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

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?

We're Going on a Bear Hunt

We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Micheal Rosen was published in 1989 and is real classic. It's rhythmic, repetitive, chantable and full of fun noises. Some report being very scared by the book when they were very small, so maybe don't go over the top with the terror! If this story had a moral it would probably be 'Leave the bears alone!'

Just don't buy the tiny board book like I did!

Age: 3-9

Topic: A family go for a walk to look for a bear. They traverse different terrains only to discover they're actually scared of bears.

Vocabulary: forest, river, mud, grass, snowstorm, cave, bear. (The adjectives are optional) A good teaching moment for mummy, daddy, baby, brother and sister too. Repeated phrases: We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one, what a beautiful day, we're not scared, oh no! and We can't go over it, we can't go under it, we're going to have to go through it!

Procedure:

• Sing your hello song whilst being scared and very much not scared!
• Preteach the landscape vocabulary with flashcards. Play some flashcard games. For the first lesson 'say yes when you see the...' is excellent.
• Tell the story with the book. Omit the adjectives at your discretion. I think 'thick oozy mud' is quasi onomatopoeic but teaching it actively would be too much for my students.  Watch the master at work here. You cannot get better story telling instructions than this:

                               

• Worksheet time: I drew a cave, with a forest, river, grass, mud  and a snowstorm for mine, and asked the children to draw the bear in the right place.  Or you could use this:

Printable HERE

• Finish with the animated pictures from the book video.

Extensions:
Teach the family vocabulary with this song:

One printable jigsaw HERE

Printable worksheet HERE

Teach some prepositions of place by making a simple over/under worksheet.

Like this one, but bigger, and printable...

One of my favourite worksheets ever but most definitely for students who can read. Printable HERE

This story is just asking for a board game craft.

Or collage!

HERE