Spot's Birthday Party

Spot the dog likes to play hide and seek. Together we are going to find all his friends who have hidden themselves around the house.

Spot's Birthday Party by Eric Hill

Topic: Zoo animals, prepositions of place and household furniture.

Age: 3 (maybe even younger if you're group is small enough) - 6. At six this book becomes a hard sell as it has a very simple story.

Vocabulary: Animals (Dog, crocodile, bear, snake, hippo, penguin, lion, monkey, tortoise). Furniture (mat, curtain, cupboard, bath, coat/jacket, table, plant, door, cushion- I will be using the easier second options). Prepositions of place (in, under, behind).

Optional: Count numbers 1-10 as spot prepares to play Hide and Seek and sing Happy Birthday to Spot at the end of the story.

Procedure:

• Sing your hello song in the style of one of the animals of the story or anyway you like if that is testing your acting and singing skills!

• For the first lesson it is probably best to start by reviewing or teaching the zoo animals (in my case only tortoise and hippo will be new words). Mime the animals. Elicit the animals and play some flash card games. I would introduce the furniture in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th lessons if the are confident with the animals.

• Gather interest in L1 by asking who has played/likes playing Hide and Seek. How many far do they count up to?

• Read the story slowly and give them plenty of time to guess from the clues what type of animal is hidden away before revealing it. Start using gestures as you say the prepositions to help convey meaning and draw their attention to the words. At the end of the story elicit all the animals they can see on the last page and count them and look at the colours if you wish to review other language. You could also sing happy birthday to Spot, asking the children to be the different animals as they sing!

• Individual activities at the table time: ask them to draw Spot's birthday cake and with all the animals from the party on it.

• Bring them back to the circle or front of the classroom and chant the prepositions with gestures. Then test them. When they seem more confident reward them with the next step.

• Video time... Find the animated video of the story on Youtube.

 Extensions:
 
Funwithspot.com  seems like a good place to start. There is a whole section of downloadable party materials. You can print off invitations and get the children to write their names and then hold a 'party.' There are colouring sheets and even a Spot party hat craft (which is the only one I seem to be able to actually access).

Many more Spot colouring pages HERE.

If you are using the book to teach animals then there are many many animal crafts and worksheets  out there!

 Spot Goes To School could also appeal.

For prepositions...

In On Under song

http://www.eslkidstuff.com/Worksheets/inonunder.gif