not happy”, etc.
This is just if you have some time left, but it gives the students some freedom in
exercising what they have learnt.

Week 8 and Week 9
This and that
Target vocabulary: Knife; fork; spoon; plate; glass.
Target structures: This and that.

Present simple – to be (is).
Possessive adjective – my your.
What’s this/that?
This is a . . ./that’s a . . .
Where’s my . . . ?
Is this/that your . . .?
Yes, it is/No, it’s not.
Materials: 1 set of real cutlery and crockery (knife, fork, spoon, plate,
glass).
1 set for each student of paper cutlery and crockery.
This was originally going to be one lesson, but when tested it became clear that it
was too dense and the concepts couldn’t be done justice in one hour. Go as far as
you can comfortably go in the first hour without rushing. You can then re-do some of
the earlier activities, before concentrating on the ‘Where’s my…? Is that your…?’
game, in the second hour.
Introduce your vocabulary, it’s best if you get hold of the realia (real objects) for this
one instead of showing flashcards (for your master set). Choose a couple of
vocabulary games to practise (try to avoid the ‘what’s missing? game’, because it’s
the basis of the activity for producing our sentences).
Give each student their own paper knife, fork, spoon, plate and glass from the printed
sheets. Everyone stands in a line with their paper vocabulary in front of them (laid out
like it would be for a meal). You stand opposite the group with your items in front of
you, just like the students. You practise, “This is a . . .” for all of the vocabulary with
the students (group and individuals).
Teacher (Picks up the knife.) This is a knife.

Group This is a knife.
Teacher What’s this? . . . This is a knife.
Group This is a knife.
Teacher (Picks up the plate.) What’s this?
Group (Holding the plate.) This is a plate.
Teacher (Picks up the plate.) What’s this? (Looks to A.)
A (Holding the plate.) This is a plate.
Teacher (Picks up the glass.) What’s this?
Group (Holding the glass.) This is a glass.
Teacher (Holding the glass.) What’s this? (Looks to B.)
B (Holding the glass.) This is a glass.
Teacher (Picks up the fork.) What’s this? (Looks to C.)
C (Holding the fork.) This is a fork.
Etc.
It’s important that you hold up any item that you are going to use for a ‘this’ sentence.
Why? – Let’s be sure of the difference between this and that.
‘This’ is something physically or ‘psychologically’ near.
‘That’ is something physically or ‘psychologically’ remote.
French doesn’t distinguish between ‘this’ and ‘that’ (e.g. this tree – cet arbre; that tree
– cet arbre). This is why you should always hold up a ‘this’ item (shows that it’s
close), and why you should point at a ‘that’ item (shows that it’s remote).
Take one item from your set and put it on the floor further away from the others (so
that it’s clearly separate from the rest of your set). Point at it and say, “That’s a . . .”.
Teacher (Separates the knife from the rest of the set and points at it.)
What’s that?
Group (Separate the knife from the rest of their sets and point at it.)
That’s a knife.
Teacher (Separates the spoon from the rest of the set and points at it.)
What’s that? (Looking at A.)
A (Separates the knife from the rest of the set and points at it.)
That’s a spoon.
Etc.
A chanting game can be played now. You pick up one item, the knife for instance,
and pointing to each one in turn you say, “This is a knife”, the students copy, “This is
a knife”. “That’s a plate”, you say, “That’s a plate”, they reply. You continue until all of
the items have been done. For the next round, you pick the plate up and the order
will be this: that’s a knife; this is a plate; that’s a fork; that’s a spoon; that’s a glass.
The next will be: that’s a knife; that’s a plate; this is a fork; that’s a spoon; that’s a
glass. When you have been through the whole set it is the students’ turn. One
student comes to the front, picks up the knife, everybody else (standing opposite)
does the same. He then goes through the items in order, saying ‘this is a’ if he is
holding it and ‘that’s a’ if he is pointing to it on the floor. The students each take a
turn, doing it as fast and with as few mistakes as possible.
The students need to personalise their cutlery and crockery. You should write their
name or initial on their knives, forks, etc. You can let them scribble or draw on them a
bit if you’ve got some coloured pens (it could also be a little revision of colours). Don’t
spend any more than three or four minutes doing this, the main thing is that each
person’s vocabulary items be distinguishable from the others’.
Sit everyone in a circle, meal settings in front of them. Take one item from your set,
stand up and put it on your chair behind you. The students do the same (with the
same item). You say, “Where’s my . . .?”. The next student does the same, and the
next, etc. until the whole group has done it. Repeat this for a couple more items, and
then send a student to close their eyes away from the others (Student A). Take their
plate, while everyone else picks up their own plate. Swap Student A’s plate with
another student (Student E). Student E keeps Student A’s plate, and you put Student
E’s plate on the floor in the middle of the circle. Is this confusing? It’s best explained
by the example:
The teacher puts E’s plate in the middle of the circle, picks up his or her own plate
and everyone hides their plates behind their backs.
A (A comes back to the group and sees that his plate is missing.)
Plate?!
Teacher Where’s m . .
A Where’s my plate?
Teacher (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?
A No.
Teacher No, it’s not.
A No, it’s not.
Teacher (Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?
A No.
Teacher No, it’s not.
A No, it’s not.
Teacher (Waves for A to ask B.)
Teacher (Shows B by pointing to plate in the middle.) Is that . .
B (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?
A No, it’s not.
Teacher (Shows B by holding up plate.) Is this . .
B (Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?
A No, it’s not.
Teacher (Waves for A to ask C.)
C (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) Is this your plate?
Teacher (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) This? Or that?
C (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?
A No, it’s not.
C (Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?
A No, it’s not. (Looks at D.) Where’s my plate?
D (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?
A No, it’s not.
D (Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?
A No, it’s not. (Turns to E.) Where’s my plate?
E (Points at E’s plate in the middle.) Is that your plate?
A No, it’s not.
E (Holds up plate that was hidden behind back.) Is this your plate?
A Yes!
Teacher Yes, it is!
A Yes, it is!
That went on for a while (I wanted to show a couple of the possible problems), but it
just depends on how quickly they find the person who has their item.
Small problem:- The older they are, the more likely they are to recognise who the
item in the middle belongs to. Once one has been put in the middle, everyone swaps
their items with each other (so if E’s plate is in the middle it no longer means that E
has the ‘wanted’ plate).
Give everyone a turn, changing the vocabulary item each time.

You can keep playing this, the questions and answers becoming faster and more
fluent all the time, until they get bored (or until the end if you like). If you do want to
change the game, here is another one:
The teacher takes everyone’s forks, mixes them up, and gives them to Student A.
Student A is now holding all the forks. The teacher takes everyone’s spoons and puts
them in the middle of the circle (with space between each so everyone can tell which
one is being pointed at). Student A has to get all the forks and spoons back to their
owners.
A (Holding B’s fork.) Is this your fork? (Asks E.)

E No, it’s not.
A (Turns to B.) Is this your fork?
B Yes, it is.
A (Gives fork to B. Points at C’s spoon.) Is that your spoon? (Asks B.)
B No, it’s not.
A (Turns to C.) Is that your spoon?
C Yes, it is!
A (Gives spoon to C. Holds up C’s fork.) Is this your fork?
C Yes, it is!
A (Turns to B. Points at B’s spoon.) Is that your spoon?
B Yes, it is!
A (Holding D’s fork.) Is this your fork? (Asks E.)
E No, it’s not.
Etc.
What’s the difference that shows them whether to use ‘this’ or ‘that’ ?
They know that it’s ‘this’ when they’re holding something (it’s near), and it’s ‘that’
when they’re pointing at something (it’s more remote).
You can finish by playing the ‘What’s this/that? – This is/that’s a . . .’ game from
earlier on. See if the students can conduct it by themselves (with a little help from you
if they need).

Week 10
Weather
Target vocabulary: raining; cloudy; sunny; snowing; foggy; windy.

(The UK; Ireland; France; Spain; Italy; the USA.)
Spring; summer; autumn; winter.
Target structure: What’s the weather like?

It’s …..
Materials: Two sets of weather pictures.

Weather bingo cards and tokens.
Pictures of the above countries.
Pictures of the seasons.
As always, use your first five minutes to look back to the previous lesson (that’s the
last time we’ll say that, you should do this automatically now). Introduce the above
types of weather by using pictures. Show the pictures and say what they are, using
the construction, “It’s…….” Do this a few times, then give each child a picture. If there
are more children than pictures, put the children into pairs. Then, shout out a type of
weather and the child or children with that picture stand up with their picture. Do this
a couple of times and then change pictures.
Put the pictures on six chairs in the room and pick out one student to go and sit on
the chair with the picture that corresponds with what you say. It’s best to do this with
just one student rather than the class as a whole, but change over the students quite
quickly so that the others don’t get bored. Each time the child finds the picture that
you ask for, ask the class if they have chosen correctly or not, this will keep the group
involved and interested. After you have done this several times with different children,
move on to getting them to practise saying the phrases. Choose someone else and
say a type of weather. Again, get him to sit on the chair with the corresponding
picture, then say what it is. All the class can say this together.
After a few goes, introduce the question, “What’s the weather like?” Place the second
set of pictures face down on a table away from the group and choose an assistant.
The assistant is going to reply to your question (What’s the weather like?) by turning
over one of the pictures and saying what type of weather it is. Again, pick one child to
go and stand by the corresponding picture and repeat what the assistant has said.
Change over the student every one or two questions.
After everyone has got a fair idea of the language you are using, you can move onto
a game of weather bingo. Prompt the children to ask the question, “What’s the
weather like?” use the second set of cards to determine the order in which you say
them. The children can then take turns in being the bingo caller. (There will have to
be a couple of the same pictures on each bingo card as we are only teaching six
types of weather.)

A further game you can play would be to do a mini weather forecast. Have pictures of
the above countries that you can stick on the board or on a wall, present the pictures
of the countries to the children, saying what they are called as you put them up. Go
through the names of the countries several times, and then say, for example, “It’s
sunny in France.” The children can then take turns in choosing the correct picture
(laid out on a nearby table) and sticking it on the appropriate country. Again, ask all
the other children if it’s right or not, to keep them involved.
You can pick a student to do your job now. (Not with three year olds, but with slightly
older groups.) Tell a student to close their eyes away from the group, while you show
the new ‘teacher’ a kind of weather and the place it’s going to do it. They can say
what the weather’s doing and where it’s doing it, and the ‘eyes closed’ student comes
back to take the correct weather to the correct country.
Now, come back and sit in a circle, introduce your pictures of the seasons by holding
up the pictures and getting everyone to repeat the names after you. Do this several
times and then, place them on the table. Ask each child in turn to point to the picture
that corresponds with what you say. After everyone has had a go, point to the
pictures and get the children to say what the names are, watch the pronunciation of
autumn as it is similar to the French word, but not the same. Get them to say the
words, first as a group then individually.
At the end of the class, point out of the window and ask, “What’s the weather like?”
The children should now be able to tell you. From now on you can introduce this into
the beginning of your future lessons, the weather is a good topic to practise little and
often.

Week 11
Christmas
Target Vocabulary: Father Christmas; snowman; present; stocking;

Christmas tree; reindeer.
Target structure: I’ve got some….

I haven’t got any…..
Have you got any……?
(Regular and irregular [snowmen, reindeer] plural forms
for information.)
Materials: 3 sets of Christmas flashcards.

A set of small Christmas flashcards for each student.
Card, felt tips and glue.
Use pictures to introduce the vocabulary. Choose other words if you wish, but limit
them to seven or eight. You could also use the poisoned pass the parcel game to
teach the vocabulary. After everyone is confident, stick 2 sets of the flashcards on the
wall, in two separate areas, and give another child in the group the third set of
flashcards. The child with the set of flashcards in his hand is going to call out the
names of the pictures on the cards. If you think he might struggle, give him a helper
to give him a hand. Two more students are going to go up and stand next to a set of
words each on the wall. As the child with the flashcards calls out the names, the two
children have to point to the corresponding picture, the first one to do this correctly
gets a point. Make sure you ask the rest of the class if it’s right after each go to keep
them involved. After the child has read out the names of the flashcards, change over
all the players and start again.
After all the excitement, it may be an idea to calm the students down, by getting them
to sit down, close their eyes and count to twelve. Hand out all the pictures so that
everyone has got a set each. For two minutes, go over the vocabulary again, by
calling out the words without showing any pictures and getting all the children to hold
up the corresponding picture. Hand the pictures out again, but this time not fairly so
that some children have two or more of the same picture, this is to introduce the
plurals. Do an example first e.g. call out “Christmas tree” and hold up one Christmas
tree, then say “Christmas trees” and hold up a few. Call out all the vocabulary in
singular and plural forms getting the children to hold up whatever you ask for, then
move on to the next part. Collect in all of one picture, for example everyone gives you
their presents. Introduce the saying, “I’ve got some presents.” Hold up all the pictures
of the presents and say the full sentence at the same time. Pass all the pictures of
the presents to the next person and get them to say the same phrase. Go round the
circle getting everyone to say it one by one as they are holding the pictures. Go
round the circle until everyone has had a go. Then do this with all the snowmen for
example, to emphasise that the objects can change but the structure stays the same.

Introduce the second structure, ‘I haven’t got any……….’ Give all the present pictures
to one member of the group. Point to yourself and shake you head and say, “I
haven’t got any presents.” Then say to the student next to you: “Have you got any
presents?” Pointing at the student when you say “you” and pointing at the presents
that another person has when you say “presents”. Prompt him with the answer if
necessary. Ask everyone in the circle the question, everyone will have the same
answer apart from the one, who actually does have the present pictures. Of course,
this one has to answer “Yes, I’ve got some presents”. Prompt the student with the
answer and don’t let him get away with just saying, “Yes”. Hand the presents to
another student and go round the circle again in the same way. When everyone has
had a go at holding the present pictures, collect up all the pictures and give one
person all the snowmen, another one all the Christmas trees, another one all the
reindeers and so on. Hold up what you have got in your hand and say what you’ve
got, e.g. I’ve got some reindeer.” Turn to the person next to you and say: “Have you
got any reindeer?” They haven’t, so they must say “No, I haven’t got any reindeer.”
Then ask them the question about what they have got, for example if they’ve got the
snowmen say “Have you got any snowmen?” They say “Yes, I’ve got some
snowmen.” You then ask the person next to them “Have you got any snowmen?” Of
course, they haven’t so they say they haven’t. Then, ask them about what they have
got. Go round the circle asking each person the question twice, the first time asking
about some things that they haven’t got and the second time about the things that
they have got.
Pick one student out of the group, who is going to ask the question. Get him to close
his eyes and give all the reindeer, for example, to one of the children. He will sit on
them so as to hide them. The student who is going to ask the question, opens his
eyes, looks at the pictures on the table and decides what is missing, here it’s the
reindeer. He asks a student of his choice the question, “Have you got any reindeer?”
Help him the first couple of times. He will ask all the children the question until he
finds the one with the reindeer. All the children must answer using the full sentence.
When he finds the student who was sitting on the pictures, this one can then go on to
be the next person to close his eyes and ask the question. Go round until everyone
has practised asking the question.
Go over the vocabulary from the beginning of the lesson and place the cards on the
table. Take the pieces of card that you have, which can be used to make Christmas
cards. Give everyone a piece of card and the children can use the pictures that they
have been using throughout the lesson to stick on to their Christmas cards or they
can be used as templates for the students to copy onto their Christmas cards. Don’t
give out the felt tips, instead use this as an opportunity to revise colours. Get the
children to ask for the colour in English, followed by “please” and get them to say
“thank you” when they take the colour. If you prepare slips of paper with Merry
Christmas on them, the younger students can stick these directly on their cards.
Towards the end of the class you can go onto sing a Christmas song. The easiest
one to do is probably “We wish you a merry Christmas”. It would be great if you had
a copy of the song you want to do, otherwise it is up to you to sing.

Week 12
Revision Lesson B
Lessons to revise:
Week 7 Emotions
Weeks 8 & 9 This and that
Week 10 Weather

Week 13
Family and pets
Target vocabulary: Dog; cat; fish; rabbit.

Mum; dad; brother; sister; me.
Target structure: I’ve got…. (two brothers and sisters / a dog and a cat)
Have you got any brothers or sisters?
Have you got any pets?
Materials: 1 large picture of the Funky family.

1 set of the members of the Funky family.
2 sets of animal flashcards.
If you have a photo of your family, this is an ideal way to teach this vocabulary. The
students will also find it very interesting. Point to each person and say which one it is,
do this a couple of times, then get the children to repeat the names after you. Then
say the names and get the children to point to the correct picture, they can do this
one by one. Then, you point to the pictures and get the children to say what they are,
first as a group and then one by one.
The ‘commands’ game using conditional commands is a good activity for bodily-
kinaesthetic stimulation and offers another way to process the language they are
learning. Start them off by asking them to put their chairs in a line and sit down,
followed by some of the simple orders that they now know by heart. You then tell
them to do something if they’ve got a certain amount of brothers and sisters. Watch
them all move and then see how (hopefully) some realise that they were only
supposed to do it if the condition applied to them. Whether some realise first time
around or not, I sit them back down and go through the students asking them if they
have the amount of brothers and sisters I specified. If it does apply to the student I
give him/her the ‘go ahead’ thumbs up to do the action, if it doesn’t I shake my head
and wave my ‘don’t do it’ finger and he/she doesn’t do it.
Here is an example of how it might go:
stand up
sit down
stand up you’ve got 1 brother but no sisters
sit down if you’ve got 1 sister but no sisters
clap your hands if you’ve got 2 brothers but no sisters
turn around if you’ve got 2 sisters but no brothers
stand up if you’ve got 1 sister and 1 brother
sit down if you’ve got no brothers or sisters/if you haven’t got any…. etc
Bring out the picture again and ask the question “Have you got any brothers or
sisters?” Answer the question yourself, using the whole phrase “I’ve got….”, use your
fingers to show how many you have and point to the brother and/or the sister in the
picture to indicate which you have. Then point to someone in the group, and ask the
question: “Have you got any brothers or sisters?” use the picture as a prop and
prompt them with the beginning of the answer. Go round the group and help the
students form their answer. Then, use some more TPR. Start with just simple
commands. Do the first couple with the students and then let them have a go at
doing the action themselves. After a few turns add the target vocabulary.
stand up
sit down
clap your hands
turn around
stand up you’ve got 1 brother
sit down if you’ve got 1 sister
clap your hands if you’ve got 2 brothers
turn around if you’ve got 2 sisters
stand up if you’ve got 1 sister and 1 brother
sit down if you’ve got …. etc
As you give each command, stop each student who has followed your command get
him to say “I’ve got…” followed by whatever your command was. Now, do the same
as before to introduce the question; split the group in two and get one team to say
the question: “Have you got any brothers or sisters” and the other team the answer.
Provoke the answer using your fingers for the number and the pictures to show
brothers or sisters. Swap over the team asking the question and then get individuals
from each team to do it as before.
Introduce the animal vocabulary showing pictures of a dog, cat, fish and rabbit. Get
the students to practise the pronunciation. Use one of the methods for teaching the
vocabulary used before. Then, point to yourself and say what animals you have,
pointing to the relevant picture of the animal, “I’ve got a cat.” Say this several times.
The students might have other animals, it’s up to you if you incorporate them into the
class or not.
Go on to TPR. Use simple instructions to start off with:
stand up
sit down
turn around
clap your hands
Add the animals, and help demonstrate some of the actions to begin with.
stand up if you’ve got a cat

sit down if you’ve got a dog
clap your hands if you’ve got a rabbit
turn around if you’ve got a fish
stand up if you’ve got no pets
Say, “I’ve got a cat.” and encourage the students to repeat after you as a group. After
several repetitions go round the circle, everyone saying, “I’ve got a cat.” in turn. You
say it each time between students. Keep going round until you are happy with the
pronunciation. (It’s sometimes very useful to pass a ball or a cuddly toy to the person
who you want to speak, this keeps everyone focused.) Then do the same, this time
saying, “I’ve got a dog.” Go round the circle giving everyone at least two turns at
saying this sentence. Do this with other animals, showing that the name of the
animal can change and the structure stays the same.
Give each one of the students an animal card each and stand in a circle. Hold up
your own card and say “I’ve got a….” whatever your card is. Gesture for the student
next to you to do the same thing, then the student next to him, and so on. Change
cards and go round the circle again.
Say the question, “Have you got any pets?”. The group repeats and then pick out
individuals to repeat. Go round the circle getting everyone to say the question. If you
need to say in between students do so. Put the question and answer together and
keeping the same cards, go round the group asking each student one by one the
question. They answer, “I’ve got a….” And say what their card is. Introduce the
conveyor belt to let the children have a go at asking each other the question.
After a lot of practice, go back to the ‘command’s game. Use the same kind of
commands as above, but this time the students must say the sentence after they
have done whatever you told them to do. Do a couple of examples yourself to show
them what you want them to do. E.g. A, B and C have a rabbit. D and E have a cat.
Teacher Stand up if you’ve got a cat

D and E (Stand up) I’ve got a cat
Teacher Sit down if you’ve got a rabbit
A, B and C (Sit down.) I’ve got a rabbit
Line the students up in two rows facing each other. Get one group to ask the
question in unison: “Have you got any pets?” Hold up a picture of an animal and
indicate the number on your fingers, to provoke the second group’s answer. “I’ve
got….” Do this several times, using the cards and your fingers to decide the answer.
Swap over to let the other team have a go at asking the question. Go on to do this
with individuals, choose the two students facing each other and who are closest to
you to go first, then the second two students and so on. After everyone has a go, do
exactly the same again, but with the other person asking the question this time.
Come back to the circle and sit down. Prompt the child to your right to ask you the
question, give your own answer, followed by the question. The question will be
directed at the student to your left. He will answer the question and ask the person to
his left the question, and so on. You may need to do quite a lot of prompting.
At the end of the class, get everyone to stand up and form a line, standing behind
each other. Ask the first student in front of you, one of the two questions you have
been using, and see if they can reply. If they reply correctly send them to the back of
the line for another go, if they don’t get it right, correct them and then send them to
the back of the line too. (You can give points for each correct answer to spice things
up a bit if you want to, but I find that this gets complicated with the little ones.

Week 14
Body Parts I
Target vocabulary: Eye; ear; mouth; nose; head; foot; hand; stomach.
Target structures: Touch your . . .(Imperative); Ouch! (Expressing pain); what’s

wrong? (Question word + present simple – to be); my . . . hurts
(Possessive adjective + present simple - to hurt).
Materials: 1 set of body part flashcards.

Plasters.
We’re going to start with the above body parts, introduce too many at once and you
risk confusing the students. Introduce these body parts by pointing to your
eye/ear/mouth/nose/head/foot/hand/stomach and showing the corresponding
flashcard at the same time. Keep them all in the singular to begin with, they can learn
the plurals later (especially as we have an irregular plural). Get them to repeat after
you and go through each body part at least three times altogether and then
individually. Drill the words until you are happy that everyone can pronounce them
correctly. Then, say “Touch your …….” and get the students to do the action. Let
them do this on their own, so as to find out how much they remember. This will give
you a good indication of the ones that they find easy and the ones they find more
difficult. Go back to pointing at each part of the body, showing the card and saying
what it is. You can put more emphasis on the ones that they are finding difficult this
time. Then start giving the “touch your……” instructions a second time. First to the
group as a whole and then to individuals. Now, you can see where any individuals
have problems and you can go over the vocabulary again. With each one go through
all the vocabulary, coming back to the difficult words every third time or so. E.g. If
“ear” is the difficult one, say it more than the rest “ear, mouth, ear, hand, ear, eye,
etc”
They should be able to attempt the body parts on their own now. Instead of you
saying and the students pointing, you can point to the body part and the students say
it. To begin with, the students can say the body parts together as you point. As
before, move onto testing individuals and reinforce pronunciation.
The game we are going to play is this:
A Ouch!
B What’s wrong?
Show A the ‘ear’ flashcard.
A My ear hurts.
B holds a plaster over A’s ear.
You Is that right?
A Yes!

The students have some more language to learn before they can do this. Split the
class into two groups and sit them opposite each other. Teach one group to say
“Ouch!”. Teach the other group to say, “What’s wrong?” and give them each a cut-out
picture of a plaster. They repeat it together a couple of times before you teach the
“Ouch!” group the next part. Teach them, "My head hurts”, and beckon for the other
group to come over and hold their plasters over the “Ouch!” group’s heads.
Give the plasters to the other group now. They become the “What’s wrong?” group
for the second practice round. Choose a different body part for the second time.
Arrange the students into a circle and give everyone a plaster. Start one of them off
with an “Ouch!” to their neighbour. Their neighbour asks “What’s wrong?”. Show the
first student one of the flashcards, so they can reply, “My … hurts”. Their neighbour
holds their plaster over the pretend injury. Show the flashcard to the rest of the group
and ask, “Is that right?… Yes or no?”. The other students say “Yes!” or “No”. As
always, give the students the chance to correct themselves before you step in. That
was student A and B. Student B now becomes the “Ouch!”, and student C is the new
“What’s wrong?”. Carry on around the circle until everyone has been an “Ouch!” and
a “What’s wrong?”. Now, you can change the direction or swap some students
around so the students can work with different people. If the students are older, you
can let a third person take over your role by choosing the flashcards. This creates
even more participation (children love to play teacher), but they have to do it properly.
If they keep letting the “What’s wrong?” student see the card they won’t develop their
mental association of the spoken word and the thing. E.g. You don’t need me to
show you a picture of an apple to know what I’m talking about when I say the word
‘apple’.
If you have time you can introduce the plurals. Use “I’ve got (two ears), how many
(noses) have you got?”. (Notice it’s always plural for questions.) You’re just
introducing this, we’re going to do more with it next lesson, so don’t worry if you don’t
have a lot of time left to do it. Start “I’ve got two hands” (hold your hands up), and go
around the circle with each student repeating the sentence. Carry on with this, but
now ask the appropriate question between each reply. You’re not yet looking for
them to ask the question, just to start seeing the difference between one ear and two
ears. (Foot and feet is clearly going to be the hardest.)
This is just meant to be for five minutes. If you still have a little time, play another
quick round of “Ouch!”

Week 15
Body Parts II
Target Vocabulary: Arm; leg; fingers; knees; neck; toes; shoulders.

Numbers.
Target Structure: How many………. has it got?

It’s got……
Materials : Blutack; drawing pins; pieces of green card; body parts cut
out from card.
Start by going over the last lesson’s body parts. Point to the parts of the body and
say the name, get the children to repeat after you. Then, you can do this, just
pointing at the body parts and getting the children to say what it is. First do this all
together, then do it with individuals. When you are satisfied with the pronunciation
you can move on to the new vocabulary.
For the new vocabulary you can use the ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes’ song. Get
everyone to stand up and start by talking the students through the song, getting
everyone to point at the body part and say what it is as you go along. Do this a few
times before you go on to sing it. Then, sing it together doing the actions at the same
time. Make sure you point to your toes and not just your feet when doing the actions.
Emphasise the difference between toes and feet so as to avoid confusion.
Sing the song a couple of times. If the group is large, you might need to calm them
down before moving on. You can do this with the method we used earlier (tell them to
sit down, close their eyes and count to twelve).
Now, you can check which of the words they have retained. Point to your arm, leg,
neck, shoulders, knees, fingers and toes, saying what each one is as you point and
getting the children to repeat the name. Do this several times as a group and then
with individuals. Then back to group work; say, “Touch your…” and get the children to
touch the relevant body part. You will have to demonstrate the first couple so as to
give an example of what you’re looking for, but only do a couple, so that they have to
try and work out which body part is which. Do this again, but this time with
individuals.
Then give every student a picture of a monsters body and a monsters head (one
large oval shape and a round shape). Place a pile of ready prepared eyes, ears,
noses, mouths, arms and legs on the table. This is for the students to create their
own monster. They can give it as many eyes or legs as they want, create your own
one at the same time or have one already prepared to demonstrate. Stick the body
parts on with blutack (use drawing pins for the arms and legs, but you’ll have to do
this bit to avoid any accidents). When they are finished stick them up on the wall. Ask
each child individually, “how many eyes has your monster got? The child replies “it’s
got three eyes”. Insist straight away on the whole sentence, as they will just reply with
the number to start of with, so give them the sentence and get them to repeat it after
you. Do this with each child and each body part. Afterwards they can take their
monster home and describe it to their parents.

If there is still time at the end of the class, practise the role-play from the previous
lesson, this time incorporating the new vocabulary. First split the class in two. Point to
one half and say, “Ouch” make a gesture for them to repeat what you say. Then point
to the second half of the class and say “What’s wrong?” then, gesture for them to
repeat it. Go back to the first half and say “my leg hurts” and get them to repeat. Back
to the first team, give one child from this team a plaster to hold over the imaginary
injury. Do this a couple of times and then show different vocabulary flashcards to
group one, now they have to incorporate whatever word is on the card. Then change
over, getting the other half of the group to start this time. After doing this with the two
halves of the group, pick individuals to act it out, showing different vocabulary cards
each time.

Week 16
Animals
Target Vocabulary: Dog; cat; rabbit; fish; bird; mouse; spider.

Swim; jump; run; climb; fly.
Target Structure : modal verb - can + verb
Materials: 2 sets of animal flashcards.
Show flashcards of the seven animals above. Show them slowly one by one, saying
their names as you go along and getting the group to repeat what you say. Do this at
least three times. Then, lay them out on the table and point to them saying what they
are, again getting everyone to repeat as you go say the names. Then, just say the
name and get the children to point to the corresponding picture. Alternatively, you
could give everyone in the group a picture each, say the name of the animal and
gesture for the child with that picture to hold it up in the air, do this several times
swapping over everyone’s picture each time. Place the cards back on the table, point
to a picture and the children try to be the first to say what it is. A competitive version
of ‘what’s missing?’ (with two children closing their eyes and then trying to be the
quickest to call out the three or four missing pictures. If they don’t know them all the
students who chose the pictures that have been hidden can ‘steal’ points by saying
them afterwards) could be another useful activity.
Put seven chairs out in a circle in the room and stick a flashcard onto each chair. Tell
everyone to choose a chair and sit down on it. Practise a few “stand up” s and “sit
down” s, as these commands are going to form part of the phrase you are going to
use to give instructions. Now, tell the children to “stand up” and “come forward”.
Everyone is now stood in front of you. Give an instruction like the following, “Sit on
the chair with the spider”. Direct this at one student and he must do as you say. If he
struggles to understand direct it at another student to demonstrate. Keep giving
instructions for a while, until everyone has got the hang of it and then come back and
stand in the circle.
Now you can add the action that the animals do. Using the other set of flashcards,
hold a picture up. For example, take the fish and say, “The fish can swim” and do the
action of swimming at the same time. All the children do this with you. Do this for all
the animals you have:
i.e.
The rabbit can jump.
The cat can run.
The dog can run.
The bird can fly.
The mouse can run.
The spider can climb.

Then, hold the ‘rabbit’ flashcard up and ask the question, “Can the rabbit jump?” Start
by saying yes along with them as well as doing the action, so they know what you are
looking for. Do this with all the animals in turn mixing up true and false statements.
e.g.
A Can the fish swim? (Does swimming action.)
B Yes
A Can the rabbit swim? (Does swimming action.)
B No
A child once pointed out in this lesson that her dog could swim, for the purposes of
the games and to prevent complicating things each animal is limited to one action
that it can perform.
Using the chairs again, give a command like the following: “Sit on a chair with an
animal that can swim”, then direct this at one student, doing the action if necessary.
Saying a student’s name after the question instead of before, keeps everyone’s
concentration up, as they don’t know who is going to be chosen. Direct the children
to the chairs, until everyone is sitting down. Now, you can direct one student to
another place, if there is already a student on the chair they must go to the place of
the student who wants their spot, and so it keeps moving round.
Now, you can revise what you have just done by playing a round of ‘What’s missing’.
This will go over the vocabulary and also calm the children down after they have
been moving around. You start by hiding one card and asking the question “What’s
missing?” The person who answers is the next one to hide a card and so on. Each
time an animal is chosen ask a question “Can the ……jump / run / climb / fly?” Say
true and false ones, getting the students to reply with yes or no.
Alternative
Present the animals to the students. Practise as a group and then individually with
emphasis on pronunciation. Play ‘you say, they point and say’, ‘you point, they say’,
keep the card and competitive ‘what’s missing?’. Play a regular game of ‘commands’
and introduce the actions: run; jump (continuous jumping like a rabbit, not a single
jump like we normally do); fly; climb; swim. Play this with elimination, having the
students close their eyes before performing each new action to prevent copying.
Link each animal with the action it can do. The students sit in a line with you in front
of them. They stand up one by one, repeating the sentence that you give as you
show a particular animal, e.g. “The bird can fly”. When they are all standing you
repeat the sentence louder and as a group, before all performing the action. Tell
them to stop and sit down, repeat the process for the rest of the animals.
Set out the seven chairs in a circle and stick an animal to each chair. Begin with a
few rounds of, “Sit on the chair with the rabbit” etc. to establish the idea that you must
be the quickest to sit on the appropriate chair. Repeat what each animal can do and
play the full game of, “Sit on the chair with an animal that can fly” etc. The first few
rounds can be done showing the action. Two children play at a time, the winner gets
a point and goes to sit down on a chair outside the circle until it is his/her turn to
come back, while the loser stays in the middle and plays against the next student
(he/she stays in the middle until he/she wins one). Both winner and loser repeat what
the animal can do (e.g. the cat can run) at the end of each turn. As there are three
‘run’ animals the fastest to find one of them is the winner.
After the game has finished and you are back around the table, give a card to each
student and take one yourself. You all ‘become’ these animals and so can do what
they can do. If, for example, you’ve got the spider you say, “I can climb”. The student
next to you has to say what he/she can do, followed by the next student, until
everyone has said what they can do. After a few rounds of this and if there is time,
you can play a game to end the lesson with and prepare the students for next time.
One student goes into the corner of the room and closes his/her eyes. Meanwhile,
you and the remaining students each choose a card and memorise the action that
the animal can do. When everyone knows whether to say, “I can run” or, “I can fly”
etc. they put their pictures back in the middle of the table and the ‘eyes closed’
student returns from the corner. With prompting from you, the student that has to find
out who is which animal asks, “What can you do?” You answer first, e.g. “I can
climb”, and the player picks up and (hopefully) passes the spider card to you. The
player asks the other students what they can do, needing less and less prompting for
the question, before other students get a chance to be the player.

Week 17
Revision Lesson C
Lessons to revise:
Week 13 Family and pets
Week 14 Body Parts I
Week 15 Body Parts II

Week 18
Can you?
Target Vocabulary: Swim; jump; run; climb; fly.

Dog; cat; rabbit; fish; bird; mouse; spider.
Target structure: can you + verb?

Yes, I can / No, I can’t.
Materials: 2 sets of animal flashcards.
Sit the children in a circle and give everyone a flashcard each. Say the name of each
animal and get the children to hold their picture up when you say the name. Go round
the circle asking what everyone has got, show them that they have to hold up their
picture and say the name. Change over everyone’s picture and repeat, first say it and
the students hold up the picture. Then point at the student’s picture and ask what
they have got, then they hold up their picture and say what it is. Change flashcards
again, say the names of two of the animals and the two students with these two
flashcards must change places, going outside of the circle, miming the action of the
animal as they move. Pick a student to stand up and do an example with you, using
mime and English only.
As each child sits down, say what it is that their animal can do. E.g. “The fish can
swim.” The child who has done the action repeats this after you. After everyone has
had a go, swap over the cards and do it again. After a while see if they can say the
phrase by themselves, if not keep going with them repeating after you and try again
in a little bit.
Hold up a flashcard, for example the fish and ask, “Can the fish swim / jump?” the
children have to answer with, “Yes” or “No”. You could, as an alternative, get the
children to stand up if the answer is yes and remain seated if the answer is no.
Take the cat and the dog flashcards out for this game. Ask one student to go the side
of the room, face the wall and close his eyes. Give each student a card, they
memorise what they have and put their cards back on the table. The ‘eyes closed’
student rejoins the group. The group stands in a line and the ‘eyes closed’ student
asks questions to match the cards up with the students. For example, “Can you fly?”
(to try and find the student with the bird picture). The question is directed at the
student at the end of the line. If this student answers “Yes, I can.” The ‘eyes closed’
student gains a point. If this student answers, “No, I can’t“ he/she moves onto ask the
next student a question. When the ‘eyes closed’ student reaches the end of the line,
add up the points. Go back to those who said “No, I can’t.”, and ask them to say what
they can do, depending on what their picture is.
The ‘eyes closed’ student then says what animal they are, but he does not gain any
points for this part. Another student can go up and be the next person to close his
eyes and ask the questions.

Moving onto practise the ‘I can’t’ structure. Everyone stands in a circle and holds a
picture of an animal. If for example you are holding the bird, shake your head and
say, “I can’t swim.” Hold another picture up, the spider for instance, and say, “I can’t
fly.” Do a few examples like this and then go round the circle prompting everyone to
say something that their animal can’t do. Go round the circle several times choosing
different actions if possible.
Hold up the picture of the fish, for instance, point at the students and say, “The fish
can swim, can you swim?” The children should reply, “Yes, I can” or “No, I can’t”.
Pick out the cards one by one and say first what that animal can do then ask if the
children can do that particular action, themselves. Again, do this first as a group then
pick out individuals to answer.
Do some TPR to practise this structure. For example:
Stand up if you can swim.

Sit down if you can jump.
When you have given an instruction such as, “Stand up if you can swim”, ask one of
the students who is sitting down, “Who can swim?” The student replies by giving the
names of the students standing.
E.g.
Teacher Stand up if you can climb.
A, B, C + F (All stand up.)
Teacher Who can climb? (Asks B.)
B A, B, C, and F.
Teacher A, B, C and F can climb.
B A, B, C and F can climb.
Teacher Who can’t climb? (Asks A.)
A E and F can’t climb.
Etc.
Yes, B just talked about him/herself in the third person. You can teach them ‘and I’
(or the wrong, but more commonly used ‘and me’) if you want, but you’ll have to
decide whether you want to risk complicating things further.
You can move onto double orders, e.g. “Stand up, jump if you can swim. Stand up,
turn around if you can’t swim” .
To end with, we’ve got a fun non-competitive game to play. Sit the students in a line
opposite you. Give each student an animal flashcard. They have to memorise the
action that their animal can do. Collect the cards back in and give an example of what
they have to do. Show a card from the pack, it’s the bird. Find out who had the bird
and ask them to stand up. Encourage them to say, “I can fly” and to flap their wings
(show this by doing it yourself). They must continue doing their action (in this case
flapping) until you show a different card. Show the next flashcard, the ‘owner’(s) of
this card stand up and say, “I can . . .”. They start to do their animal’s action, while
the last (‘birdman’) person sits back down. Go through all of the flashcards to give
each student a chance to practise their action. Start ‘for real’, getting faster as the
students recognise their action.
E.g.
A has the mouse flashcard.

B has the fish flashcard.
C has the bird flashcard.
D has the rabbit flashcard.
E has the dog flashcard.
Teacher (Reveals the mouse flashcard.)

A (Stands up and starts to run on the spot.) I can run!
Teacher (Reveals the fish flashcard.)
B (Stands up and starts to swim on the spot.) I can swim!
A (At the same time as B speaks- stops his action and sits down.)
Teacher (Reveals the mouse flashcard.)
A (Stands up and starts to run on the spot.) I can run!
B (At the same time as A speaks- stops her action and sits down.)
Teacher (Reveals the bird flashcard.)
C (Stands up and starts to fly on the spot.) I can fly!
A (At the same time as C speaks- stops his action and sits down.)
Teacher (Reveals the rabbit flashcard.)
D (Stands up and starts to jump on the spot.) I can jump!
C (At the same time as D speaks- stops his action and sits down.)
Teacher (Reveals the dog flashcard.)
E (Stands up and starts to run on the spot.) I can run!
D (At the same time as E speaks- stops his action and sits down.)
Etc.
Make sure this is fairly fast paced, this is what makes it fun (and keeps concentration
levels up). It can also be more fun when there is more than one student who is a
‘rabbit’, ‘bird’, etc.
Alternative
This follows on from the alternative Animals lesson and is more ambitious than the
first version of the Can you? lesson. The first part will be to revise the animals and
ideas from that previous lesson. Show and say the names of the animals that you
used. Play ‘you say, they point and say’, ‘you point, they say’, keep the card and
competitive ‘what’s missing?’. Play a regular game of ‘commands’ and revise the
actions: run; jump (continuous jumping like a rabbit, not a single jump like we
normally do); fly; climb; swim. Play this with elimination, having the students close
their eyes before performing each new action to prevent copying.
Link each animal with the action it can do. The students sit in a line with you in front
of them. They stand up one by one, repeating the sentence that you give as you
show a particular animal, e.g. “The bird can fly”. When they are all standing you
repeat the sentence louder and as a group, before all performing the action. Tell
them to stop and sit down, repeat the process for the rest of the animals.
Set out the seven chairs in a circle and stick an animal to each chair. Begin with a
few rounds of, “Sit on the chair with the rabbit” etc. to re-establish the idea that you
must be the quickest to sit on the appropriate chair. Repeat what each animal can do
and play the full game of, “Sit on the chair with an animal that can fly” etc. The first
few rounds can be done showing the action. Two children play at a time, the winner
gets a point and goes to sit down on a chair outside the circle until it is his/her turn to
come back, while the loser stays in the middle and plays against the next student
(he/she stays in the middle until he/she wins one). Both winner and loser repeat what
the animal can do (e.g. the cat can run) at the end of each turn. As there are three
‘run’ animals the fastest to find one of them is the winner. A lot less time is to be
devoted to this part than in the previous lesson, we just want to consolidate these
things so that we can build on them.
Around the table, practise ‘I can . . .’ with each person saying what action they can
do, according to the animal you give them. Remove the ‘cat’ and ‘dog’ pictures from
your pack. Send one student to close his/her eyes in the corner. While that student is
gone the others choose an animal picture, memorise what it is and what it can do,
before hiding it behind their backs. The ‘eyes closed’ student returns and must try to
find out which animal each person has become. With your help, he/she will ask you if
you can do a certain action so he/she can find out what you are, e.g. “Can you fly?” If
he/she guesses correctly you reply, “Yes, I can”. The student should now know which
animal you have and can make his/her proper guess, “Are you a bird?” You reply,
“Yes, I am”, give your picture to the student and say, “I can fly”, He/she wins a point.
However, if he/she guesses incorrectly (more likely as they he/she has a one in five
chance of being right) you reply, “No, I can’t”. You must then tell the student two
things that you can’t do, e.g. (Your animal is the fish) “I can’t run and I can’t climb”.
The student mentally links the actions to the animals and eliminates the bird, mouse
and spider from the possibilities and knows you must either be a fish or a rabbit.
He/she now makes his/her guess, “Are you a . . . ?” If the guess is correct you reply,
“Yes, I am”, give the card to the student and say, “I can swim”. The students with
animals follow your example as the way to do it.
I’m sure you’ve had to read that twice to catch exactly how the game works, so you
clearly have a problem for how to explain it to the students. What I like to do is
explain the game in English (of which not much is understood), then briefly in the
students’ mother tongue and most importantly (and effectively) by playing the game. I
think we can safely assume that attempting to play this game with three-year-olds
would be teaching suicide and I would strongly advise against it. As a guide to what
age group this activity becomes suitable, I have successfully conducted it with groups
of six-year-olds that, on average, grasped the game after one round of playing.

Week 19
In the house
Target vocabulary: House; bedroom; bathroom; lounge; dining room; kitchen;

garden.
Target structures: I’m in the house, etc. (Present simple – to be + preposition

+ place.)
Where are you? (‘Question word’ question + to be.)
Are you in the . . .? (Basic question – to be.)
Materials: Garden and room pictures.

The dolls’ house (open and closed).
Counters to represent the students.
Take the flashcards of the house, garden and rooms. Show them, say what you’re
holding and repeat as a group. Pass one flashcard around the circle, each student
says the place shown on the card. You help with pronunciations and repeat this for
each piece of vocabulary.
Choose another couple of vocabulary games to practise. I suggest any one from
poisoned pass the parcel, change chairs, pick up a pair, what’s missing? and keep
the card. Another useful game to do after one of these is the ‘Go into’ game. You
say, “Go into the . . .(room or place)”, (the flashcards are on chairs or on the wall
around the room) and a student has to find the right one. (From my experience, your
problem words will probably be bedroom and bathroom because of the similarity.
Dining room is also a hard one for correct pronunciation.)
After these games, we’re going to introduce ‘I’m in the . . .’. Fix the flashcards to
chairs or on the wall around the room (if you didn’t use the ‘Go into’ game), with a
decent space between each room or place. As the students watch, walk ‘into’ one of
the rooms and say, “I’m in the (room or place)”. Take a couple of students and put
them in rooms. Once they have said “I’m in the . . .” (maybe needing help from you),
invite the rest of the group to go into rooms (You can let them choose where if you
want). Go round the whole group and ask, “Where are you?”. When each student has
said their room with ‘I’m in the’ in front of it, everyone ‘moves on one’ to the next
room. Ask again, the students reply, and then move round. Ask, “Where are you?”
every time, so the students can familiarise the question and answer. Once this has
been done enough times for the students to accept they have to say the ‘I’m in the’
part, as well as the room, bring them back into a circle. Practise the question on it’s
own: you say and the next person repeats. (You could pass a question mark around
the group, each person says the question when they are holding it.)
Show the ‘dolls’ house’ to the students. Lift the house front off, revealing the rooms.
The students identify the rooms (it’s easy, they’ve got the same pictures as the
flashcards), before you give them their ‘counter’. Their counter is a small piece of
card, on which you write a student’s name and they draw a face. Put your own
counter in one of the rooms and say where you are. Choose another student to put
their counter in a room and say, “I’m in the . . .”. All the students now put their
counters in a room of their choice and, as you ask each one where they are, they say
which room they’re in. Do this again, but the students take their counter back and
remember which room it was in this time.
Ask each student where he or she is. When they reply, take their counter and put it
where they said. Ask if you’ve got it right, and the student tells you if their counter is
in the right place.
Choose a student to close their eyes and stand away from the group. The others put
their counters in the ‘dolls’ house’, remember the room and take them back. The
‘eyes closed’ student comes back to the group, asks each student where they are,
takes their counter and puts it in the room.
A (Comes back to group and doesn’t know where the others put their
counters.) Where are you? (Points at B.)
B I’m in the kitchen.
A (Puts B’s counter in the kitchen.)
Teacher Is that right?
B Yes!
A Where are you? (Points at C.)
C I’m in the bedroom.
A (Puts C’s counter in the bathroom.)
C No.
Teacher Where are you?
C I’m in the bedroom.
Teacher Is that the bedroom? (Looks at the group and points at the bathroom.)
Group No! Bathroom.
Teacher Where’s the bedroom? (Asks A.)
A (Puts C’s counter in the bedroom.)
Group Yes!
Etc.
You can give points for first time correct answers, put the students into teams . . . it’s
up to you. If you’ve got a large group it could be useful to do it like this: Divide the
class into two teams; have two students from each team close their eyes in the
corner; when they come back they ask the other members of their team; the teams
get points for correct answers.
Take the ‘dolls’ house’ to one side of the room. Choose one student to take the
flashcards and stand at the other side of the room (or somewhere they can’t see what
is happening in the dolls’ house). Another person (or you if the class is small) takes
the other students’ counters and puts them in the dolls’ house. This person is the
‘chooser’. The student with the flashcards asks, “Where are you?” and the others
have to say where in the house they have been placed. The student with the
flashcards holds up the one that has been said, and the ‘chooser’ says if it is right or
wrong (to keep them concentrating). Change the roles around and give everyone a
turn as either ‘chooser’ or ‘flashcarder’.
The last thing to introduce is, ‘Are you in the . . .?’. Put the dolls’ house back into the
middle of the room and invite the students to put their counters in the rooms. Ask
someone, “Are you in the (e.g. lounge)?”. They reply. If they are where you have
asked, “yes” and if they’re not, “no, I’m in the (e.g. kitchen)”. Give them some
examples to clarify what you want if they don’t find it immediately obvious.

The practice game is called ‘Who’s in the . . . ?’. The students place their counters in
the rooms again, memorise where they are and take them off. Ask the students one
by one, “Are you in the bathroom?”. They answer, and you continue asking until you
find the person who is in the bathroom. A student stands away from the group, eyes
closed, so they can’t see who has put their counter where.
Designate a room in which there is only one person. The student who closed their
eyes has to find out who is in this room.
A has got his eyes closed.

B is in the bedroom.
C is in the kitchen.
D is in the lounge.
E is in the dining room.
F is in the garden.
Teacher Who’s in the . . . dining room?

A B, are you the dining room?
Teacher Are you in the dining room?
A Are you in the dining room?
B No, bedroom.
Teacher No, I’m in the bedroom.
B No, I’m in the bedroom. (Puts her counter in the bedroom.)
A C, are you in the dining room?
C No, I’m in the kitchen. (Puts his counter in the kitchen.)
A D, are you in the dining room?
D No, I’m the lounge.
Teacher No, I’m in the lounge.
D No, I’m in the lounge. (Puts his counter in the lounge.)
A Are you in the dining room? (Points to E.)
E Yes! I’m in the dining room.
(Puts her counter in the dining room.)
Teacher Who’s in the dining room?
A E!
You can do this with two students closing their eyes, asking the others alternately
and it’s the first one to find the student in the designated room.
You can decide where the students have their counters if you need to, this way you
can make sure there is only one person in the room you choose and you can give
everyone a chance to be ‘it’.
This is already a lot to get through if you give each part the time it needs. If you still
have some time left, you can play a game to find out where each person is. As
before, they ask, “Are you in the . . .?”. However, they keep on asking the same
person, using different rooms until they guess the correct one before moving on to
the next person.

Week 20
Hair and eyes
Target vocabulary: Eyes; hair (blue, green, brown, blond, black, red);
man; men; woman; women; thirsty; hungry.
Target structure: I’ve got + colour + body part

What colour eyes/hair have you got?
The man is hungry / thirsty
The men are hungry / thirsty
The woman is hungry / thirsty
The women are hungry / thirsty
Materials: Funky with different hair and eye colour.

Pictures of a man, men, a woman, women, hungry and
thirsty.
Spend roughly 20 minutes on this part. Point to your eyes and say, “Eyes”. Urge
them to repeat, first as a group then individually. Point at everyone’s eyes and say
what colours they are e.g. “Brown eyes” or “Blue eyes” or “Green eyes”. Point at one
person at a time and get the group to say what colour eyes that person has. Then,
they describe their own eyes one by one. Introduce “I’ve got”. Point to your eyes and
this time say the full sentence. Go round the group individually again, this time getting
them to say the whole thing. E.g. “I’ve got blue eyes”. Go round several times until
everyone is getting it right. Use some TPR then to practise the above. Sit everyone in
a circle, and use commands like the following:
Stand up if you’ve got brown eyes.

Turn around if you’ve got green eyes.
Sit down if you’ve got blue eyes.
Next, add the question, “What colour eyes have you got?” Say this and encourage
the group to repeat what you say. Do group repetition, individual repetition and then
go round the circle getting everyone to say only the question, with you saying it in
between each student. With older children you might want to pass a cuddly toy or a
ball, but only do this with the older ones. Continue by sitting the students in line,
stand in front of them and ask the person at the end, “What colour eyes have you
got?” He replies with ”I’ve got….eyes”, go along the line asking everyone in turn. The
person at the end, who you started with then goes up to be the next person to ask
the question and everyone moves along a seat, you go and sit on the seat that is left
free at the other end of the line. After this student has asked everybody the question,
the next student goes up, everyone moves along a seat and the student who has just
asked the question, goes to the other end of the line and sits down next to you.
This continues until everyone has had a turn at asking the question, and you are left
standing up. This game works on a conveyor belt idea.

Do the same for people’s hair, start by saying “hair” pointing at your own, getting the
group to repeat together, then individually. Then find examples of “blond hair”, “brown
hair”, “black hair” and “red hair”. Point to your own hair and describe it. Go on to
describe everyone, pointing at someone and saying “blond hair”, for example. Get the
group to repeat after you. Go round the group with everyone saying what hair colour
they’ve got. Introduce, “I’ve got……” and go round the circle again, getting everyone
to say, “I’ve got ……. hair.” Again do this until everyone can say the sentence
correctly and then do some more TPR.
Sit down if you’ve got black hair.

Stand up if you’ve got blond hair.
Turn around if you’ve got brown hair.
After a few rounds of TPR, do the conveyor belt again. You start by asking the
student on the end, “What colour hair have you got?” he replies and you ask the
student next to him and so on, exactly the same way as before.
Take the pictures of Funky, which have different coloured hair and eyes. Ask one
student to go and stand facing the wall and give each student a picture each, there
should be a different one for everyone. Ask everyone to memorise the picture that
they have and then put them back down on the table. Call back the ‘eyes closed’
student and he must find out who had what card. To do this he picks a student and
asks him, “What colour eyes have you got?” The student replies, pretending that he
is the picture, “I’ve got …..eyes”. The ‘eyes closed’ student takes all the cards that
don’t have this eye colour and turns them over, these cards are eliminated. The ‘eyes
closed’ student then asks the same student, “What colour hair have you got?” the
student replies and the ‘eyes closed’ student then turns over all the cards that have a
different hair colour, these cards are out the game. There should now only be one
card remaining and the card can be matched up with its owner. The ‘eyes closed’
student now asks someone else the questions to match them up with the card that
they chose before. Continue this game until everyone has had a go at being the
student who asks the questions.
Next, we are going to change the focus of the lesson. This part will take about 20
minutes. Take out the pictures that represent “hungry” and “thirsty”. Introduce them in
the usual way, which is group repetition followed by individual repetition. Place the
pictures on the table and you say what the pictures are and the students point and
then, you can point at the pictures and the students say what they are. Introduce the
vocabulary, “man, men, woman” and “women” in the same way with repetition and
pointing. After everyone is clear you can go on to form a sentence. Place the picture
of the man on the table, and place the picture representing thirsty on top of it. Say,
“The man is thirsty.” and get everyone to repeat. Do the same using “hungry” and the
other pictures. Now you have worked on the target vocabulary, you can emphasise
“is” and “are” in the sentences. Say a phrase and get the students to put the two
corresponding pictures together to show what you are saying. Let everyone have a
few turns at doing this before moving on.

Now, it’s the students’ turn to speak. Pick out two pictures, and gesture for the
children to say the phrase, again first as a group and then individually. Keep
changing the pictures and let everyone have several turns until you are happy that
everyone can do it. For the game, pick out four children. Stand them in a line, but
with the two end people stood next to each other.
C
A B
D
Looking at the diagram above C and D close their eyes as A shows two pictures to B.
B is going to say the phrase and C and D are going to look through their pictures, find
the correct ones and are going to hold them up. The first out of C and D to do so,
wins.
C and D (Close their eyes.)

A (Holds up women and hungry.)
C and D (Open their eyes)
B The women are hungry.
C and D (Find pictures of women and hungry and hold them up as fast as
possible.)
C (Is quicker and therefore wins.)
Continue until everyone in the group has a turn in every role. If you have a big class
you can have two teams, (two people showing, two people saying and two people
showing at the other end.) This limits the number of students not playing, but always
remember to use the ones not playing to check that those playing are always getting
it right.
For the next game, give everyone in the group a picture each. (You’ll have six
pictures: man; men; woman; women; hungry; thirsty.) If you have more than six
students give the others a blank piece of card each. Stand everyone in a circle and
get everyone to show their cards. Say, “Go”, and each student passes their card to
the person next to them. Keep passing the cards until you say stop. Then say, for
example, “The woman is thirsty”, the students holding the ‘woman’ and ‘thirsty’ go
and stand in the centre of the circle. Do a few like these and then pick out students
to play teacher and say a phrase.
Group (Passing the cards in one direction.)

Teacher Stop! The men are hungry.
A (Is holding the picture of the men, so steps into the middle.)
B (Is holding the picture of hungry, so steps into the middle.)
Now, for the next 10 minutes go back to the first part of the lesson with ‘hair and
eyes’. Play the game again where a student closes his eyes. The students take a
card each, memorise what they have got and put the card back. The student has to
match up the student and his card. To finish off in the last 5 minutes, play one of the
games revising ‘men and thirsty’ etc. Choose whichever you think more appropriate
for your class.

Week 21
Easter + Revision Lesson D
Target vocabulary: Easter Bunny; Easter eggs.
Target structures: These and those.

Present simple – to be (are).
Possessive adjective – my your.
Where are my Easter eggs?

Are these/those your Easter eggs?
These/those are my Easter eggs.
Materials: Easter eggs and 1 Easter Bunny.
We did ‘This and that’ in Week 8, but never looked at the plurals. Introduce the
Easter Bunny and Easter eggs. Give the Easter eggs out so that every student has a
set. Just like the ‘This and that’ lesson, practise, “These are my Easter eggs” (holding
them up) and, “Those are my Easter eggs” (pointing at them).
We’re going to move straight on to the ‘Where are my Easter eggs?’ game. One
student is chosen to close their eyes away from the group. Take their Easter eggs
and give them to another student. Take that student’s Easter eggs and put them on
the floor in the middle. The ‘closed eyes’ student comes back and asks where their
Easter eggs are (yes, just like in ‘This and that’).
E.g.
A Where are my Easter eggs?
Teacher (Points at E’s Easter eggs in the middle.)
Are those your Easter eggs?
A No.
Teacher (Holds up Easter eggs that were hidden behind back.)
Are these your Easter eggs?
A No.
Teacher (Waves for A to ask B.)
B (Points at E’s Easter eggs in the middle.)
A No.
B (Holds up Easter eggs that were hidden behind back.)
A No.
Teacher (Waves for A to ask C.)
C (Points at E’s Easter eggs in the middle.)
A No.
C (Holds up Easter eggs that were hidden behind back.)
A No. (Looks at D.) Where are my Easter eggs?

D (Points at E’s Easter eggs in the middle.)
A No.
D (Holds up Easter eggs that were hidden behind back.)
A No. (Turns to E.) Where are my Easter eggs?
E (Points at E’s Easter eggs in the middle.)
A No.
E (Holds up Easter eggs that were hidden behind back.)
A Yes!
Lessons to revise:
Week 16 Animals
Week 18 Can you?
Week 19 In the house

Week 22
He’s big
Target structures: Present simple - to be + adjective. Emphasis on the

third person.
Target vocabulary: Big; small; good; bad. Revision of happy; sad; fed
up; angry.
Materials: 8 large pictures of a girl.

8 large pictures of a boy.
8 small pictures of a girl.
8 small pictures of a boy.
8 ‘bad’ pictures.
8 ‘good’ pictures.
Begin with everybody in a circle. Stand up with your arms stretched out; make
yourself as big as you can. “Big!”, you say, encouraging the students to do the same
action and repeat. “Small!”, mime holding a small imaginary thing between your
fingers. Practise a few times with the group, and then with individuals.
Now say, ‘big’ or ‘small’ without the actions. Individuals have to do the actions for
you. Practise these for a couple of minutes.
Do the actions for ‘big’ and ‘small’ yourself this time; it’s the students’ turn to say ‘big’
or ‘small’. Show the students a small picture of a boy and a big picture of a boy. Hold
one higher than the other, you’re looking for them to call out “Big!” or “Small!”. Resist
the temptation to start teaching adjective and noun word order if they shout “Boy big”.
We’re not there just yet (we’d get stuck with little versus small, too).
Change between the two pictures, introducing ‘he’s’ this time (‘he’s small’ and ‘he’s
big’). Group first, then individuals.
Take the pictures of the girl and do the same with ‘she’s’.
Next, test individuals on both sets of cards: ‘he’s big; he’s small; she’s big; she’s
small’.
Rejoin the circle if you left it and assign every student with a ‘big’ or ‘small’ (perhaps
start all the same and then mix things up when they get the hang). They have to stay
frozen in their action. You start by saying what the person next to you is, and pointing
at them. Point to that person, and then to their neighbour. They describe that
neighbour. E.g. If their neighbour is a boy and is doing a ‘big’ action they say, “He’s
big”. This can go on until they get the she and he for a girl or boy correct every time.
Repeat this process for good and bad. Smiley face and thumbs up action for good,
sour face and thumbs down for bad. Your picture cards will be of a ‘goodie’ and a
‘baddie’. Use these in conjunction with the boy and girl pictures and with the students
themselves.
With ‘he’s’ and ‘she’s’ working well, bring the happy; sad; angry and fed up cards out.
Give each student a card and jog their memories with a round of ‘I’m happy’ (Or
whatever is on their card. Move onto the third person singular again to increase their
awareness of the difference between ‘I’m’, ‘he’s’ and ’she’s’. The students keep the
same card and, instead of saying the emotion on their card, they describe their
neighbour.
First time.
A (Has ‘happy’ card.) I’m happy.
B (Has ‘angry’ card.) I’m angry.
C (Has ‘sad’ card.) I’m sad.
Etc.
Second time.
A (Person to their left [boy] has ‘sad’ card) He’s sad.
B (Person to their left [boy] has ‘fed up’ card) He’s fed up.
C (Person to their left [girl] has ‘angry’ card) She’s angry.
Etc.
Of course, you start them off and have to do a lot of pointing to make sure they know
who they’re supposed to talk about. Change the direction so they describe their other
neighbour, before changing the cards and starting again. Keep this going for a few
minutes, going back to ‘I’m’ every few rounds (make it clear that it’s an ‘I’m’ or a ‘he’s’
/ ‘she’s’ round, confuse them and they’ll lose interest). Look to the class to help you
reinforce whenever individual students use the wrong gender.
E.g.
A (Person to their left [boy] has ‘happy’ card) She’s happy.
Teacher (Standing behind and pointing to the boy with the ‘happy’ card, looking
at the rest of the group.) Is she a girl?
Class No!
Teacher Is he a boy?
Class Yes! He’s happy.
Obviously, you’re not going to do this in such a way as to humiliate the student who
gets it wrong. Mistakes like that can be funny, and will help to highlight the difference
between ‘he’s’ and ‘she’s’ for your students.
Look back to the final task from the emotions lesson, it was the one where the
students had to say what they were not. You might not have had the time to do much
on this, if at all. That doesn’t matter, you can practise ‘I’m not’ alongside ‘he’s/she’s
not. Give a few examples yourself, as always, so they know what’s expected.
A (Person to their left [girl] has ‘sad’ card) She’s not angry.
B (Person to their left [boy] has ‘angry’ card) He’s not happy.
C (Person to their left [girl] has ‘sad’ card) She’s not happy.
Etc.
OK, you can play a version of the guessing game to finish with. Pick two students
from the group. One chooses the card and stays silent, only showing it to their
partner. The students still in the group ask, “Is he/she . . .?”. The silent student’s
partner replies, “Yes, he is/ no she’s not.”. When the group students get it right, the
silent student shows their card to the group and changes roles with their partner.
When both partners have had a turn they come back to the group and two new
students take their place. If you want the game to move more quickly at any stage,
you can swap the ‘happy; sad; fed up; angry’ cards for the ‘good; bad’ or ‘big; small’
cards.
If you have any time left when you’ve had enough of this (It should work for quite a
while), repeat any tasks from earlier in the lesson that might need working on. If you
have three year olds, your life will be a lot easier if you use ‘good; bad’ or ‘big; small’
to keep them from getting too confused.

Week 23
Clothes
Target vocabulary: T-shirt; trousers; jeans; shoes; jumper; shirt; skirt; socks.
Revision of colours.
Target structures: Indefinite article ‘a’.

I’m wearing + clothing.
Are you wearing + clothing.
I’m wearing + colour + clothing.
Materials: 1 set of real clothes.

1 set of clothes flashcards.
1 large picture of the wee man.
8 little pictures of the wee man.
Colour flashcards.
Introduce the vocabulary the way that you want for this one. You can use pictures, or
real pieces of clothing, or both. Practise repeating the clothes with the group and
individuals as you show each piece of clothing. When pronunciation gets better take
one piece of clothing and pass it around the circle, each person saying what it’s
called when they have it in their possession. Go around two or three times at normal
speed, and then have a few more turns trying to go as fast as possible. You might
say, “This time, we’re going to go . . . FASTER!”. (Miming the piece of clothing
moving really fast around the circle, saying it as you pass behind each student.) If the
pace slows give an encouraging “FASTER!” (mime moving fast) to speed them up. It
can be fun as everyone concentrates on passing the item and saying it as quickly as
possible. Repeat this for all the clothes, helping as soon as anyone gets stuck.
Arrange the clothes (or pictures of them) in a line on chairs or against the wall. Stand
opposite the line of clothes with the students. This is where we’re going to introduce
‘I’m wearing . . .’. Take one picture of the ‘wee man’ from the body parts lessons.
Teacher I’m wearing a jumper. (Walks over to the jumper holding the ‘wee
man’ picture.)
Repeat this for each item of clothing. Notice that you say, “I’m wearing a jumper/
shirt/ T-shirt/ skirt” and “I’m wearing shoes/ socks/ trousers/ jeans” (no a for the
plurals). You can let the students show what our ‘wee man’ is wearing now.
Teacher (Gives the ‘wee man’ to A.) I’m wearing shoes.

A (Walks over to the shoes.)
Teacher (Looks to the rest of the group.) Is that right?
Group Yes!
A (Rejoins the group.)
Teacher (Gives the ‘wee man’ to B.) I’m wearing a shirt.
B (Walks over to the T-shirt.)
Group No! (Group point to the shirt.)
Teacher I’m wearing a shirt.
B (Walks over to the shirt.)

Group Yes!
B (Rejoins the group.)
Teacher (Gives the ‘wee man’ to C.) I’m wearing trousers.
Etc.
When everyone has had a turn give all the students a ‘wee man’ picture. Do the
same exercise, sending one or more students to the items of clothing. This time, they
repeat the ‘I’m wearing . . .’ sentence when they get to the piece of clothing. You
have to insist on the ‘I’m wearing’ part along with the clothing noun.
Teacher I’m wearing a jumper . . . A.

A (Walks over to the jumper) I’m wearing jumper.
Teacher I’m wearing a jumper.
A I’m wearing a jumper.
Teacher I’m wearing socks . . . B.
B (Walks over to the socks) I’m wearing a socks.
Teacher I’m wearing socks.
B I’m wearing socks.
Teacher I’m wearing shoes . . . C.
C (Walks over to the shoes) I’m wearing shoes.
Etc.
These examples highlight the problem caused by the singular nouns that need ‘a’,
and the plural nouns that don’t. It might be useful to keep shoes; socks; trousers and
jeans together at one side, and jumper; shirt; T-shirt and skirt at the other side. It’s
not going to cure the problem, you’ll still have a job to do with this, but it might help
the children to mentally separate the singulars and the plurals.
Bring the students back into a circle, we’re going to introduce the question. Give them
each a piece of clothing to hold. Ask each student the question, “Are you wearing . . .
?”. If you say the name of their item they reply “Yes, I am”, if you say a different item
they reply “No, I’m not”.
Teacher (Points at A.) Are you wearing a jumper?

A (Has the jumper.) Yes!
Teacher Yes, I am.
A Yes, I am.
Teacher (Points at B.) Are you wearing a jumper?
B (Has the trousers.) No!
Teacher No, I’m not.
B No, I’m not.
Teacher (Points at C.) Are you wearing trousers?
C No, I’m not.
Do the same thing again, but this time the students don’t keep the items of clothing.
Put the items on a chair in the middle of the circle, the students have to remember
which one they had. Pick one piece up (e.g. skirt) and ask someone if it’s theirs ("Are
you wearing a skirt?"). If it’s the right one you give them the piece of clothing. If it’s
wrong, ask somebody else using the same item. Everyone ends up with the piece of
clothing they had at the start.

The students know what they have to do now, so they can play. One or two students
close their eyes away from the group. Give the others an item each. They memorise
what they have and put it in the middle. The other student or students come back,
pick up a piece of clothing and ask someone, “Are you wearing . . . ?” If any students
give it away by pointing, saying the word in French or otherwise making it obvious
which item is theirs, make it clear they’re not allowed (You can give points for each
correct first time guess, which I’ve found stops any cheating dead).
When everyone has done this they’ll have practised both the question and the short
answers hopefully enough times to remember.
Put the clothes away and bring the colour flashcards out. Have a quick practice of the
colours to refresh them for the students. Point to yourself and say, “I’m wearing (e.g.
black trousers)”.
Teacher (Points to trousers.) I’m wearing black trousers.

A I’m wearing red trousers.
B I’m wearing blue trousers.
Teacher (Looks to other students and points at B’s jeans.)
Are you wearing black TROUSERS?
Group No! Jeans!
B I’m wearing blue jeans.
C I’m wearing black skirt.
Teacher I’m wearing a black skirt.
C I’m wearing a black skirt.
Etc.
Do this for each piece of clothing (or area, in some cases like skirt instead of trousers
and shirt instead of T-shirt), and then swap around at random.
E.g.
Teacher (Points to shoes.) I’m wearing black shoes. (Points to A.)
A I’m wearing white shoes.
Teacher (Points to legs.) I’m wearing black trousers. (Points to B.)
B I’m wearing a red skirt.
Etc.
If you have any time after practising this, you can try a memory/guessing game with
the colours of the students’ clothes. One student is either blindfolded or faces away
from the group with their eyes closed. One by one the students say their names, and
the person who is blindfolded guesses the colour of their . . . shoes for example.
Extra/variation
The ‘commands’ game using conditional commands is a good activity for bodily-
kinaesthetic stimulation and offers another way to process the language they are
learning. Start them off by asking them to put their chairs in a line and sit down,
followed by some of the simple orders that they now know by heart.

Week 24
Revision Lesson E
Lessons to revise:
Week 20 Hair and eyes
Week 22 He’s big
Week 23 Clothes

Week 25
Mealtimes
Target vocabulary: Morning; afternoon; evening; night.

Breakfast; lunch; dinner.
Target structures: Good morning/afternoon/evening/night. (Greeting.)

I have + meal + in the + part of day. (Present simple – to
have. Preposition and article – in the.)
When do you have . . .? (‘Question word’ question.)
Materials: 1 set of parts of the day flashcards.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner flashcards.
Present the four parts of the day with the help of flashcards (morning – sun rising in
the sky; afternoon – sun high in the sky; evening – moon rising in blue sky; night –
moon high in black sky). Play the circles game until everyone remember the four
pieces of vocabulary well. Stick the flashcards to chairs or on the wall, one on each of
the four sides or corners of the room. When you say, “Good morning!” to a student
they have to go the side with the picture representing morning. Do this with each
student until they are all next to the pictures. (It’s not advised to send them all at
once, you could be inviting mayhem upon yourself!) You’re alone in the middle, now.
Wave to a student, smile and say, “Good (morning – depending where they are)”.
They wave back and say the same. Once they’ve all done their greeting, bring them
back to the middle. Send them out once again, one by one, keeping one student in
the middle. This student has to greet each person and be greeted back, according to
what’s on his or her picture. After that, they all move round one place, you send the
student in the middle to one of the pictures and bring another one out. Try to give
everyone a turn in the middle.
Present breakfast, lunch and dinner. Play the circles game to practise.
We need to link the meals and the parts of the day to make our sentence now. Bring
back the morning, afternoon and evening flashcards. (We don’t normally eat meals
during the night!) Lay morning, afternoon and evening out where everyone can see
them and hold up the breakfast flashcard. Ask, “When do you have breakfast? . . . In
the morning . . . in the afternoon . . . or in the evening?”. The students have to match
up the meal flashcards with the parts of the day flashcards. Take the newly paired
breakfast and morning flashcards, you’re going to give them the ‘glue’ to turn this into
a sentence. Hold up the breakfast flashcard in your right hand and say, “I have
breakfast”. Pause, hold up the morning flashcard in your left hand and say, “In the
morning”. Do this again, without the pause this time. Signal for the class to repeat. Do
this a few times with the class, and then several times with individuals. You’ll have to
give lots of help to begin with. Take lunch and afternoon, dinner and evening, and
practise the same way.
Give the six flashcards to students, they hold these up in front of them. Point to a
student with a meal flashcard. That person replies, “I have . . .” and the student
holding the corresponding part of the day adds, “In the . . .”.

E.g.
A has the breakfast flashcard.
B has the evening flashcard.
C has the morning flashcard.
D has the afternoon flashcard.
E has the lunch flashcard.
F has the dinner flashcard.
Teacher (Points to E.)

E I have lunch.
D Afternoon.
Teacher In the afternoon.
D In the afternoon.
Teacher (Points to A.)
A I have breakfast.
C In the morning!
Teacher (Points to F.)
F I have dinner.
B In the evening!
Teacher (Points to A.)
A I have breakfast.
C In the morning!
Etc.
Pass the flashcards around and have a few turns, as they improve pronunciation of
the linking words and recognition of which meal goes with which part of the day.
Three students stand in a line next to the wall holding morning, afternoon and
evening. You (or a student) choose one of the flashcards to show another student,
who says, “I have . . .”. The student with the corresponding part of the day steps
forward and says, “In the . . .” (They don’t get to see the meal in this game, the link is
mental). Change the person who picks the meal (if you’re not doing it), the person
who calls out, “I have . . .” and the three people who have morning, afternoon and
evening.
Sit the students back down in a circle. Try the circles game again, now with the full
sentences: I have breakfast in the morning; I have lunch in the afternoon and I have
dinner in the evening. Try to get it to go as fast as possible, swap directions and
places for variation.
Now would be a good time to have another practice of the greetings. Choose one
student to close their eyes away from the group. Show each of the other students a
flashcard from the morning; afternoon; evening; night pack. They remember their part
of the day and greet the ‘closed eyes’ student when he or she rejoins the group. The
‘closed eyes’ student has the pack of flashcards, shows the appropriate card and
greets the other students back. Give everyone a turn.

Our goal for this lesson was for the students to be able ask when a particular meal is
eaten and to answer it correctly, in a full sentence. They’ve heard the question, but
they haven’t practised it yet. Introduce ‘When do you have . . .?’, showing the
flashcard for the meal you’re asking about. Practise repeating as a group and
individually for each meal.
Split the group into two teams and line them up opposite one another.
E.g. A, B, C and D are on one team and E, F, G and H are on the other.
Teacher (Shows A the dinner flashcard.)

A When do you have dinner?
E In the evening.
Teacher I have dinner in the evening.
E I have dinner in the evening.
Teacher (Shows B the breakfast flashcard.)
B When do you have breakfast?
F I have breakfast in the morning.
Teacher (Shows C the lunch flashcard.)
C When do you have lunch?
G I have lunch in the afternoon.
Teacher (Shows D the breakfast flashcard.)
D When do you have breakfast?
H I have breakfast in the evening.
Teacher Do you have breakfast in the evening? (Puzzled face, asks H.)
H No, morning. I have breakfast in the morning.
Change the roles of the teams around and do this again. You can give points if you
want, for a correct question, for a correct answer or however you feel.
Play this game until the end of the lesson. Using points and changing teams will help
keep the students’ interest.

Week 26
Food
Target Vocabulary: Apple; tomato; potato; meat; fish; bread; cheese;

ice cream.
Target Structure: I like….. / I don’t like…….

Do you like……?
Material: 3 sets of flashcards of the above food items.
Choose eight pieces of food vocabulary; the above are only suggestions.
Once you are satisfied that there has been sufficient practice, hold up, for example,
ice cream, and say, “I like ice cream” rubbing your stomach or do another gesture to
show that you like it. Gesture for the group to repeat the sentence and perform the
action in unison. Pass the picture to one student and say the phrase getting him to
repeat after you and do the action. Take the card back between each student and
say the phrase each time before passing it on. Keep going with this until everyone
can say the phrase confidently and with good pronunciation. Then, do exactly the
same with your other three words that you have chosen. This will show that “I like
….” is always constant and just the food changes.
Show something else, pull a face to show that you don’t like it and say “I don’t
like…..” Get the group to pull a face and repeat what you say. Again, do this all
together and then do it with individuals. Choose the student by passing the flashcard
that you want him to use and repeat, “I don’t like…..” before everybody’s turn. Again,
keep getting everyone to repeat until you are happy with the pronunciation.
Hold up one of the food flashcards and pull a disgusted face and say, “I don’t like
……”, pass the card to someone else and gesture for them to do and say as you just
did. Give everyone a go and then do the same but this time with “I like….”. Hold a
picture up and this time say, “I like…..”, rubbing your stomach. Get the group to
repeat the phrase and do the action, and then do this with individuals passing the
pictures to indicate whom you are choosing.
To make it more fun, choose one person to go to one side of the room. They are
going to close their eyes, but do the example first. Show a flashcard to the class as
an example, and then either pull a face or rub your stomach at the same time say, “I
like …..” or “I don’t like…..”, depending on whatever gesture you choose.
The aim of the game is for you to mime (show the picture and do the action), a
student will then say the phrase to correspond with what you have mimed. The
person who is at the side of the room, with their eyes closed, will open their eyes, find
the food that has been talked about, hold it up and pull the face to represent ‘I like’ or
‘I don’t like’. Change over the two students each time, but you keep choosing the
flashcard and the gesture each time.
Now, introduce the question: “Do you like….?” Go back to the first item of food that
you used, my example was ice cream. Say with questioning intonation “Do you like
ice cream?” gesture for the group to repeat the language together. Do this several

times, then get individuals to say the sentence after you. Choose your student by
passing the picture of the ice cream.
Play a second game. Give a few examples yourself by showing a card to the class
e.g. the apples, ask yourself the question, “Do you like bread?” because you are not
holding the bread, say “No, I don’t like bread”, shaking your head to emphasise the
point. Ask, “Do you like meat?” because you are not holding the meat, say “No, I
don’t like meat.” Shake your head at the same time. Get one of the students to stand
up and give them a card, the group is going to answer the question and the chosen
student is going to answer.
Student has the flashcard of fish.

Teacher shows any flashcard to be used in the question e.g. cheese
Group: Do you like cheese?
Student: No, I don’t like cheese
Teacher holds up another flashcard, doesn’t matter which e.g. potatoes
Group: Do you like potatoes?
Student No, I don’t like potatoes.
Teacher shows picture of another picture, this time the fish.
Group: Do you like fish?
Student: Yes, I like fish.
At this point, you have still only introduced half of the flashcards. Now you can
introduce the other half. Take away the cards that you have been using so far and
just use the new ones. Introduce them in the same way as you showed the others.
Play a game of ‘what’ missing?’. Do this several times, giving all the children a turn to
hide the card and to guess the missing card. Make sure everybody is fairly confident
about the vocabulary before you move on.
Play the game, that you played earlier where one person goes to the side of the room
and closes their eyes, you hold up a card and do the action of liking or not liking, a
student says the phrase which matches your expression and flashcard, the person at
the side then opens their eyes, comes back and finds the flashcard and does the
expression which corresponds with what the student has mimed. This time you can
play the game with all the cards.

Week 27
Jobs
Target vocabulary: Teacher; doctor; chef; singer; baker; police officer;

fire fighter.
Target structures: I’m a..

He’s a….
She’s a….
Are you a ….?
Is he a…..?
Is she a…….?
Yes, I am / No, I’m not
Yes, he is / No he’s not
Yes, she is / No, she’s not
Materials: 2 sets of job flashcards.
Introduce seven words choosing from the above vocabulary or jobs that you think are
more appropriate. Play at least two games to practise the vocabulary. Stand
everybody in a circle, hold up one card and say “I’m a …” followed by whatever the
card is that you have chosen. Gesture for everyone to repeat what you say, as usual
first as a group, then, split the group in half and get one half to say it first then the
second half. See who can say it the best. Then, ask students to say it individually.
Pass the same card round the group and as the students take the card they say “I’m
a ….” Just use one card to start off with, as soon as everyone can say the phrase,
take that one away and pass a different card round, and then a third card. When
everyone is clear about both the vocabulary and the structure “I’m a ..” give everyone
a different card each. Go round the circle and ask everyone to say what they are in
turn. Do this several times.
Next you can introduce the question. Ask one child to show his card to everyone. Ask
him something he’s not e.g. “Are you a doctor?” If he struggles, help him with “No, I’m
not”. Keep firing the questions at the students, prompting them to say, “No, I’m not”
every time they are not something, and of course get them to say, “Yes, I am” when
you say the name of the profession on their cards.
E.g.
Teacher Are you a police officer?
Student (He has a baker.) No, I’m not.
Teacher Are you a baker?
Student Yes, I am.

Sit the students round a table and split them into two teams. This is the same game
that we played in the Halloween lesson. Take two sets of job flashcards, give one set
to each team. If some people have the same flashcard in team one, make sure that
team two has the same cards e.g. if there are two police officers in team one make
sure there are two police officers in team two. Team one will go first. Ask a student in
team one to choose someone in team two and ask, “Are you a…?” saying whatever
is on his card, as his aim is to find the person with the same flashcard. The chosen
member of team two answers with, “Yes, I am / No, I’m not.“ If the member of team
one guesses correctly, he gains a point for his team and he and his partner put their
cards down on the table and the point is noted down. Then, it’s the next person in
team one’s turn. Keep going until everyone in team one has asked their question and
then go back to the first member of team one. However, this time, even if he finds his
partner he does not get any points. Keep the questions coming from team one until
everyone has found their partner, but remember you are only playing for points the
first time round. As soon as all the cards are laid on the table, collect up the cards
and hand them out again in the teams. This time it is team two’s turn to start, so do
exactly the same but at the end of the first round of team two’s questions note down
their points. Keep going in the same order until all of team two have found their
partners.
A, B, C and D are team one.

E, F, G and H are team two.
A (He has a police officer.) Are you a police officer?
E (He has a baker.) No I’m not
B (He has a chef.) Are you a chef?
H (He has a chef.) Yes I am
B and H put their cards down on the table, and the teacher notes down a point for
team one. Team one continues until all they have all found their partners. Then team
two take control of the game.
Hand out the cards again and ask one student to sit in the middle of the circle. Make
sure that this student does not show his card to anyone, he can sit on it to make sure
it stays hidden. You start by trying to guess what card the student is sitting on. “Are
you a teacher?” the student in the middle replies each time, “No, I’m not.” Everyone
in the group asks one question. When somebody guesses correctly they can go up
and be the person in the middle. Carry on until everyone has had a go.
A is the student in the middle and is sitting on the fire fighter card.
B Are you a chef?
A No, I’m not.
C Are you a police officer?
A No, I’m not.
D Are you a fire fighter?
A Yes, I am.
D (Goes on to be the person in the middle.)

For a second game, practising the same structure, choose someone to go to the side
of the room and close their eyes. Stand everyone else in a line, and give them all a
card each, it doesn’t matter if some are the same. Get everyone to memorise what
they have on their card and then collect them back in. The student with his eyes
closed rejoins the group and takes the cards. His aim is to find out which card
everybody had. He takes the cards, chooses one and asks the student at the end of
the line, “Are you a ….?” This student replies, “Yes, I am / No, I’m not.” The ‘eyes
closed’ student then asks this same question to the next person in the line. He keeps
asking until he finds the person who had that card. He then gives the card back to
this person and goes on to ask another question. Let everybody have a go.
E.g.
A (Opens his eyes He is handed the pack of flashcards, he looks at a card
and forms a question around it.)
A Are you a police officer?
B No, I’m not.
A Are you a police officer?
C Yes, I am.
C (Goes up to be the next person with his eyes closed.)
Moving on to the next part, choose a boy to stand in the middle of the circle; this is to
introduce ‘he’. Ask him to hold up his card. Point to the boy and say what he is, “He’s
a doctor”, for example. Encourage the group to repeat all together, then ask
individuals to repeat. Ask the boy to sit down and choose another student to go up.
Do the same again e.g. “He/She’s a chef.” Do group repetition and then individual
repetition each time. Continue doing this until you have described everyone in the
group.
Let everyone keep the same card. Point at one of the students and say, “He’s a
teacher”. Point at another student and say, “He’s a singer”. Do this for the whole of
the group and then it’s the students’ turn. Point to the student to your right, and say,
“He’s a …” Make sure that you address the group, not the student you are talking
about. Gesture for the student to your left to say what you are and their neighbour
goes next, moving round in a clockwise direction. (Everyone says what the person to
their right is.) Make sure that everyone gets the ‘he’ and ‘she’ pronoun correct. Do
this again, keeping the same flashcards.
E.g.
Everybody talks about and points to the student on their right.
Teacher (Points to F.) He’s a fire fighter.
A (Points to the teacher.) She’s a chef.
B (Points to A.) He’s a police officer.
C (Points to B.) He’s a doctor.
D (Points to C.) She’s a teacher.
E (Points to D.) She’s a singer.
F (Points to E.) She’s a baker.

Now to add the question, invite two students into the middle of the circle. Give one a
flashcard, hold your fingers to your lips to show that he is to remain silent. Point at
the flashcard that ‘the silent one’ is holding and direct your question at the other
student, “Is he / she a baker?” The other student looks at the silent student’s card
and answers, “No, he’s not.” or “No, she’s not.” Do several examples, with things that
the student isn’t before you prompt a ‘Yes, he/she is’ answer.
Using the same two students ask one to choose another card. This student must stay
silent. He shows this card to the other student, who is outside the circle, and then
holds it to his own or her own chest, keeping it well hidden. You start by asking the
first question, then gesture for the person next to you to ask a question. If you need
to prompt the students with job ideas have a set of the flashcards handy and hold up
what you want them to say. The students in the group take turns asking, “Is she/he
a..?” Each time the silent student’s partner looks at his friend’s card and replies, “Yes,
he is / No he’s not”, depending. Keep going until someone guesses correctly, then
swap over the silent student and the speaking student. Save the student who
guessed correctly the last time as he will go up to play next with the student who
guesses correctly this time. Keep going until everyone has had a go.
E.g.
A and B are stood in the middle of the circle. A is silent and is a doctor.
C Is he a chef?
B No, he’s not.
D Is he a baker?
B No, he’s not
E Is he a doctor?
B Yes, he is
For another game practising this same structure, choose another student to go and
close his eyes at the side of the room and a different student to choose a card. The
student with the card shows it to all the other students, and then holds it to his chest.
The ‘eyes closed’ student comes back and this time asks everybody in the group,
apart from the student with the card, “Is he / she a ….?” Everybody replies each time
in unison “Yes, he is / No, he’s not.” Change over the ‘eyes closed’ student as soon
as he has found what card the other student is hiding.
E.g.
A is the ‘eyes closed’ student
B is a boy and he has the teacher card, he shows it to everyone, then remains silent.
A Is he a chef?
Group No, he’s not
A Is he a doctor
Group No, he’s not
A Is he a teacher?
Group Yes, he is.

If you have time and the class have got to grips with everything so far, you can go on
to this. It’s the same as one of the games before, only this time you describe yourself
before describing the person to your right. You start by saying “I’m a chef” for
example “and “he’s a teacher,” pointing at one of the students. Say again “I’m a chef,
and he’s a singer”, pointing at another student. Do this for the whole of the group and
then it’s the students’ turn. Point to yourself again and say, “I’m a chef”, and he’s a
doctor”, pointing to the student to your right, but making sure that you address the
group, not the child you are talking about. Gesture for the student to your left to say
what he is and then what you are (as you are the person to his right): “I’m a teacher
and she’s a chef”. Go round the circle again, so this time everyone says what they
are followed by what the person to their right is. Make sure that everyone gets the he
and she pronoun correct.
You can do this again, keeping the same flashcards if you think they need to keep
practising, or if they are confident about the ones they have already done, swap them
over.
A is the student to your left.

Teacher I’m a chef and he’s a doctor (pointing to the student to your right)
A I’m a teacher and she’s a chef.
B I’m a police officer and he’s a teacher (pointing to the student who has
just spoken.
If you don’t feel comfortable doing this yet do some miming to finish off. Call one of
the children up, show him/her a flashcard and he/she will attempt to mime the
profession. The person who guesses correctly goes on to be the next person to
mime.

Week 28
Transport
Target vocabulary: Car; lorry; bus; train; plane; boat.
Target structures: We’re in the/on the . . .

They’re in the/on the . . .
(Present simple – to be +preposition + place.)
Where are you?

Where are they? (‘Question word’ question – to be.)
Materials: 2 sets of transport flashcards.

Counters to represent the students.
Show your means of transport cards, practise them (group, then individual) and
choose two vocabulary games to play afterwards (poisoned pass the parcel, etc.).
This isn’t the first time the students have heard ‘where are you?’, is it?
- Where are you?
- I’m in the garden. (Week 18 – In the house.)
Yes, we’re looking for the same thing but in the first person plural (‘we’ form).
The transport vocabulary is new and the preposition changes now (in the car/lorry
and on the bus/train/plane/boat), but the idea is one they already know.
You can change the ‘Go into’ game from the other lesson, it becomes ‘Get in/on’. Fix
the flashcards to chairs or on the wall around the room, with a decent space between
each means of transport. You say, “Get in/on the . . .(vehicle)”, and students have to
find the right one (they go in twos at least, as they will do for the rest of this
lesson).You’re familiarising their ears to the ‘in the’ and ‘on the’ part necessary for our
sentences (it also starts to show that some are on and some are in).
Here, just like ‘In the house’, walk ‘into’ one of the vehicles (this time taking a student
with you) and say, “We’re in/on the (vehicle)” (pointing to both the student and you).
Move round a few times and say it again, to show the ‘in the' ones and ‘on the' ones
(then send the student who was with you back to the group). Take a couple of
students and put them in vehicles. Once they have said “We’re in/on the . . .”
(together, with help from you), invite the rest of the group to get into vehicles in pairs
(you can let them choose where if you want). Go round the whole group and ask,
“Where are you?”. When each pair (or three) of students has said their vehicle with
‘I’m in the’ in front of it, everyone ‘moves on one’ to the next vehicle. Ask again, the
students reply, and then move round. Ask, “Where are you?” every time, so the
students can familiarise the question and answer. Once this has been done enough
times for the students to accept they have to say the ‘we’re in/on the’ part, as well as
the means of transport, bring them back into a circle. Practise the question on it’s
own: you say and the next person repeats. Of course, they’ve done this before so
you shouldn’t need to spend long.

Bring back the counters that were used with the ‘dolls’ house’. Put the flashcards in
the middle of the circle. Choose a student to go and close their eyes. In pairs (you
join a pair if there are odd numbers), the students put their counters in a vehicle.
They memorise them, take their counters back and the ‘closed eyes’ student rejoins
the group. The ‘closed eyes’ student asks each pair, “Where are you?”. You can get
them to reply together (strengthens the idea of ‘we’), or one after the other (allows
you to keep a tighter rein on pronunciation). The ‘closed eyes’ student puts the pairs’
counters in the vehicle they have said.
A (Comes back to group and doesn’t know where the others put their
counters.) Where are you? (Points at B and C.)
B+C We’re in the lorry.
A (Puts B and C’s counters in the lorry.)
B+C Yes!
A Where are you? (Points at D and E.)
D+E We’re in the bus.
Teacher We’re on the bus.
D+E We’re on the bus.
A (Puts D and E’s counters on the boat.)
D+E No.
Teacher Where are you?
D+E We’re on the bus.
Teacher Is that the bus? (Looks at the group and points at the boat.)
Group No! Boat.
Teacher Where’s the bus? (Asks A.)
A (Puts D and E’s counters on the bus.)
Group Yes!
Etc.
Like the ‘In the house’ lesson (from which this activity is taken), use or don’t use a
points system as you see fit.
The next task we are going to use is the ‘chooser and flashcarder’ task from that
same previous lesson. Choose one student to take the flashcards and stand at the
other side of the room (the flashcarder). Put the other students into pairs. You need
another set of flashcards for this part. Give the second set of flashcards to one of the
students in the first pair (the chooser). That student shows one of the cards to their
partner (this is where they are). When the flashcarder asks, “Where are you?”, the
partner answers, “We’re in/on the . . .”. The flashcarder holds up the card that
matches what has been said. The pair swap roles (chooser becomes sayer, sayer
becomes chooser) and the flashcarder asks the question a second time. The chooser
chooses, the sayer says and the flashcarder shows the appropriate card. The pair
then go to the back and are replaced by a new pair. This has to move fast so
everyone can have a turn as flashcarder, and also so that the students who aren’t
involved don’t get bored. If you have a large group you can have two games going at
the same time (although you would need four sets of flashcards instead of two).
Divide the group into two, half sit on one line of chairs and the other half sit
diagonally opposite (a bit like this: / \ ). One of the flashcards is placed on the floor
or on a chair in front of each line of students. Practise, “Where are they?” (just
repeating for the moment). Introduce, “They’re in/on the . . .” to one half of the group,
pointing at the other. They repeat and point at the other group, like you. Do both
groups like this, in chorus and individually. Bring a student from one of the groups up
beside you, in front of the two lines. They have to ask both groups (one at a time),
“Where are they?”. They chorus back, “They’re in the . . .” Give every student a turn
to ask the two groups and change the flashcards with each new ‘asker’.
A B
A B
A █ █ B
B
Keep the set up of lines for the team game that we are going to play, but put them
directly opposite each other this time (see below). A student from team A comes to
the front. His team (A) asks him, “Where are they?”. Someone from the other team
(or you) chooses a flashcard for team B (this is where they ‘are’). The student from
team A gets to see the flashcard and tells his group, “They’re on/in the . . .”. Team A
shows the flashcard that its representative has said. If he says it correctly (the full
sentence), and the team show the right vehicle, team A gets a point. All the students,
from both teams, have one or two turns before a winning team is declared. As with
any team game that you might play make sure you balance the teams (in terms of
ability).
Change the teams and play again.
A B
A B
A B█ A
A B
B
Our final goal is to join up both the ‘we’ and ‘they’.

Sit the students on chairs in a circle. Distribute enough cards for every student to
have one. We are using pairs of vehicles (in a class of eight students there will be
four pairs), so make sure there is an even number (you take part if needed).
Everyone has a flashcard, which they all pass to the left when you tell them to start.
The students continue to pass the flashcards on until you say, “Stop!” Choose a
vehicle and say, “Stand up if you’re on/in the . . .”. The two students who have this
vehicle on their cards stand up. You ask them where they are (they reply in the ‘we’
form), and then you ask the rest of the group where these two are (they reply in the
‘they’ form).

E.g.
A has a plane flashcard when the teacher says stop.
B has a boat flashcard when the teacher says stop.
C has a plane flashcard when the teacher says stop.
D has a car flashcard when the teacher says stop.
E has a car flashcard when the teacher says stop.
F has a boat flashcard when the teacher says stop.
Teacher Stand up if you’re on the plane.

A+C (Both stand up.)
Teacher (Points at A and C.) Where are you?
A+C We’re on the plane.
Teacher (Looks at the rest of the group and points to A and C.)
Where are they?
Group They’re on the plane.
A+C (Sit back down.)
Teacher Stand up if you’re in the car.
D+E (Both stand up.)
Teacher (Points at D and E.) Where are you?
D+E We’re in the car.
Teacher (Looks at the rest of the group and points to D and E.)
Where are they?
Group They’re in the car.
D+E (Sit back down.)
Teacher Stand up if you’re on the boat.
B+F (Both stand up.)
Teacher (Points at B and F.) Where are you?
B+F We’re on the boat.
Teacher (Looks at the rest of the group and points to B and F.)
Where are they?
Group They’re on the boat.
B+F (Sit back down.)
When all students have been asked where they are change the vehicles (or bring
back rooms of the house if you’re confident that they remember them) and pass the
flashcards around for another try. In addition, if you do have odd numbers, a student
can take your place to ask the questions after the first turn.

Week 29
Revision Lesson F
Lessons to revise:
Week 25 Mealtimes
Week 26 Food
Week 27 Jobs

Week 30
Time
Target vocabulary: Numbers + o’clock / half past.
Target structures: It’s . . . o’clock / it’s half past . . .

What time is it?
Materials: Digital times to represent 1 - 12 o’clock.

Digital times to represent half past 1 – half past 12.
Begin by revising the numbers from 1 to 12 and play a vocabulary game to practise.
This shouldn’t take too long, they know them well by now. Bring out the digital times
and repeat, “It’s . . . o’clock” with the students as you show each time. (I found they
could identify the digital times better than analogue ones.) Set all the o’clock times
out on a table in order. Call out times and choose individuals to find the correct cards.
Leave the cards and play a game of ‘circles’. With each turn a student must say, “It’s
. . . o’clock.” I brought in extra rules for this, because I found there were students who
had a problem with the number eight. With each four numbers everyone had to sit
down or stand up as fast as possible: It’s one o’clock; it’s two o’clock; it’s three
o’clock; it’s four o’clock (all stand up); it’s five o’clock; it’s six o’clock; it’s seven
o’clock; it’s eight o’clock (all sit down); it’s nine o’clock; it’s ten o’clock; it’s eleven
o’clock; it’s twelve o’clock (all stand up).
Go back to the table on which with the times are laid. This time you point to a time
and choose a student to call it out. This is where ‘What time is it?’ comes in. Ask the
question each time you point to a card.
Bring the students back into the circle. Practise the ‘What time is it?’ question, and
then give each one a time card (they don’t let anyone see it). A student asks his or
her neighbour what time it is, the neighbour has to say the time on their card. They
show the time and everyone tells them if it’s wrong or right. This chain continues until
everybody has asked and been asked the time.
Put the time labels back onto the table (in order). Invite the students to take a time
each, they have to memorise it and put it back. You ask each of them what the time
is, they answer and you give them the card that shows their time. Choose a student
to close their eyes in the corner. While that person is not there, the others take a
label, memorise it and put it back. The ‘closed eyes’ student comes back and asks
the other members of the group, “What time is it?”. As you did, the chosen student
has to give the time labels to the others, according to their answer.
Clear the ‘o’clock’ times away for the moment and bring out the ‘half past’ times.
Repeat the lesson so far using ‘half past’ - until the end of the task where you point to
a card, say, “What time is it?” and a student tells you the time.
At this point, seat all the students but one in a row. Show the ‘half past twelve’ label
to the students and say, “It’s half past twelve.” Stand up and put your hands on your
head. Encourage everyone to do the same. Give a few examples, showing that they
only have to stand up and put their hands on their heads at half past twelve. Give
each student one of the ‘half past’ time labels, they can’t show anyone else. The
student who is still standing up has to ask, “What time is it?”, and each student
replies when they are asked. When the one with half past twelve answers everyone
stands up and puts their hands on their heads. The last one to do it comes out of the
line and asks the questions. The person who asked the questions before takes the
slowest person’s place in the line.
E.g.
A is asking the questions.
B has half past one.
C has half past seven.
D has half past nine.
E has half past ten.
F has half past twelve.
G has half past three.
H has half past six.
A What time is it?

B It’s half past one.
A What time is it?
C It’s half past seven.
A What time is it?
D It’s half past nine.
A What time is it?
E It’s half past ten.
A What time is it?
F It’s half past twelve.
(Everyone jumps to their feet and puts their hands on their heads. G is the last
person to do it. G comes out to ask the questions, while A takes G’s place in the row
of chairs.)
Play this enough times for everyone to have a turn to ask the questions. If it’s always
the same students who lose, you should step in and choose someone else to come
and ask the questions.
The job is going to become harder now. We are going to combine the ‘o’clock’ times
and the ‘half past’ times. The problem here is that we say, “It’s three o’clock”, and,
“It’s half past three”. The three moves, and this makes it confusing for the students.
Go back to the first table exercise, in this instance with all the times in order: one
o’clock; half past one; two o’clock; half past two etc. You say, they point.
It’s easy for them, they can recognise any one of the twenty four times on the table.
This is both for their confidence and to make it clear that the ones that end ‘:00’ are
o’clock and the ones that end ‘:30’ are half past.
When you have done a few rounds of this change the game to you point, they say.
This is where you may have to help with word order, as numbers get moved to the
wrong side of ‘o’clock’ and ‘half past’. Reinforce the fact that ‘:00’ is ‘o’clock’ and ‘:30’
is ‘half past’.
Do the task from earlier on in which you choose a student to close their eyes in the
corner. While that person is not there, the others take a label, memorise it and put it
back. The ‘closed eyes’ student comes back and asks the other members of the
group, “What time is it?”. The difference is that it could be . . . o’clock, or half past . . .
Give everyone a turn.
Our game that incorporates all the language from the lesson is a variation of ‘Hands
on heads at half past twelve’ from before. Arrange enough seats for all but one
student into a circle. Put a time label on each seat (a mix of ‘half pasts’ and ‘o’clocks’,
of which one is half past twelve). Choose one student to be ‘time master’. The other
students have to ask this person what time it is, so they know where to sit down. The
‘time master’ chooses to say, “It’s . . .” (whichever of the times he or she wants) and
the student who asked must sit on that chair. When the ‘time master’ replies, “It’s half
past twelve!” however, all the other students must try to be the first to sit on the chair
with the half past twelve label. The first one to do so wins and becomes the ‘time
master’ for the next round. (This could be too much for some classes, it could get
rough. If you’re worried that this might happen, the goal can be first to stand up,
behind a chair, with hands on head. Less fun, but less dangerous.) You can play this
until the end of your class, but cheat a little to give everyone a turn as ‘time master’.
Make sure you calm them down before they go! (Sit down, be quiet, close your eyes,
count to twelve . . o’clock. One o’clock, two o’clock . . .)
What time is it? – Time to go!

Week 31
Revision Lesson G + Goodbye
Lessons to revise:
Week 28 Transport
Week 30 Time
The revision part of this lesson is supposed to take you to the halfway point, leaving
you with half an hour to play games (don’t have to be language based), have cakes
and soft drinks or whatever you decide.

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THE TEACHER GUIDE

FOR A YOUNG CHILDREN’S COURSE

material to use with very young learners of English

First edition published by ILCEA Linguistic Ltd. 2005

This guide was originally conceived for the PROXILANGUE language

The Teacher Guide was developed on these principles: children learn

No reading or writing activities are directly mentioned in the

Finally, I have taught students between the ages of three and

Applied linguistics has still to uncover exactly how we acquire a second

Methodology in English Language Teaching has moved through many

My aim here is not to criticise or discuss the merits of existing methods

I intend to talk about motivation in the context of English as a Foreign

Desire motivation is the stimulation of curiosity and enjoyment that has

While considering these observations allows us to recognise what

Halloween (6+): Ghost; witch; vampire; pumpkin; devil; skeleton…

Eating/drinking (5+): Knife; fork; spoon; glass; plate…

Seasons (4): Spring; summer; autumn; winter.

Christmas (6+): Father Christmas; snowman; presents; stocking;

People/Family (10+): Me; you; boy(s); girl(s); man(men); woman(women); mum;

Easter (2+): Easter Bunny; Easter eggs…

Clothes (8+): Jeans; jumper; shirt; shoes; skirt; socks; trousers; T-

Meals (3+): Breakfast; lunch; dinner…

Transport (6+): Boat; bus; car; lorry; plane; train…

Weather (6+): Sunny; raining; cloudy; snowing; foggy; windy…

Possessive (2+): My; your…

I can / Can you? (5+): Climb; fly; jump; run; swim…

Miscellaneous (taught directly or indirectly)

This list is flexible and non-exhaustive and is meant as an indication of the

Basic question structures ‘Question word’ questions

How are you/How’s it going?

I’ve got (number). It’s got (number + body part).

Yes, I can. I can(‘t) swim.

Hello. Good afternoon.

My name’s . . . My (body part) hurts.

Week 2 3 sets of number flashcards (numbers 1 – 12)

Week 4 Halloween flashcards

Week 5 3 sets of colour flashcards

Week 6 Revision of weeks 1, 2, 3 and 5

Week 7 2 sets of emotion flashcards (happy, sad, angry, fed-up)

Week 10 2 sets of weather flashcards

Week 11 3 sets of Christmas flashcards

Week 12 Revision of weeks 7, 8/9 and 10

Week 13 1 large picture of the Funky family

Week 14 1 set of body part flashcards

Week 15 Body part flashcards

Week 16 2 sets of animal flashcards

Week 18 Animal flashcards

Week 19 Garden and room pictures

Week 20 1 set of man, men, woman, women flashcards

Week 21 Easter Bunny

Week 22 8 large pictures of a girl

Week 23 1 set of real clothes

Week 25 1 set of parts of the day flashcards

Week 26 3 sets of food flashcards

Week 27 2 sets of job flashcards

Week 28 2 sets of transport flashcards

Week 29 Revision of weeks 25, 26 and 27

Week 30 Digital times to represent 1 – 12 o’clock

Week 31 Revision of weeks 28 and 30

Keep the card

Language What time is it? It’s…..

Language Directions: left; right; forwards, backwards; stop.