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Suggested level: Key Stage 1 Module: The World Around Us Unit: What is in the park?
Learning Targets
Interpersonal Strand (IS)
To develop the attitude and confidence in interacting with people and things around using simple English:
To understand English words and conversations related to everyday life
To enjoy using simple English words, phrases or sentences to respond to questions, requests or instructions/questions or instructions related to their life and school experiences
Knowledge Strand (KS)
To gradually develop basic concepts of English (*development/background) To gradually understand the English alphabet and simple English words
To develop the basic concepts of print and books, and develop basic reading skills To recognize some obvious features of the English language in simple spoken and written texts such as the direction of writing in English, the characteristics of an alphabetic script and the sound patterns of English; and apply this awareness to one’s initial learning and use of the language
Experience Strand (ES)
To build an interest in English
To display interest in English signage or broadcasts in their surroundings
To enjoy singing nursery songs and saying rhymes in English and to participate in English learning activities
To find pleasure in listening to or reading English stories
Learning Objectives
Text-types Story, photo caption Vocabulary Vocabulary Items
where, what
panda, monkey, shark, dolphin, crab, turtle under, in front of, behind
Language Items and Communicative Functions
Use the interrogative adverb “where” to ask about locations.
Use the interrogative pronoun “what” to find out specific information Use the modal “can” to talk about abilities
Use prepositions or prepositional phrases to indicate positions
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Language Skills
Listening Identify and discriminate sounds, stress and intonation
recognize the difference in the use of intonation in simple questions and commands Listen for explicit and implicit meaning
out the meaning of unknown words using pictorial clues, e.g. vocabulary for animals, prepositions and prepositional phrase.
Speaking Present information, ideas and feelings clearly and coherently Pronounce correctly letters of the alphabet and words in isolation
Produce simple phrases and sentences involving repetition (e.g. I can see…)
Use simple phrases and sentences to communicate with others with the help of cues.
Participate and communicate effectively in a conversation or an interaction provide information in response to factual questions
Reading Reading
Construct meaning from texts
Guess the meaning of unfamiliar words by using pictorial clues
Writing Writing
Present information, ideas and feelings clearly and coherently
Reproduce sentences based on the teacher’s model and use words from print in the campus
Materials:
Pictures (locations), picture (animals), realia (toy duck, toy chair), photos (for photo-caption)
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Introduction
Students are going to design their dream park. They need to allocate some animals to different locations in their dream park model. Finally, they will present their dream park model to their classmates. They are going to introduce the animals people can see in the park and in specific locations (*A context is required)
Pre-task “Where Am I?” (Cover, Read and Say)
- Students are provided with picture cards of different places. They cover the picture cards up and draw a card. They perform the Q&A sequence: pick a picture, ask “Where am I?”
Task 1 “What Can I See?” (Cover, Read and Say)
- Students are provided with animal picture cards. They cover the picture cards up and draw a card.
They perform the Q&A sequence: pick a picture, ask “What can I see?”, and give an answer according to the picture and say “I can see a (the name of the animal)”.
Task 2
- Students are given a set of toys. They listen to teacher’s instructions and place the toy in the correct location.
Post-task (photo caption on speaking)
- Students are shown some pictures. They recycle the sentence structures that they have learnt to present where the animal is in the picture verbally.
Pre-task (photo caption on shared-writing)
- All students to look at a picture, and the whole class fills in the name of the animal and the correct prepositions/prepositional phrases.
Main task (“My dream park”)
- Students are going to design their dream park with some props. They work in groups and rearrange the animals in different locations within the dream park model. They will introduce their dream park to the whole class.
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The following table suggests a sequence of tasks and exercises in teaching the module “The World Around Us”.
Lesson Task/Activity
1st Warm Up (10 minutes)
- Show students four picture cards of different places (places at school and in Hong Kong).
- Solicit the names of the four target places (i.e. ) from students.
Pre-task “Where am I?” (10 minutes) - Cover those picture cards on a desk
- Teacher demonstrate the Q&A sequence: pick a picture, ask “Where am I?”, and give an answer according to the picture
- Students associate the question word “where” to locations by doing the Q&A sequence several times with different students.
Task 1 “What can I see?” (Cover, Read and Say) Part 1 (10 minutes)
- Show students six picture cards about different animals.
- Elicit from students their knowledge/ learn some names of animals Part 2 (20 minutes)
- Cover those animal picture cards on a desk
- Teacher demonstrates the Q&A sequence*: pick a picture, ask “What can I see?”, and give an answer according to the picture and say “I can see a (the name of the animal)”.
- Invite students to do the above Q&A sequence.
- Give less able students some animals that they are familiar with to choose from and allow them to answer with single word, i.e. “(the name of the animal)”; for more able students, encourage them to answer with a sentence “I can see (the name of the animal)”.
Note:
*Teacher should demonstrate the Q&A sequence in complete sentences.
2nd Task 2
Part 1 Warm Up (15 minutes)
- Teacher shows a toy duck and a chair figure to the students.
- Teacher places the duck under/in front of/ behind the chair figure, and say “The duck is under/in front of/ behind the chair.”
- change the location of the toy duck to introduce the following prepositions and prepositional phrases: under, in front of and behind
- Ask a few students to come out and listen to teacher’s instructions.
- Students put the toy duck in different locations (under/in front of/ behind) according to the teacher’s instructions.
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Lesson Task/Activity
Part 2 Listening task (Individual work) (15 minutes) - Each student is given a toy duck and a chair figure.
- The teacher gives students instructions, e.g. “The duck is under/in front of/ behind the chair.”
- Students listen to the teacher’s instructions and place the duck to the correct location.
Post-task (whole class) (20 minutes)
- Teacher shows six pictures of some animals in different locations.
- Teacher demonstrates the Q&A sequence: ask the question “Where is the panda? (can be replaced with different animals)” and answer “The panda is under the desk”.
- Invite a student to look at a picture and listen to the question
- Elicit student’s verbal responses with the target prepositions and prepositional phrases.
- Allow less able students to answer with a phrase, i.e. “under/in front of/ behind the chair”; for more able students, encourage them to answer with a complete sentence.
3rd Photo caption (shared-writing) (20 minutes)
- Teacher shows four pictures about having some animals in different locations.
- Teacher demonstrates how to write a photo caption, e.g. “The panda is under a tree”.
- Invite a student to look at a picture, and help the whole class to fill in the name of the animal and the correct prepositions/prepositional phrases.
Main task (recycling the sentence structure) Design “My dream park” (25-35minutes)
- Teacher introduces some props (e.g. animal dolls, a fake tree, a toy umbrella and a toy bridge) for students to design their dream park.
- Students are divided into groups (in a group of 4 with mixed ability). Teacher invites students to sit at the front of the classroom.
- Each group will come out and rearrange the props to design their dream park. They will be given time to present their dream park with the sentence structure, e.g. “The (animal) is (under/in front of/ behind )the (tree/umbrella/bridge)
