Investigating insects – part 2

• To review the insects from the previous lesson, take out the picture flashcards and slowly reveal each picture to the class one by one, inviting learners to call out the name of the insect when they know it. Ask them to raise their hands before calling out if you prefer a quieter, more controlled atmosphere, and that way you can also nominate different learners to reveal the insect each time.
• As each insect is guessed and named, place it on the board, and when all the cards are on the board, play a version of Kim's memory game. Tell learners to look at all the cards and try to remember them. Then tell them to close their eyes while you remove one card from the board. When they open their eyes and spot the insect that's missing, they put up their hand and call it out. 

Note: If you want to make this activity more physical, you could invite ten learners to stand at the front of the class, each holding an insect card facing the class. When the rest of the class close their eyes, one person with an insect card turns around. As soon as you say Open your eyes, the class has to guess which one has gone. The child who guesses correctly can then take a turn at holding a card. 

Note: To prepare for this activity, you will need to stick all the fact cards around the classroom for the children to find. There are nine insects in total and four facts for each insect, so if you have a very large class (more than 36 learners), you will need to duplicate some of the cards. 

• Divide the class into small groups of three or four and give each group a different insect picture card from the insect profile cards.
• Tell learners that around the room there are cards with information about different insects. In their groups, they have to read the cards to find four facts that are true for their insect, and then they take the cards back to their tables. For example, if they have the spider, they will need to find the following information: It has eight legs. / It is black. / It can't fly. / It can make a web.

Note: Before starting the activity, give a clear demonstration with a strong learner of how they should exchange information and what to do if they have the same or different animal cards. Some weaker learners may need help to read the information on their cards. 

Answers

Butterfly – It has four wings. / It has two antennae. / It can fly. / It has many different colours. 

Ant – It is black. / It has three body parts. / It has two antennae. / It has six legs. 

Bee – It is black and yellow. / It has six legs. / It has two wings. / It can fly. 

Mosquito – It can fly. / It has six long legs. / It has two wings. / It can bite. 

Grasshopper – It is green. / It can jump. / It has long antennae. / It has wings.  

Ladybird – It is red. / It has black spots. / It has six legs. / It can fly. 

Caterpillar – It has a long body. / It eats leaves. / It has 12 eyes. / It changes into a butterfly. 

Beetle – It has two antennae. / It has three body parts. / It has six legs. / It has wings. 

• Monitor the groups as they go round the class looking for their facts. Learners should be familiar with the anatomy vocabulary from the previous lesson, but may need help with one or two lexical items such as 'leaves' or 'bite'. Or you may wish to pre-teach these words at the start of the activity.
• At the end of the activity, each group should return to their table with four fact cards that correspond with their picture. 

Note: There are some general facts that correspond to lots of the insects, e.g. It has wings or It has six legs, so remind learners that they only need to find four facts for their insects. Be aware that some information may need to be swapped with other groups at the end of the activity. 

• Give each group an A3-sized piece of paper or card and some coloured pens or pencils and tell them they are going to create a poster to describe their insect. Their poster should include a large drawing of the insect, its name and at least four facts about it that they found in the previous activity.
• Fast finishers can label the different body parts of their insect and/or add one more interesting fact about it to the poster. 

• As each group finishes, their posters can be displayed around the room for everyone to see. Invite the children to go and look at all the posters and decide on their favourite insect.
• Write I like the _____ best because ... on the board and drill the pronunciation with different insects. Divide the class into pairs and ask learners to use the same structure to tell their partner which their favourite insect is and why. Encourage them to use some of the language taught in the lesson by modelling phrases like: I like the ladybird best because it has black spots or I like the spider best because it has eight legs!

• Student worksheet – learners read short texts about different insects and then write the name of the one they think it describes. Then they try writing a short description themselves for a classmate to guess in the next class.
• In the next class, you could get the learners to conduct a class survey to find out which insect is the most/least popular. It would be much more community-focused if they could ask learners from a different class. They prepare a survey form with all the insects and the names of everyone in the class, and they can use the posters that they created in this lesson as a resource to help the learners from a different class identify the insects. This way, the learners are supporting each other.

Note: You can find more lesson ideas on this topic from Griselda Beacon's webinar: The different languages of CLIL: Language use in the CLIL classroom