Animal Top Trumps by Andrew Scully

Transcription

1 Animal Top Trumps by Andrew Scully Skills: Reading, writing, listening, speaking Grammar: Comparatives and superlatives Vocabulary: Animals Level: Elementary to pre-intermediate Age group: Children (high level) and teenagers Materials: Worksheet, Worksheet, animal cards and The Rules Time: hr 0 Preparation:. Make one copy of Worksheet and one copy of Worksheet for every student or pair of students.. Print and cut up one set of cards for each group. Put students into groups of three, allowing the 0 ready-made cards to be divided equally. For different sized groups, remove cards or create more using the spares.. Make one copy of The Rules for each group. Suggested procedure: Step one: As a warm-up, play a guessing game with six animals. Divide the class into two teams. Ask the students to guess what you are drawing. Slowly draw a mouse on the board. Award one point to the team that guesses first. Continue the game by drawing five more pictures: an elephant, a lion, a monkey, a cow and a pig. As students get the answers, add the names of the animals to the board as well. Estimated time: minutes Alternatively, consider printing pictures from the Internet of the six animals, cut them up and get the students to put the pieces back together like a jigsaw. To make it more challenging, remove one piece (I suggest the central piece) from each jigsaw before you hand them out. See which team can guess the animal quickest and then write the names of the animals on the board. (0 minutes) Step two: Ask students if they can think of any more animals and get quick class feedback. Once students are warmed up, explain that you have a sheet with lots of pictures of animals on it. Put the students into pairs and ask them to name as many of them as they can. Set a time limit (about minutes). Hand out one copy of Worksheet to each pair. As the students are trying to name the animals, monitor to see which ones are causing difficulty. Write these on the board. After the time is up, draw the students attention to the animal names you have collected on the board. Ask questions about each animal to check understanding. For example: How do you say this word? Where does this animal live? Can it fly? Does it eat meat? Is this animal big or small? Is this animal tall or short? Is this animal fast or slow? Is this animal strong? Estimated time: minutes Step three: The students should by now have named many, if not all, of the animals on Worksheet. At this stage, play a quick game of animal bingo to consolidate understanding and highlight any problems: Write numbers 0 on the board. Students remain in their teams. Explain to the class that they cannot answer a question unless they slap their table first to make a noise (like a buzzer). Next, call a number from 0 at random. The students must search their worksheets for the animal, slap their desk and call out its name. Award one point to the quickest team with the right answer. Correct pronunciation errors and note down any words which cause students difficulty so that you can drill them with the class after the test. Macmillan Publishers Ltd 00

2 Answer key:. frog. gorilla. pig. spider. rabbit. bird. shark. kangaroo 0. chimpanzee. elephant. lion. cow. giraffe. dolphin. horse. tortoise 0. hippopotamus. panda. caterpillar. goat. bat. rhinoceros. bear. cheetah. butterfly. sheep. snake. snail. worm 0. fly Estimated time: minutes Step four: In order to prepare the students for the card game it is important that you preteach / concept check the following adjectives and corresponding nouns: intelligent / clever strong fast aggressive / fierce beautiful / pretty big / large intelligence strength speed aggression beauty size Put these on the board as a point of reference for the students. Draw the students attention back to the six animals you started with: the mouse, the elephant, the lion, the monkey, the cow and the pig. Ask the students questions which test their understanding of comparatives as well as the target adjectives. For example: Which is bigger? The elephant or the mouse? Which is faster? The monkey or the lion? Which is more beautiful? The lion or the pig? Which is stronger? The cow or the mouse? Which is more intelligent? The monkey or the cow? Which is more aggressive? The lion or the elephant? Mime and use hand gestures where necessary, or offer synonyms. It is likely that intelligent and aggressive will be unfamiliar to some students, so consider giving them a synonym, such as clever, and perhaps scrunch your face and growl to convey aggression. Next, get students to arrange the six animals along six scales from the least to the most, in terms of attributes (e.g. smallest to biggest for size). Do the first one on the board with the class. For example: : Mouse / monkey / pig / lion / cow / elephant The students then do the same with intelligence, strength, speed, aggression and beauty. When you have finished, go through the results, emphasizing the superlative e.g. the elephant is the biggest / largest, the monkey is the most intelligent, the lion is the most aggressive, etc. Estimated time: minutes Step five: Use Worksheet as a consolidation exercise. Hand out one to each student or pair. As they are working, monitor closely to ensure understanding and accuracy. Ask early finishers to write new sentences, using their own adjectives. Once the majority have completed the exercise, get some quick feedback from the class on the answers. Judge for yourself whether or not you need to go through the worksheet answer by answer. Bear in mind that students may lose interest if they feel this procedure is tedious and unnecessary. Estimated time: minutes Macmillan Publishers Ltd 00

3 Step six: The students are going to play a card game based on Top Trumps. If possible, divide the class into groups of three. Number the students in each group,, or : this is the order of play. Before you hand out the cards, it can help to demonstrate the game with two student volunteers. Otherwise, if you feel the students are capable, give them a copy of The Rules and let them work it out for themselves. Students may find it difficult at first so it is crucial that you circulate actively to ensure they are all on track. Make sure you know how to play the game yourself! (See sheet marked The Rules.) Each group should have one set of cards and one copy of The Rules. Once play is underway, monitor to make sure that students are speaking and using comparatives and superlatives accurately. Encourage peer correction. This game should help to solidify students knowledge of the names of the animals as well so listen out for these and correct pronunciation where appropriate. You can let the game run for as long as time or interest allows. Estimated time: 0 minutes Step seven: Finish the lesson by going around the groups to find out who has the most cards. You might want to ask the winner what team they are on and add a point to their team s overall score. Estimated time: minutes Variations on the game: There are other ways that the game could be played, although it is best to keep the rules as simple as possible. Play with fewer cards or add more of your own. There are six spare cards, which can be used to make the game more fun. Students may enjoy making a card of themselves whereby they draw their own picture in the space and give themselves statistics. To prevent them from awarding themselves superhuman abilities, put a limit on the sum total of their statistics (say 0, with a maximum of for each category). If you decide to do this, it is recommended that you first explain the idea as clearly as possible using a model on the board. Enthusiastic teachers might also like to create their own cards and photocopy them to add to the packs. I used the following: Tyrannosaurus rex The sheep with two heads Bruce Lee Albert Einstein The teacher Give them statistics by estimating their abilities relatively (e.g. the sheep with two heads has higher intelligence than the (average) sheep, the teacher has more intelligence than the chimpanzee, and Einstein has the highest intelligence possible ()). N.B. the statistics for the animal cards have been estimated in exactly this way. They do not represent a precise comparison. Macmillan Publishers Ltd 00

4 Name as many of these animals as possible. Worksheet ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... 0)... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... 0).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... ).... 0).... Macmillan Publishers Ltd 00

5 Worksheet Answer the questions and complete the gaps. EXAMPLE: Which are bigger? A cows B dogs Cows are bigger than dogs. INTELLIGENCE Which do you think are more intelligent? A pigs B flies are more intelligent than. Which do you think is the most intelligent animal of the three? A a rabbit B a horse C a chimpanzee The is the most intelligent. STRENGTH Which are stronger? A elephants B sheep Elephants are than. Which is the strongest animal of the three? A a bird B a rhinoceros C a goat The is the. SPEED Which are faster? A giraffes B snails are not as fast as. Which is the fastest animal of the three? A a cheetah B a gorilla C a bear The is the. AGGRESSION Which are more aggressive? A worms B snakes are than. Which is the most aggressive of the three? A a shark B a frog C a dolphin The. BEAUTY Which do you think are more beautiful? A cows B butterflies are than. Which do you think is the most beautiful of the three? A a bat B a hippopotamus C a panda The. SIZE Which are bigger? A caterpillars B kangaroos are smaller than. Which is the largest animal of the three? A a tortoise B a lion C a spider The. Macmillan Publishers Ltd 00

6 ANIMAL CARD GAME THE RULES ( players) Divide the cards equally between the players. Each player has a pile of cards face down on the table. All players look at their top card but KEEP IT SECRET. Player ONE starts. Example: Player has the dog. The dog has high intelligence so player chooses this. Player shows her card and says: The dog. eight. Player Player The dog Player looks at his card. He has the mouse with intelligence. Player shows his card and says: The mouse has intelligence four. The mouse is not as intelligent as the dog. Player Player has the monkey with intelligence. Player shows his card and says: The monkey is more intelligent than the mouse and the dog. The monkey is the most intelligent. Player wins the round! He takes all three cards (the dog, the mouse and the monkey) and puts them at the bottom of his pile. Now player starts because he won the round. He takes the next card from the top of his pile and chooses a new number / category to play with. A player wins the game when they have ALL the cards from ALL the players. Macmillan Publishers Ltd 00