ANIMALS

Amazing Animals

María Celia Da Rosa

Animals are of great interest to all students. 

In many cultures animals are not studied in school until biology is introduced. 

Your English language learners will be engrossed by the material and will acquire information that is both new and compelling.

This lesson is for K5 to 6th grade and all beginning ESL students. 

Lesson topic

Animals

Proficiency/Grade level

Beginners

Advanced Beginners in grades K-5 to 6th

Content Concepts & Skills

Animal vocabulary; the food chain

Vocabulary needed

Names of the most comman zoo and farm animals;jungle;

 walk, run, swim, fly, crawl, hop, and climb

Materials or Resources

Pictures of a large number of animals from different classes; pictures of animal body parts and skin coverings; well illustrated books with pictures of animals in them

Instructional Sequence for K-1 students and beginners in all grades

1. Teach the vocabulary for animal names.

• Say the name of each animal as you point to a picture.
• You can also introduce animal names through Usborne's First Thousand Words. .
• Ask students to point to the correct pictures as you name the animals.
• For those students who seem ready, indicate an item and ask, "What is this?"
• Provide students with a second set of animal pictures or cards. Have them use the cards to make flash cards and play concentration games.
• Encourage students to color the pictures using a picture dictionary or encyclopedia to find realistic colors. You may wish to have students keep these pages in their folder so that they are readily available when they are completing the other animal activities in this unit.

2. Teach students to sort and classify information.

 Review the words walk, run, swim, fly, crawl , hop, and climb. 

If students are ready, provide a model question/answer conversation starter. Begin with "Can a lion fly?" Beginning students may respond with "No." When they are ready, have newcomers respond to embedded questions such as "Does a lion run or fly."

3.Give students a variety of experiences with animals by reading books to them on different animals.

 As you read each book, discuss what different animals eat. Use the term meat-eater, plant-eater, omnivore, herbivore, carnivore appropriate to the age and language level of your students.

4. Once students have learned the names of various animals, have students categorize animals in the following ways:

• according to how they move: fly, swim, hop/jump or run/walk/crawl (students can do this using pictures to sort animals in various categories).
• zoo or farm animals
• according to habitat
• according to their covering: fur/feathers/skin
• according to what they eat: plants, other animals, both

5. For some students. They are lots of fun and students really learn. 

 Have students learn the life cycle of a frog with Frog on a Log. As a follow-up activity, help students to write an accordian book about the life cycle of a frog. 

6. Teach the food chain by cutting out five strips of contruction paper for each student in your class. Have students illustrate and write four steps in the food chain: The sun makes plants grow; a rabbit eats the plant; a snakes eats the rabbit; a hawk eats the snake. Write a title on one of the strips. Put the strips together like a paper chain. Have students practice saying each step of the chain.

7. Use Venn diagrams or other types of charts to have students compare animals in different ways.