My grandfriend

• Display the Student Worksheet by projecting it onto the board or showing it on a digital board. Alternatively give a copy of the Student Worksheet to learners, either individually or in pairs/small groups.
• Point to the pictures of Jan, Bob and Pam and explain that they are somebody’s grandfriends. Explain that a grandfriend is a friend who is older, such as a grandparent, a great aunt or uncle, a neighbour or family friend.
• Ask children for a show of hands: Have they got a grandfriend? Ask: Where does she/he live? Does she live in a house or a flat? Has he got a pet? What’s his favourite food? What does she like doing?

Note: Learners may talk about anyone from another generation, e.g., an aunt or uncle or family friend who may not be that old – the point is we’re talking about friends who aren’t the same age as we are.

• Point to the picture of Jan on the board. Ask: What’s her/his name? Explain that you will describe Jan. They must listen carefully and decide:
  • 1. Does she live in a flat, a house in a town, a big house in the mountains or a small house in the woods?
  • 2. Does she have a pet fish, cat, dog or horse?
  • 3. Is her favourite food pizza, fish and chips, fruit and vegetables or salad?
  • 4. Does she like cooking, fishing, cycling or painting?
• Read the sentences below about Jan aloud. Pause after each sentence for learners to say the answers.
  This is my grandfriend, Jan. She lives in a big house in the mountains. She’s got a pet horse. Jan’s favourite food is fish and chips. She likes cooking.
  Answers: 1c, 2d, 3b, 4a
• Repeat the steps with the descriptions of Bob and Pam. Learners mark the answers (a, b, c, or d) in their notebooks or on the worksheets.
  Here’s my friend Bob. He lives in a flat in a big city. He’s got a pet cat. His favourite food is salad. He likes fishing.
  Answers: 1a, 2b, 3d, 4b  
  This is Pam. She lives in a house in a town. She’s got a pet dog. She likes eating fruit and vegetables. She likes painting.
  Answers: 1b, 2c, 3c, 4d

• Play a game. Ask learners to repeat the grandfriends’ descriptions from memory, using the pictures on the board or in the worksheet to help them. With stronger classes, you could take the pictures away to make it more challenging.
• Display the ‘My Grandfriend’ template on the board or draw it yourself. Make an example grandfriend with the class using the template: it could be a grandmother, great uncle, a neighbour or an invented person.
• Draw a picture of the person in the portrait square and write their name. In box 1, draw a picture of where they live; in box 2 a picture of a pet (if they have one); in box 3 a picture of their favourite food; and in box 4, a picture of what they like doing. Describe the person as you draw, or ask learners to give ideas.
• Now it’s your learners’ turn to invent a grandfriend, or to describe a grandparent or an older person they know. 
• Give each learner their own template, or get them to copy the template from the board onto paper or in their notebooks.
• Display the Student Worksheet again to help learners choose answers to complete their templates. These are only examples and if learners are describing a real person, they will want to draw their own pictures and may need some help with new vocabulary. They can invent if they are not sure. Early finishers could colour their pictures.
• Learners present their grandfriends to the class or to other classmates in groups.

• Ask learners if they can remember information about another learner’s grandfriend.
• You may want to collect the work to display.

• You could ask learners to write about their grandfriends after they have spoken about them. This could be set for homework.