Age range: 11- adult
Theme: Pets
Lexical area: Animals

Instructions for language assistants in Italics

Classroom materials

Introduction
This lesson is about pets and some tasks are suitable for very low levels. Task 1 is a simple vocabulary game and Task 2 is a class survey about pets which can be adapted depending on the level. Task 3 is a role play situation between a parent and their son/daughter who desperately wants a pet and Task 4 is a reading text about the fashion of having a small dog as an accessory. Task 5 offers a selection of simple word games and the Task 6 is based on discussion statements about dogs.



1. Animal word snake
Start a word snake on the board using animals. To continue the snake you must use the last letter of the following word. For example:

CAT – TIGER – RABBIT – TURTLE – ELEPHANT – etc. etc.

Then get the students to group the animals according to habitat. Draw some big circles on the board labelled, FARM, ZOO, WILD, HOME etc. and ask students where they’d be most likely to see these animals. From here, look at the HOME circle and ask your students the name for animals we keep at home, to introduce the word PETS and the topic for today.

Task 1 Animal word snake
Continue the animal word snake your teacher puts on the board.



2. Pets – class survey
This is a simple speaking activity for low levels. Put the table on the board for students to copy and demonstrate with a couple of students. Ask them, ‘have you got a pet?’ and then ask a follow up question. For students who haven’t got a pet, ask them ‘would you like to have a pet? If so, what pet would you like?’ or ‘have you ever had a pet?’ Even students who say no should have some extra information. For students who do have pets the follow up questions can be, ‘what’s its name?’ or ‘how old is it?’ For very low levels leave these questions written up on the board to support the students throughout. When students have the idea, get them all to stand up and walk around the room to carry out the survey. When they have finished, ask them to put the results into a bar chart or a pie chart. Put an example of these types of charts on the board to give them the idea. When all students have the chart representing their results ask them to write a little paragraph summarising their findings or they can do this orally.

For higher levels, make the task more challenging by asking them to find out any funny stories about pets. Most children have some tales to tell about having pets.

Task 2 Pets – class survey
You are going to do a class survey to find out what type of pets your classmates have. Keep a note of their answers and put the results in a bar chart.

3. Can I have a pet? Role play
This is a simple role play task but students will need to be given the time and support to prepare it well. Either you or your students can decide on the pets in question and fill in the blanks. Obviously each pair of students need the same pet in the gap! You could have fun with this by putting a few unusual pets in the gaps. Monitor the pairs carefully as they are preparing and be available to feed in the language they need. Write new language on the board to support them. When students have had enough time to prepare and practise, ask a few pairs to do their role play for the group.

Task 3 Can I have a pet? Role play

4. Puppy love – Reading task
This is a reading task for higher levels about the trend of having dogs as a type of fashion accessory! On a recent trip to London I actually picked up a dog jacket in a normal clothing shop thinking it would be a good present for a friend’s new baby! The assistant pointed out that it was in fact for a dog! The fact that clothing for small dogs is now in the normal stores shows that this trend has really taken off.

• Put students into groups of four to read the text together. Give each student a number, 1 to 4, and they should read just that paragraph and then tell the rest of the group about it.
• To give students some visual support for understanding the article, download a few photos of celebrities with their pampered dogs. You will find some good ones here: http://pets.aol.com/galleries/celebrity#

Task 4 Puppy love – Reading task
Work in groups of four. Read a paragraph each then tell your group about it.

5. Pet pictionary / bingo / guess the pet…
For these games you can either use the word cards below or you could make your own. For younger learners you could download the flashcards from the British Council Learn English Kids website and use them instead. There are colourful flashcards for both zoo animals and sea animals. All the downloadable flashcards can be found here:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-flashcards.htm

Activities related to the topics can be found here:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-zoos.htm

http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-sea-animals.htm

Pictionary – divide your group in two teams and get one member of each team up to the board to be the ‘artist’. Divide the board in two and give each artist a word card or a flash card. They must draw the animal for their team to guess what it is. First team to guess correctly wins a point.

Bingo – Get students to draw a three x two square bingo board adn write six animals in it from the flashcards or word cards you are using. Randomly pick out animals and students cross them off when they hear them. The first to cross all out calls ‘bingo’ and takes the role of bingo caller for the next round. For higher levels, instead of calling out the name of the animal, describe it instead!

Guess the pet – Put students in pairs and give each pair a bunch of word cards or flashcards. Set a time limit of one minute for students to define as many as they can for their partner to guess in one minute. The winning pair has guessed the most correctly from their partner’s definitions.

Task 5 Pet pictionary / bingo / guess the pet…

6. Dog discussion
Cut up the strips of discussion statements and use them either in small groups or for a whole class disucssion. Add some more statements to personalise the topic to where you live depending on the general attitude towards dogs.

Task 6 Dog discussion

Internet links
http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Nation-of-Dog-Lovers? Are we really a nation of dog lovers?
http://www.canineconcepts.co.uk Check out the clothes and boots for dogs!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1 It's a dog's life for pampered pets. This is quite an old article but has some good pictures of pampered pets and the information is still relevant.
http://uk.tickle.com/test/dog.html What breed of dog are you? This is a fun quiz to take if you have a few spare minutes.
http://www.dogshome.org/ Battersea Dogs & Cats Home has been rescuing Britain’s abandoned dogs since 1860.
http://www.petplace.com/reptiles/ This site lists the top ten unusual pets. This site will give you some ideas for pets to put in the gaps in Task 3.

By Jo Budden