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Describing animals with be

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Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Beginner/A1
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Functional Language
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
45-60 min
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Low-Resource
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Overview

Welcome to our beginner ESL lesson on how to describe animals. Animals, with their diverse characteristics and behaviors, are an interesting topic that appeals to learners from all backgrounds. Throughout this lesson, students will learn how to provide basic descriptions of various animals, which will help them improve their vocabulary and conversational skills.

Our lesson plan begins with a proposed boardwork suggestion that demonstrates one approach to teaching the target language. Following that, students will engage in multiple low-resource activities, with a particular emphasis on describing their preferred animals. Finally, to wrap up the lesson, we have included a classroom game that will enable students to reinforce and cement their newly acquired descriptive abilities.

Lesson Outline
Activities
Low-resource ESL lesson plan
Boardwork
1Animal adjectives
2Teacher's favourite
3My favourite
Games
1Guess the animal
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Classroom activities

Low-resource ESL lesson plan

Use of the board

The students learn how to give simple descriptions of different animals.

Start by adding the adjectives to the top the board and using gestures to elicit the L1 translation. Next, draw the images of giraffes and hippos and start to add the questions. Finally, try to evoke the correct responses and add them to the board. Depending on the age or level of the class, you may need to revise/drill the verb 'be' beforehand.

Low-resource ESL lesson plan
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Low-resource ESL activity

Animal adjectives

Students use the newly learned language to identify different animals.

Low-resource ESL lesson plan
This lesson plan is exclusive to TEFLHandbook members. Join today and get instant access to our expanding library of teaching resources.
Low-resource ESL activity

Teacher's favourite animal

With the students' help, write about your favourite creature on the board.

Low-resource ESL lesson plan
This lesson plan is exclusive to TEFLHandbook members. Join today and get instant access to our expanding library of teaching resources.
Low-resource ESL activity

My favourite animal

In this follow-on activity, students will use the previous template to write about their favourite animal.

Low-resource ESL lesson plan
This lesson plan is exclusive to TEFLHandbook members. Join today and get instant access to our expanding library of teaching resources.

Classroom games

Low-resource ESL activity

Guess the animal

A stripped-down version of 20 Questions where the students get to practise the target language.

Low-resource ESL lesson plan
This lesson plan is exclusive to TEFLHandbook members. Join today and get instant access to our expanding library of teaching resources.

More ESL lesson plans for beginners

If you've found these ideas useful, have a look our complete list of ESL lesson plans for beginners (A1 Mid-level), as well as our entire collection of ESL lesson plans. Our suggested next lesson is about places in the town.

Are you an Android or iOS user? Then you should give our app a go! The TEFL Handbook app has over 100 lesson plans, 300+ ESL activities and over 100 ideas for classroom games. All of which can be accessed offline. Perfect for quick reference in the classroom.