Ability and family 2 lesson plan

“My mother can drive”

Lesson 15 Level 3 Age 7-9

Lesson plans for ESL kids teachers

Lesson 15

Ability and family 2

In this lesson students continue to practice talking about ability to say what they and their family members can and can’t do. They also play fun games, do an active listening activity with a song and conduct a family ability questionnaire.

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This is a full course lesson plan.

Materials:

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Age: 7-9 years
Time: 1 hour – 1 hour 20 mins
Objectives: Asking about and saying what you and your family members can and can’t do for various exercises and actions.
Structures: “Can [you/he/she] [ride a bike]?”, “Yes, [I/he/she] can”, “No, [I/he/she] can’t”, “[I/he/she] can swim”, “[I/he/she] can’t cook”.
New vocabulary: drive a car, [hide_on_uk]play piano[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]play the piano[/hide_on_us], use a computer, do ballet, speak English, play golf, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather.
Review vocabulary: telling the time, daily routines vocab, jump, run, swim, hop, turn around, kick, fly, ride a bike, cook, ski, sing, dance, mother, father.

Lesson materials

Flashcards:

Exercise and actions flashcards (jump, run, swim, hop, kick, turn around, fly, ride a bike, cook, ski, sing, dance, drive a car, play [hide_on_uk]piano[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]the piano[/hide_on_us], use a computer, do ballet, speak English, play golf)

Printables:

Family ability questionnaire worksheet
Family abilities worksheet

Songs:

The family song

Supplies:

name tags for each student
board with markers / chalk
weather board (from previous class)
a clock (or your clock craft from lesson 10)
1 or 2 dice
things that make a noise (see “Review dice quiz”)
printed photos of yourself and your family members (mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather)
[hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] construction paper / card – one for each student
tape
device to play the song on

Notes:

In this lesson students add more verb phrases to their knowledge to talk about abilities using the model verb “can”. They also talk about what their family members can and can’t do.
Your students should have brought in photos of their family members for a fun activity.

Lesson procedure:

Warm up and maintenance:

1. Greetings and name tags
Greet the students as they enter the classroom and gesture for them to sit down. Before class prepare some blank name tags (stickers or pin-on tags). Give these out and have everyone write their names and put their tags on. If you use pin-on tags, you can keep and give out every class.

2. Review dice quiz
Let’s start with a fun team quiz. Put students into teams of 3 or 4, each team sitting around a table. Give each team a “buzzer” – basically something that makes a noise (a bell, a toy buzzer, a squeaky toy, an instrument, etc.).

The teacher asks a review question – the first student to “buzz” can answer. This is where the dice comes in (you can use one die or for larger number practice, 2 dice). If the student answers correctly, s/he rolls the dice – the number it lands on is the points they win for their team. However, if they get the question wrong (or make a mistake) they roll the dice to lose points!

Questions on the following topics can be asked:

Numbers 1-30 – hold up a number card and ask, “What number is this?”.
Likes & dislikes for food and drink – “Do you like milk?”, “Yes, I do / No, I don’t”.
Clothes – “What are you wearing?”, “I’m wearing a t-shirt and jeans”.
Clothes and weather – “What do you wear on rainy days?”, “I wear a coat and boots”.
Days of the week – say all the days in the correct order.
Time – hold up a clock and ask, “What time is it?”.
Daily routines – hold up a flashcard with a daily routine and ask, “What is this?”, then “What time do you get up?”.
Ability – hold up a flashcard and ask, “Can you …?” questions.

3. Homework check
Check each student’s homework that you set in the last lesson. Ask each student some questions about their homework worksheet by asking about the abilities on their sheet, e.g. “Can you hop?”, “Yes, I can. I can hop”. Give lots of praise, and then put some kind of mark on the homework sheet (e.g. a sticker, a stamp or draw a smiley face).

Finally, tell your students to put their homework back into their bags.

4. Talk about the weather using the “Weather board”
Use the weather board that you created in the previous class. Ask, “How’s the weather today?” and have students put up their hands. Allow one weather condition per student (e.g. “It’s rainy”) and have each student come up and put a weather picture on the weather board.

Depending on weather conditions, you can introduce more weather words (with pictures … you can get students to draw them), such as:

stormy
misty
showery

freezing
humid
frosty

icy
drizzly

5. Review times
Hold up a clock (or your craft clock from the previous lesson). Set it at 4 o’clock and ask, “What time is it?” and elicit, “It’s 4 o’clock”. Next, move the minute hand to 5 mins and elicit, “It’s 5 [hide_on_uk]after[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]past[/hide_on_us] 4”. Continue around the clock eliciting the times. Finally, put students into pairs and have them draw clock times for their partner to say.

6. Play “Daily routines true or false”
You’ll need a clock or your craft clock from a previous lesson. Set a random time on the clock. Pick a student to say a sentence about his / her daily routine and saying the time on the clock. For example:

(Clock set at 1:15) “I eat lunch at a quarter [hide_on_uk]after[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]past[/hide_on_us] 1.”

The student can say a true sentence or one that is not true at all. Each time, the rest of the class must guess if s/he is telling the truth or a lie. Continue playing until each student has had least one go.

7. Play “Times of the day”
Next, we’ll review saying when your students do different daily routines. Start by showing each of the 4 times of the day flashcards and eliciting the phrases in the [morning / afternoon / evening] and at night. Stick each card to the top of the board.

Next, stick the daily routines flashcards randomly around the board, under the times of the day flashcards.
Put students into teams of 2 or 3. Point to a picture (e.g. eat dinner) and have students race to slap their desk – the fastest says a sentence (e.g. “I eat dinner at 6 o’clock in the evening”). A correct answer wins a point for their team.

Play until all pictures have been made into sentences. The team with the most points is the winner!

New learning and practice:

1. Do “Teacher’s family photos time” activity
If you can bring in photos of your family*, this is a great activity to do. You’ll also need a photo of yourself (if you have one of you as a kid, even better!). Hopefully your students will have also brought in photos of their family as you requested last lesson.

Draw 7 squares on the top of your board in a row (see image). Hold up a photo of yourself and ask, “Who is this?”. Elicit that it is you, stick the photo inside the middle square and write your name under the photo.

Next take out another photo (e.g. your father) and again ask, “Who is this?”. Elicit / Teach “father” and stick the photo in one of the squares and write the word (e.g. “father”) under the photo. Chorus “father” x3. Do the same for mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother – you may not have some of these family members, but for the sake of this lesson, use photos of friends, etc., and pretend they are your brother, grandmother, etc.

Your students will really enjoy seeing your family photos and will probably ask questions – feel free to extend the information you give on your family members.

*Alternative:

If you can’t bring in family photos: instead of using your family photos, cut out pictures of people from magazines and pretend they are your family members.

2. Do “Students’ family photos time” activity
If your students have brought in photos of themselves and their families, this is a great activity to do. If not, go to step 3.

Before class, be sure to collect all the family photos your students brought in and shuffle them into random order. Now you are going to play a guessing game – hold up a photo of one of your student’s family members (e.g. Hugo’s sister) and get everyone to guess whose family the person belongs to. Elicit the family vocab (e.g. “It’s Hugo’s sister”). Then give that photo back to your student.

Continue for all the photos until everyone has all their photos back.

3. Make “My family tree” posters
Give out a piece of [hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] construction paper / card to each student. They are each going to make a family tree poster of their family.

Begin by demonstrating the activity – with a green and brown marker pen draw a large tree, filling up the whole piece of paper. At the top write in large letters “My family”. Then, either stick your family photos onto the tree or draw pictures of your family – grandparents at the top, next your parents and you and your siblings at the bottom. Finally, under each family member photo/picture write the vocab (grandfather, mother, etc.).

Now get your students to do the same. If they brought in photos they can use them on their poster – if not, encourage them to draw pictures of their family members. Students can copy the family vocabulary words from your poster (display it clearly). Finally, your students pin their posters to the walls of the classroom.

Ask each student questions (e.g. Is that you mother? What is your brother’s name? How old is your sister?).

4. Play “The family song”
Have everyone stand next to their family tree poster. Explain that they need to listen carefully and point to each family member as they appear in the song. It’s a simple song, so encourage everyone to sing along.

Keep the posters on the walls – we will return to them later in the lesson.

Lyrics for “The family song”

Verse 1:
Hello father, Hello father,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 2:
Hello mother, Hello mother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 3:
Hello brother, Hello brother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 4:
Hello sister, Hello sister,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 5:
Hello grandfather, Hello grandfather,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 6:
Hello grandmother, Hello grandmother,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

Verse 7:
Hello family, Hello family,
How are you? How are you?
I’m fine thank you, I’m fine thank you,
See you soon, See you soon.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
<br /> [/hide_on_uk]

[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
<br /> [/hide_on_us]

5. Read and write time
This segment can be part of all your lessons. Spend 10 to 15 minutes building up your students’ writing and reading skills. You’ll need to assess your students’ reading/writing level and then choose to start at one of the following stages:

Reading and writing activities by level:

1. Beginners: students cannot read or write the alphabet.
Each lesson introduce 3 lower-case letters of the alphabet (first lesson will be a, b, c). Use flashcards to do this. Play alphabet games and do printing worksheets.
» See our ‘Alphabet a-z (lowercase)’ mini-lesson plans for full details.

2. Early starters: students have experience with the alphabet but need phonics practice.
Each lesson introduce 5 lower-case letters of the alphabet (first lesson will be a, b, c, d, e). Use flashcards to do this. Start by working on the sounds of the letters and then move onto letter clusters (e.g. sh, ee, etc).
» See our ‘Alphabet’ and ‘Letter clusters’ mini-lesson plans for full details.

3. Early readers.
Work on reading and writing simple sentences with lots of practice activities.
» See our ‘Early reading’ mini-lesson plans for full details. (click on “Early reading” tab)

4. Elementary readers: students can read and write simple sentences well.
Work on reading and writing short texts and stories.
» See our ‘Reading short texts’ mini-lessons for full details. (click on “Reading short texts” tab)

6. Play “Ability chat”
Let’s review ability questions from the last lesson. Bring everyone’s attention to the exercise and actions flashcards that you used last lesson: jump, run, swim, hop, turn around, kick, fly, ride a bike, cook, ski, sing, dance. Hold up each flashcard and elicit the verb, then stick it on the board. Once you have all the flashcards on the board, write, “Can you …?” at the top of the board and “Yes, I can”, “No, I can’t” on the sides of the board, like this:

Put students in pairs. Point to a flashcard – student A will ask student B the question from the slide. Student B will answer and then do the action if s/he says yes. For example:

(teacher pointing at the jump flashcard)
A: Can you jump?
B: Yes, I can. I can jump. (stands up and starts jumping)

Students take turns asking questions until all the questions have been answered.

7. Teach more ability verbs
We are going to introduce some more action verb phrases to ask about ability using the following flashcards: drive a car, [hide_on_uk]play piano[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]play the piano[/hide_on_us], use a computer, do ballet, speak English, play golf.

Hold up the first flashcard (e.g. “drive a car”). Ask your students if they know the phrase. Stick the flashcard on the board and write the verb phrase “drive a car” below it. Chorus x3. Then ask 2 or 3 students if they can do it. For example:

Teacher: What is this?
Students: Car …
Teacher: (clicks to show words) Yes, great! “drive a car”. Repeat, “drive a car”
Students: “drive a car”
(Chorus 3x)
Teacher: Tom, can you drive a car?
Tom: No, I can’t. I can’t drive a car.
Teacher: Good! Ok, how about you, Maria?
etc.

Continue for the other 5 flashcards, each time putting them on the board, writing the verb phrase underneath and then asking students if they can do it.

Finally, put students into pairs – they ask each other “Can you …?” questions using the pictures on the board.

8. Do the “Family ability questionnaire”
Put everyone in pairs and have them sit next to one of their family tree posters. They are going to interview each other about their family member’s abilities.

Give out the questionnaire to all students. Pair up with one volunteer to model what to do. You are going to ask the volunteer questions about his/her family and fill in your questionnaire sheet. Use the questionnaire sheet as follows:

Write down 6 family members from your partner’s family tree in the top row.
Ask your student, “What is your (mother’s) name?” – write the names of all 6 family members in the second row.
Start asking, “Can your …?” questions from the sheet, such as:
Can your mother cook?

Encourage your student to answer:
Yes, she can. She can cook.
or
No, she can’t. She can’t cook.

Then write “O” for yes or “X” for no in the corresponding cell.

Do a few more questions until your students understand what to do. Then have your students interview each other about their family members. As they are doing so, circulate and help out with mistakes and target structures.

End by asking each student one “Can your …?” question.

Wrap up:

1. Assign homework: “Family abilities”
Hold up the homework worksheet and model drawing three of your family members and writing four sentences for each (e.g. “My mother can drive a car”, “My brother can ski”, etc.).

Give out the worksheets and say, “Put your homework in your bags”.

2. Do “Quick check” and say goodbye
Time to leave the class. Make sure everything is put away and the students have gathered their belongings. Have them line up at the door and place yourself between the door and the students.

For each student ask an ability question about one of their family members, e.g. “Can your sister use a computer?” – make sure a full answer is given (e.g. “Yes, she can. She can use a computer”).

When they give you the correct answer say goodbye and let them leave. If their answer is wrong, have them go back to the end of the line – they will have to try again once they reach the front!