Following on from the use of Superheroes to review superlatives I gave my class (students aged nine or ten) a project: either write about their favourite hero or create their own.
Enough from me, here’s what some of the students came up with … firstly, from Cherry:
CafiNo to bring me damn good coffee … and hot !
A Superhero that brings me coffee – I love it ! Moving on, here’s a job opportunity for The Flash – express pizza-delivery, thank to Messi:
Heroes can be men, women, boys, girls … or animals. Three young ladies, Phuong Nhi, Jessica and Ms Linh chose to create a Supercat:
from Ms Linhfrom Ms Jessicafrom Ms Phuong Nhi
How about this Supermum from Mary:
The Flash is also the favourite of Marinette:
from Ms Marinette
Now, a magnum opus from ‘King’ Lear:
from Ms ‘King’ Lear
Sarah who has dreams to be Foxgirl (but her identity must be a secret).
from Ms Sarah
Young Ken is a fan of Spiderman:
Ngoc Minh (whose English name is ‘Iron Spider’) is, unsurprisingly, also into Spiderman:
Class will be arranged in four small groups and they will be assigned a city. The students have an hour to collect information, produce a short journal (with maps, photos, illustrations etc) and present to the class.
The destinations are:
London, Barcelona, Seoul & Rio de Janeiro
I shall provide some photo printouts for their covers.
The journal must include:
When to go // an itinerary // a famous museum or building // how the students got there
London: best time to go is in Spring // British Museum is free -Open daily 10.00 am – 5.00 pm // Take the Tube (subway) to Holborn // Hamleys Toy Shop – Open 11.00 – 5.00 // Take the 25 bus and walk down Regent Street.
Barcelona: Best time is May – June // Gaudi Church (Sagrada Familia) Open 9.00 – 7.00 pm // Take Metro Line 2 (subway) // Have a picnic in Gaudi park (Parc Güell) – Open 9.30 – 7.00 pm) -get there by taxi // At night walk along the famous street Las Ramblas and walk around the old town centre
Seoul: Best time is summer // Seoul Tower – take bus number 2 – Open 10.00 – 11.00 pm // Traditional village – take a taxi. // Walk around, visit small museums and try traditional food // At night, walk along city creek and try Korean street food.
Cheonggyecheon Stream in central Seoul
Rio de Janeiro: best time is February, for the Festival // Walk there from your hotel // Visit the Christ statue – take a taxi but go early morning. // Go to the beach at Ipanema – take the Metro Rio (Subway) // Try amazing Brazilian food like crazy beef or foot bug ! //
What is the largest mammal ? // What is the smallest one ?
How much does a blue whale weight ?
What is the largest bird ? // What is the smallest one ?
What is the largest reptile ? // What is the smallest one ?
How long is the crocodile ? // How long is the dwarf gecko ?
What is the largest fish ? // What is the smallest one ?
How long is the whale shark ?
A whale shark can be up to 10 meters long
The text book, which I follow, uses the USA spelling (meters not metres).
Activity: Make two crosses at the front of the class. Have two students stand on them; one will ask the question, the other answer. Repeat until all the class has participated.
Encourage full answers:
How long is the whale shark ?
It’s up to 10 meters long
OR
The whale shark can be up to 10 meters long
Answers:
The blue whale // the bumblebee bat // [up to] 200 tonnes // ostrich // hummingbird // saltwater crocodile // dwarf gecko // whale shark // stout infantfish
Bonus points for additional facts such as a hummingbird can fly backwards, an ostrich can’t fly etc
What did the man do in the afternoon ? How did he feel ?
Objectives:
Ensure students have learnt the Unit adjectives (as well as new vocabulary from class)
Give students confidence to build longer, more interesting sentences
Give students sense of security to speak in class
Stress the importance of practice and practice and practice
A Warm up game:
Split class into teams. Read out a sentence in the present tense. Students have to write using the past tense. Depending on class size, students can run to the board, or work in small groups on a board in which case, make sure the writers are changed each turn.
massive // discover (discovered) // breathtaking // even // skyscraper
Have students shout out the words as they hear them.
Questions:
1) Who discovered the cave ? 2) What kind of forest is in the cave ? 3) How long is it ? 4) How long would it take to walk ? 5) A skyscraper of how many stories (floors) could fit inside ? 6) How old is the cave ?
In the afternoon she was exploring a cave and she felt very excited
Answers
1) a farmer 2) a rainforest 3) over 5 kms 4) a week 5) 40 stories (floors) 6) 2- 5 million years old
Warm Up – In teams, write three animals you would find in the Amazon Rain Forest.
Giant ant-eater
Let’s delve deeper (let’s learn more).
Use comparatives and superlatives:
A jaguar is a big cat BUT not as big as a lion. A lion is not as big as a tiger.
A lion is bigger than a jaguar but a tiger is the biggest.
A capybara is a rodent (like a mouse or rat).
A Capybara
A rat is _______________ than a mouse but a capybara is the ____________ rodent.
What is wrong with this sentence ?
A caiman – a type of alligator.
A caiman is big but an alligator is more big and a crocodile is most big.
A caiman is a reptile – it is _______________ dangerous reptile in the Amazon. Reptiles have thick or scaly skin. They can live in hot weather and salt water.
A frog is amphibian – amphibians need water to live and only have soft delicate skin. They cannot live in salt water (like the sea). If you see frogs or toads, it can mean that the water is good.
Next put these animals in order of danger, first, second and third then write a sentence using a comparative and the superlative
poison dart frog
bullet ant
jaguar
The answers
Number 3: bullet ant
Number 2: jaguar
Number 1: poison dart frog
Did you know ?
A jaguar has ___ _____ powerful bite. A jaguar bite is _____ powerful than a lion.
A bullet ant has _____ _____ painful insect sting. The sting is 30 times ______ painful than a bee sting.
The poison dart frog has different colours. The golden poison dart from is ____ _____ poisonous.
The Santo Angel waterfall is the ___________________ in the world
Answers: South America // 9 // it produces 20% of the world’s oxygen // 3 000 // poison dart frogs, jaguars, snakes, spiders, piranhas // a tucan // largest at 979 metres.
Objectives: review recent vocabulary, encourage more student-to-student talking, develop sentence building skills, practice the third person form with ‘he’ & ‘she.’
It’s early Sunday morning, so time to wake with Mr James Brown. Younglings … how do you feel ?
Tell me about these people. He is or she is …
She is ……….He is ……
He is very …..
She is very ….
The top cats are able to form basic sentences such as:
I can run however I can’t fly
New vocabulary included the five sense
s _ _ // h – – – // s – – – – // t – – – – // t o – – – //
Warm Up: What can he or she do ?
Ask your partner what he or she can do
What can you do ? What can’t you do ?
Here, my wonderful TA will ask me, then tell the class, in order to model how to answer
Ask Thay Paul – what can you do ?
I can play guitar however I can’t play piano
Tell the class:
He can play guitar however he can’t play piano
Next – using the new vocabulary in a sentence form. What can he or she do and what can’t they do ?
Example:
She can see a butterfly however she can’t hear a butterfly.
She can touch a butterfly however she can’t taste a butterfly.
She can __________ a pizza however she can’t __________ a pizza
He can ________ a guitar __________________________
Encourage students to use at least two adjectives before the noun. (Vietnamese is similar to French in that the adjective follows the noun, so students have to think counter intuitively).
Practice using determiners (it is, they, those)
Practice sentence building (I can swimhowever I can’t fly)
Practice intonation and stress – avoid robot speaking 🙂
Warm up
Use appropriate hand gestures to drill the four new adjectives:
fast / slow / noisy / quiet
Thay Paul is from London. London is very big. London has many cars. Look:
Also London had many big red buses. Also, I can see many taxis. Some are black, some are blue and some are grey.
London has many big red buses. The buses are slow and noisy
(use the gestures so the students shout out the adjectives. Repeat with these pictures):
The new blue car is ______________ and ____________
The small new white car is __________________ and _____________
The old grey, yellow and red car is __________ and ____________