My sea creature

• Explain that you will describe some animals. Learners must listen and guess the name of the animal. Learners may not know the names of the animals in English. If so, teach the names of the animals as you play the game.
• If you like, you could divide the class into teams to add an element of competition. Award points to the team which guesses first.
• Describe all or any of these animals. Adapt the descriptions if necessary, and mime or draw unfamiliar vocabulary to help learners understand. Add more sea animals if appropriate:
  - It’s big or small. It eats fish. It’s got eight arms. It can hide in small places. (an octopus).
  - This animal is very, very big. It’s got a big head, and it shoots water from a spout at the top. (a whale)
  - This animal is a very small fish. It’s got a head like a horse and a long tail. It wraps its tail around plants under the sea. It can’t swim very fast. (a seahorse)
  - This animal has got a long body and a hard shell. It’s got eight legs and two big claws at the front. It hides in rocks. (a lobster)
  - It’s big. It’s grey and white. It’s got a big mouth and big teeth. It can swim very fast. (a shark)
  - It’s big or small. It’s got a soft body. It’s got eight arms, but it isn’t an octopus. It’s also got two tentacles. (a squid)
  - This animal is big or small. It’s very soft. It’s got long tentacles, and it floats in the water. You can see through it. (a jellyfish)
  - This animal is quite small. It hasn’t got a head. It’s got five legs. It moves on the bottom of the sea. (a starfish)
  - This animal is quite big. It’s got two fins on its side and a fin on its back. It isn’t a whale! It’s very intelligent and it can talk to other animals. (a dolphin)
  - It’s big or small. It’s got claws. Its eyes are above its body. It usually walks sideways. (a crab)
• Ask learners if they can remember the names of the animals. If necessary, write them on the board. Ask them to guess what today’s lesson is about – sea animals, or sea creatures.

• Option 1 (using the presentation): Show slide 3 of the presentation. Ask learners to say which animal each picture is. Ask them how they know and elicit teach the words for the different body parts e.g. It’s an octopus because it’s got eight arms. It’s a whale because it’s got a blowhole.
• Show slide 4 of the presentation. Ask questions about the pictures to review body parts e.g. What’s on the top of the whale’s head? Is the lobster’s shell hard or soft?
• Then write useful phrases and new words on the board e.g. a head like a ..., long arms, a blowhole, a tail, a hard shell, a soft body, a claw, teeth, tentacles, a fin ... on its head / back. Check that everyone understands the words and phrases. Say the words and have learners repeat them to practise pronunciation. Ask learners to write new words and phrases in their notebooks.
• Option 2 (without the presentation): Divide learners into large teams. Nominate one learner from each team to stand in front of the board. Tell them to physically turn away from the board and face the class.
• Write the name of one of the animals on the board e.g. a crab. Make sure that the team members in front of the board don’t look round. The rest of the class must describe the animal e.g. It’s got ten legs. It’s got claws.
• Help learners with new words. They can also use mime if they need to (e.g. they can mime claws opening and closing). The first team member to say the name of the animal wins a point for their team
• Continue with more sea animals, changing the team members at the front of the class. The team with the most points at the end wins.
• When the game is finished, review animal body parts. Write useful phrases and new words on the board e.g. a head like a ..., long arms, a blowhole, a tail, a hard shell, a soft body, a claw, teeth, tentacles, a fin ... on its head / back. Check that everyone understands the words and phrases. Say the words and have learners repeat them to practise pronunciation

• Show slide 5 of the presentation or write the word ‘jell-octo-crab’ on the board. Tell learners you’ve just heard about this new sea animal, but you haven’t seen a picture of it yet. What do they think it looks like? Elicit some ideas. It’s great if the learners make some assumptions based on the name of the animal but not essential.
• Ask learners to describe the animal and draw it on the left-hand side of the board. Encourage them to use words and phrases from the lesson so far e.g. It’s got eight claws etc. Ask questions as you draw e.g. Is it big or small? Where are the claws? Are the tentacles long or short?
• Depending on the level of your learners, write the beginnings of some or all of
  these sentences on the right-hand side of the board:
  It's ...
  It’s got ...
  It hasn’t got ...
  It eats ...
  It doesn’t eat ...
  It can ...
  It can’t ...
• Ask learners to give suggestions for the endings of the sentences e.g. It’s big. It’s blue. It’s got eight claws on its body. It hasn’t got a head. It eats fish. It doesn’t eat plants. It can hide in rocks. It can’t swim fast. This models the framework or worksheets which learners will use in the next stage of the lesson.
• If you can, you could display slide 7 of the presentation for learners to refer to during the next stage of the lesson. 
   

• Give each learner a piece of paper. Tell learners that they should invent a new sea creature. They should write the name of the animal at the top of the paper and then draw a picture below it. At the bottom of the paper, they should write some sentences about the animal using any or all of the examples on the board, depending on their level. Higher-level learners can add more sentences.
• Alternatively, you could give a copy of Student Worksheet A (for lower-level learners) or Worksheet B (for higher-level learners) to each class member.
• Walk around the room as learners work / complete the worksheet and guide and help as necessary. Early finishers could colour their pictures and / or label the body parts. 

• Organise learners into groups. Learners present their sea creatures to others inthe group. Walk around and listen as they present. You could invite some learners to present their sea creatures to the class. 

Learners make a larger version of their invented sea creatures on card. They cut them out and add a description underneath. Stick the sea creatures on a wall or window to make an ‘Under the sea’ display.