Dear Zoo

Dear Zoo is a firm family favourite that has recently celebrated 35 years of publishing. Small children love opening the flaps making it ideal for individual or small group lessons. For a bigger class it is a bit more of a challenge as the pages are fairly small, but the illustrations are nice and clear.

Topic: The narrator writes to the zoo in order to adopt a pet but the zoo keeps sending unsuitable animals.

Age: 1-5 (Yes, even one year olds will enjoy this book. I'm not sure how much English they will produce though!)

Vocabulary:

Zoo, pet, lion, elephant, giraffe, snake, monkey, frog, camel, puppy. 

Too big, too tall, too fierce (or substitute with dangerous), too grumpy, too scary, too naughty, too jumpy, perfect.

For phrases like "I sent him back" and "I kept him" I would mime the action and chunk it rather than teach the individual words.

Procedure:

• Get your students into their circle time positions and sing your Hello Song in the style of a snake, roar it like a lion or even in the style of a grumpy camel.
• Flashcard time: drill the animals in the story, you can choose whether to include puppy or not for the first reading. Sometimes it is nice to maintain an element of surprise. You can find flashcard game ideas HERE. If your students already know these animals then drill the adjectives instead, with flashcards or by miming.
• Interest gather by asking the students if they have any pets. What would their ideal pet be?
• Read the story, before opening the flaps elicit what animal is on the inside of the box. Encourage the students to repeat the phrases "He was too ..." and "I sent him back" after you. 
• Give the instructions for your 'table time' worksheet activity. For example, see if the students know which colours to colour the animals on the worksheet.

You can find the full colouring sheet on the publisher's website HERE.

• When the children have finished their colouring (fast finishers could draw and colour a few animals of their own on the back) get the children back into circle time and admire any particularly nicely coloured worksheets. 
• If the students have been good listeners there should be time to reward them with a video. Try this Zoo song by Super Simple Songs.

Extensions:

Test their memory with this worksheet.

HERE

Or this one...

From Sparklebox HERE

How about a, cut out and  order the animals in terms of size worksheet.

HERE

Or play Sleeping lions  - every teacher's favourite party game! Students must lie down and pretend to be sleeping lions. The first ones to move are eliminated. Another version of the game sees students lie down and sleep, they are given an animal, when the music plays they must wake up and be that animal, when it stops they must go to sleep again, then they are given a new animal.

Similar: This story could work well in conjunction with the following books: Dinosaur Roar, The Photo, Spot's Birthday Party, and Walking in the Jungle.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Topic: a naughty little girl goes for a walk in the woods and enters an empty home... I've chosen the Amanda Askew version of the classic fairytale (curiously not well known in Italy) as it is hardback and has large illustrations.

Amanda Askew version

Age: 3-7

Vocabulary: Goldilocks, bears, mummy, daddy, baby, forest, house, kitchen, bowl of porrige (I'm 'chunking' this one without explanations!), livingroom, chair, bedroom, bed, too hot, too cold, too hard, too soft, too big, just right. 

Procedure:

• Preteach those adjectives by asking them to sing your hello song softly and 'hard' and then whilst being hot and cold.
• Flashcard time: drill Goldilocks, bear, and the rooms and furniture. Recycle house and forest and the family if you think it is necessary.
• Read the story with plenty of actions, especially for the 'too hot.. too cold... just right' parts. Check understanding in L1 if necessary. On follow up readings you will need these actions for eliciting those non pre taught words during the flash card game.
• Table time! Ask the children to draw a picture that represents the story. It could include, a house, a forest and most importantly a little girl and 3 bears.
• Call the children back for circle time. You could review the family finger song.
•  Watch and sing the chorus of the video with actions. I'm a big fan of this series by Debbie and Friends.

Extensions:

This story is begging for a matching activity. Or they could draw the right bear in the right chair...

Found HERE

Found HERE

 Something like a sequencing sheet would be a good second lesson for the older kids to check understanding.

From Sparklebox

Dinosaur Roar

So unlike most of the books and stories we've been doing this year, today's post is actually about a poem. The children were disappointed that there wasn't going to be a plot, but then they got very hyper... because.... well, roaring dinosaurs everywhere!

Topic: All types of dinosaurs!

Age: 4-7

Vocabulary: Adjectives mainly (fierce, meek, fast slow, slimey, clean, tiny, fat, weak, strong, short, long, sweet, grumpy, spikey, lumpy) and some misc (roar, squeek, above, below) Plus the phrase "gobble, gobble, nibble, nibble, munch, munch, scrunch".

Procedure:

• Sing your hello song, fiercely, meekly, then roar and squeek it!
• Pre teach the words of the poem, through TPR. I suggest no more than six per lesson.
• Before you start warn the students that it isn't a story, but a poem.
• Open the book. I like to start by counting the dinosaurs on the inside of the cover. We count different colours each time, 'How many blue dinosaurs are there?'. I tell the poem and we count the tiny dinos on each double page spread. If you have pre-taught some of the adjectives then make sure you elicit them with the action as you go. I like to check they have understood any not yet pre-taught words, by looking at the pictures and asking them what they think it means in L1.
• Worksheet time! Try this lovely colouring page from the Dinosaur Roar website: http://www.dinosaurroar.com/downloads/DinosaurRoar-Printable-001.pdf 
• Before you watch the video I would suggest an 'interest-gatherer'. Recite the chorus and do the actions and check the meaning. It goes like this: Oh the dinosaurs, big as trees, the dinosaurs, brains like peas, jaws and claws and teeth and bones, they used to growl and groan and moan.
• 
  

I like to pause the video, when it shows the lava and the dinosaur turning into a fossil to see if anyone can explain the video in L1. The kids are generally dying to show off their dinosaur knowledge.

Extensions:

http://www.dinosaurroar.com/downloads/DinosaurRoar-Printable-008.pdf - matching pairs

Drawing dinosaurs competition

Pattern completion worksheet can be easily made by drawing big and small, long and short and fast and slow dinosaurs like those in the book.

Then here are some other dino videos for your dinosaur fans.

A simple rhyme.

 This could be good for a game of musical statues, (now everbody, run fast/slowly/fiercely!)

Stegosaurus tells us a bit about himself - for the older children.

What's your favourite dinosaur?