ANIMALS LIVE WITH US

                             

• Título de la unidad, a quién va dirigida (curso, nivel, materia).
  

TITLE: ANIMALS LIVE WITH US

AGE: This lesson is intended for pupils in the 5th school year of Primary Education (between 10-11 years old).

SUBJECT: Natural Sciences 

• Introducción general

Our session is designed for a group of 27 students. In general, we can say that our students do not have problems with the learning of English. Regarding their educative level, our pupils are of mixed-abilities; although we can consider that any group of students is mixed-ability to some extent. Considering their social development, the group is quite well joined, without any kind of discrimination. They are restless children, full of energy, and who do not show any disruptive behaviour.

 

Our students do not reach the lowest level established in the Common European Framework of Reference; due to the fact that they are very young and they are not fluent enough to be measured with that kind of grid. However, our students have some previous knowledge as they have been learning English for at least 6 years. Besides, they are able to understand and produce familiar words and basic sentences related to the school context and their interests, such as expressing likes or dislikes, describing people or things, etc, asking for permission, etc; that is, they can communicate effectively in simple situations.

It is a well known fact that children love animals. That is the reason why this unit is focused on this topic, which is part of children's present reality and allow the teacher to lead them to a very important value: love and respect towards animals.

GOALS.

• To value the importance of the natural environment for human life.
  
• To classify animals in the correct category.
  
• To know and appreciate the abilities of animals.
  
• To show an attitude respect towards animals.
  
• To establish dialogues with the peers and the teacher using the vocabulary learned
  
• To use the vocabulary learned to describe pictures.
  
• To know morphological characteristics of animals and what they eat.
  
• To promote respect towards the rights of animals.

CONTENTS

• Knowledge of different kinds of animals.
  
• Vocabulary related with the topic of animals.
  
• Classification of animals: Mammals, birds, reptils, amphibians, fish, insects.
  
• Rules to respect Nature and its creatures.
  
• Oral comprehension and expression in the interactions with the classmates or the teacher.
  
• Simple sentences related to animals.
  
• Reading of a short story "Fox and the frogs" (about animals and the respect for Nature).
  

• Descripción pormenorizada de las sesiones de aplicación en el aula, de las actividades a realizar y de los recursos a trabajar.

SESION 1

1.      Introduce the main vocabulary with flashcards: http://www.science-teachers.com/taxonomy_flashcards.htm

2.      Game. For this activity, the teacher will use photos of different animals and its noises. We will put the photos on blackboard and we will say:"IMAGINE":

If you could be an animal, what would you be? Elephant, mouse, giraffe…

(Students will name an animal and they will go to the photo of this animal imitating its movement).

If you were an animal, where would you like to live?  In a tree, in the ocean…

(Students will build their houses. For example in a tree (stand on a chair), in the ocean (swim in the floor)…)

What animals noise would you like to make most? A lion's roar, an elephant's trumpet, a hyena's laugh, a monkey's screech…

(Students will produce an animal sound and they'll look for other boy or girl who reproduce the same sound)

3.      Read the text: Fox and the frogs.

FOX AND THE FROGS

It is a hot day. Fox is walking along the bank of a river when he sees a car. He stops to look and he sees a man walking from the car to the river bank. Fox cannot believe his big eyes: the man is dumping an ashtray full of cigarette butts on the water! Fox is horrified.

"I must teach him a lesson", thinks Fox, so he sends Bobby the clever dog with a short message for his friends the frogs. When the frogs arrive, Fox is hiding behind on olive tree with two birds.

The frogs jump into the water. They pick up the butts with help of the fish, and they jump back to the man's red car. The window is open, so they drop the butts through it. Then, helped by Fox and the dog, they collect the man's rubbish and drop it on top of the car. "That will teach him a lesson", Fox thinks.

The frogs and the dog say goodbye to Fox, who is under the olive tree watching the man. He is cleaning his car. He then packs all the rubbish and drives away in shock. "Yes", says Fox. "Take it home and try living with it!".

 

SESION 2

4.      Sing a song "Animals": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5qwOxlvyhk

5.      Watch a video related to animals: https://youtu.be/LyNtR8Y1HSU

6.      Listen the text: Fox and the frogs.

ACTIVITIES ABOUT THE TEXT

Activity 1: Answer the questions with the information of the text:

 

Which animals of the text are vertebrates?_________________________________

 

Which animals are mammals?____________________________________________

 

Which animals are amphibians? __________________________________________

 

 

SESION 3. (We continue at working with the text)

 

7.      Activity 2: Guessing game! Think of an animal. Don't tell anyone. Take turns asking and answering question with a partner.

 8.      Activity 3: Listen again!

For this activity the teacher will read the text in public. Then the students will hear the text with the CD. At the end, he or she will start to question to their students:

 

·  Which is the sound most repeated in the text? The sound /o/

 ·  Segmentation: How many sounds can you hear in "frogs"? I can listen five sounds: /frɒgz/

·  First sound isolation: What is the first sound you hear in "frogs"? It 's sound /f/

Can you find any other word in the text that starts by the same sound as "frogs"? In the text we can find the words: Fox, from, full, for, friends.

                       · Last sound isolation: What's the last sound you hear in tree?It's sound /i:/

                       · Blending: If I say, R-I-V-E-R, what word is it? It is "river"

                       · What other words can you find that sound like "d/o/g"? Dog, hot, fox,         frogs…

 

SESION 4:

 

9.      Activity 1

Students individually, will have to give written answers to the following questions:

•The text is called "Fox and the frogs" Can you give it a different name?

•What is the purpose of this text?

•Can you write three different sentences using "bank" with three different meanings? Example from the text: "…a man walking from the car to the river bank. "

 

10.  Activity 2

Students will be shown a visual input with different written words that are related to animals. We will ask them to look at the words and say if they can find any common sound in them and if so, which are those sounds? They will have to underline those common sounds. They are not expected to find all of them but some. They may also say what sounds are not related at all with the rest of the sounds shown in the other words. For this, we use the following material:

 

So we will continue working with sounds and enriching Phonemic awareness introducing the use of new technologies. We will work with: http://pbskids.org/superwhy/#/game/wonderredbingo

 

As this program has not been adapted for ESL students, but this activity not is really difficult for the students at this level (5th grade).

 

SESION 5

11.  Interactive game: http://englishflashgames.blogspot.com.es/2008/06/animals-memory-game.html

 12.  ACTIVITY: Brain storming of animals vocabulary.

In this activity the whole class takes part from it. The teacher starts with an open question: What kinds of animals do you know? Can you tell me words related to animals? With this activity, we can motivate children to show the class that they know many English words.

 

The teacher has to write down in the blackboard all the words that we are going to use in another activity, and make sure that all the students understand them.

 

We can to use some questions for activating previous knowledge as:

a)      What do you know about the classification of animals according to the way the reproduced?

b)      What do you know about the classification of animals according to the way animals eat?

c)      What do you know about the classification of animals according to the way of its skeleton?

d)      What clues does the title of the text give you?

e)      What do you think the story is about?

f)       What predictions can you make?

g)      What do you think the text will teach you?

 

SESION 6

13.  Activity 1:

Find the adjectives in the text bellow, underline them with red pencil and with the help of a dictionary find their opposites. After, compare your answers with your classmate. Then underline the nouns about animals with blue pencil.

 

14.  Activity 2:

Context Clues. Students will work vocabulary in context using the nouns from the previous activity.

	ACCORDING ITS SKELETON		ACCORDING THE WAY THEY ARE BORN		ACCORDING THE FOOD THEY EAT
	Vertebrates	Invertebrates	Viviparous	Oviparous	Herbivores	Carnivores	Omnivores
NOUNS OF ANIMALS

 

Now, Can you try to make two or three sentences as in the example? You can use the adjectives and its antonyms in the exercise one.

E.g: Man is the most clever animal.

 

SESION 7

15.  Activity True or false. With this activity, we will check the understanding of the text information. We will work with true/false questions.

 

Say if the following statements are true or false. Say why the false ones are false.

            T/ F      Herbivores only eat meat.

            T/ F      Reptiles are invertebrates.

            T/ F      Viviparous animals are born from eggs.

            T/ F      Lions are carnivores.

            T/ F      Fish are born from eggs.

16.  Writing Activity: We will ask them to re-write the story with a different end. First, students will complete the "Story Map"

 

SESION 9

17.   Activity:

Look at the transcriptions given. Use the dictionary key of phonetics if you have doubts. Find the word and complete the sentences with these words. After, write a definition for each word.

 

/ˈwɔːtə/

/ˈrɪvə/

/triː/

 

1. A ___________________ is a plant. Herbivores animals eat plants.

2. The __________________ is a natural stream of ___________ flowing in a definite course.

3. Fish live in the ___________.

 

18.  Activity: Read the text again and pay attention to the words that end in -s. It can be due to two reasons; if it is a 3rd person singular -s or if it is a plural -s. Go back to the text again and make two lists with each possibility. Complete this table:

 

Plural-s	3rd person singular –s

           

SESION 10

19.  Children make a poster about what they have learnt.

 

20.  Activity: What can you do? Cross X

SELF-ASSESSMENT Read and write a cross
I recognise words and expressions related to animals.
I can read texts about animals and plants and understand the important information.
I can talk about some of the characteristics of animals.
I can talk to my classmates about animals.
I can write sentences about the most important characteristics of animals.

 

• Enlaces a materiales que hayas elaborado con alguna de las herramientas propuestas y que sean accesibles online.

http://learningapps.org/display?v=pgde2o91k16

DOCUMENTO DEL PROYECTO FINAL COMPARTIDO EN GOOGLE DRIVE: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6VCgj_YB_tNSHkxYWZKMGJQS0U

                                                                                       Miguel A. Moreno