Describing people 1 lesson plan

“My friend is tall”

Lesson 23 Level 3 Age 7-9

Lesson plans for ESL kids teachers

Lesson 23

Describing people 1

In this lesson students describe people using some common adjectives. They also do some fun adjective-related activities, write a text about their friend and listen to a song.

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Age: 7-9 years
Time: 1 hour – 1 hour 20 mins
Objectives: Describing people using adjectives. Saying birthday dates with ordinal numbers.
Structures: “What does s/he look like?”, “Tell me all about your friend”, “[He/She] [is/[hide_on_uk]has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]’s got][/hide_on_us]] [long hair]”, “[He/She] is great!”.
New vocabulary: tall, short, long hair, short hair, brown eyes, blue eyes, blonde hair, black hair, (best) friend, ordinal numbers 1st ~ 31st.
Review vocabulary: January – December, birthday.

Lesson materials

Printables:

Dates for birthdays handout
Describe your friend song worksheet 1 or Describe your friend song worksheet 2
Write about your friend worksheet
Describe your friend reading worksheet

Songs:

Describe your friend

Supplies:

name tags for each student
board with markers / chalk
weather board (from previous class)
sheets of A4 paper to draw on (1 per student)
device to play the song on

Notes:

In this lesson students practice describing people using some common adjectives. Students learn new adjectives, practice describing people, do a fun listening activity and write a text about a friend.

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. Play “Quiz game show”
Draw some circles on the board and randomly write numbers 1, 2 or 3 in each circle. These will be points.

Put students into teams. Then ask the first team to choose a number – 1 is an easy question (e.g. “Do you like bananas?”) and 3 is a difficult question (e.g. “What time do you get up?”). 2 will be in between in terms of difficulty. When the question has been answered correctly, erase that number circle. Play until all the number circles are gone – the team with the most points is the winner!

Questions on the following topics can be asked:

Numbers 1-150 – write numbers on the board and ask what they are.
Likes & dislikes for food and drink – “Do you like milk?”, “Yes, I do / No, I don’t”.
Clothes – “What are you wearing?”. “What do you wear on rainy days?”, etc.
Days of the week – say in the correct order.
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 …?” and “Can your (mother) …?” questions.
Parts of the body – say, “Touch your (shoulders)” and the student touches the correct body part.
Possessions – ask, “[hide_on_uk]Do you have[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Have you got[/hide_on_us] (a cat, a tablet, a bicycle, etc.)?”.
Seasons – ask, “What’s your [hide_on_uk]favorite[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]favourite[/hide_on_us] season?”.

3. Homework check
Check each students’ homework worksheet and ask them to name some months and seasons on it. 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. Months review – say and discuss the months
Elicit the months in order and write them on the board. Get everyone chanting the months in order and clapping along with the rhythm. Start slowly and each round get faster and faster until it becomes chaos and fun!

Finally ask some questions, such as “In which month is …?”:

Christmas
other holidays (e.g. Easter, famous national holidays)
hot, cold, rainy, windy, etc.
your birthday

6. Say when your birthday is
Write on the top of the board, “When is your birthday?”. Chorus x3. Next, give out the handout “Dates for birthdays” to all your students. Alternatively, print off a large copy and pin to the board. The worksheet shows all the ordinal numbers for dates – 1st to 31st. Chorus the ordinal numbers quickly … for now the idea is not to get everyone to remember all the ordinal numbers, but to focus on their own birth date.

Point to your birthday date and say when your birthday is, e.g. “My birthday is the (16th) of (May)”. Write this sentence on the board.

Next, ask each student, “When is your birthday?”. Help with the structure and saying the dates.

Finally, have everyone stand up and mingle, each time asking for birthday dates. Set the target of each student asking everyone in the class when their birthday is.

New learning and practice:

1. Introduce the descriptions vocab
For this lesson you are going to use your artistic drawing skills. Use a whiteboard or blackboard to draw the following:

At the top of the board draw 2 circles (these will be the heads). Elicit “circles”.
On each head draw a nose, ears and a mouth. Elicit each as you draw them. Then ask, “What’s missing?”.
Elicit “eyes”. Ask, “What [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] are they?” and give the students the options of the [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us] of markers / chalk you have. Then draw the eyes in the chosen [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us] with different [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us] for each set of eyes (NB: it’s ok to have strange [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us], such as yellow, for the eyes – this will just make it more fun).
Elicit “hair” and again ask “What [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] is it?”. On one head draw long hair in one [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] (for the girl) and on the other draw short hair (for the boy) in a different [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us]. Teach / Elicit “long / short hair”.
Finally, you’ll need to draw 2 bodies. But rather than you draw them you are going to ask for 2 volunteers to do the drawings. For the girl, draw some shoes quite near the head (so that she will be short) and for the boy draw some shoes right down at the bottom of the board (so he will be tall). Have the students draw the bodies so that they join the heads with the shoes. Now teach / elicit “tall / short”.

It should end up looking something like this:

Now that the completed pictures are on the board, chorus 3 times the following sentences and point to the pictures as you do:
- He is tall.
- [hide_on_uk]He has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]He’s got[/hide_on_us] short hair.
- [hide_on_uk]He has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]He’s got[/hide_on_us] (blue) eyes.
- [hide_on_uk]He has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]He’s got[/hide_on_us] (orange) hair.
- She is short.
- [hide_on_uk]She has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]She’s got[/hide_on_us] long hair.
- [hide_on_uk]She has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]She’s got[/hide_on_us] (green) eyes.
- [hide_on_uk]She has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]She’s got[/hide_on_us] (brown) hair.

2. Say the descriptions structures
Now that the completed pictures are on the board, write and chorus 3x the following sentences and point to the pictures as you chorus them:

He is tall.
[hide_on_uk]He has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]He’s got[/hide_on_us] short hair.
[hide_on_uk]He has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]He’s got[/hide_on_us] (blue) eyes.
[hide_on_uk]He has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]He’s got[/hide_on_us] (orange) hair.
She is short.
[hide_on_uk]She has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]She’s got[/hide_on_us] long hair.
[hide_on_uk]She has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]She’s got[/hide_on_us] (green) eyes.
[hide_on_uk]She has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]She’s got[/hide_on_us] (brown) hair.

(Note: the adjectives are underlined)

Have your students write the sentences from the board into their notebooks. Next, put students into pairs to practice saying the structures by reading from the board.

3. Do “Funny body” drawings
Give a piece of A4 paper to each student and yourself.

On your piece of paper, model drawing a head with eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth and hair. Make it a really funny picture. Then tell everyone to draw their funny head. Make sure they use [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us] for the eyes and hair.
Next show them how to fold the paper so only the neck shows (so the head is folded behind). Then get everyone to pass their paper to a different student.
Now model drawing the body starting from the neck and going down to ankles – make it either a really short or long body and make it as funny as you can. Now have your students draw their bodies.
Again, show everyone how to fold the paper so only the ankles are showing and have everyone pass their paper to another student.
Finally, model drawing funny feet and get everyone to draw feet on their pictures. Then get everyone to fold up their papers and return each piece to the person who drew the head.

Let everyone open up their paper and have a good laugh at the pictures. Now ask everyone to “present” their person in the drawing to the rest of the class – you model first (e.g. “This is Tom. He is short. [hide_on_uk]He has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]He’s got[/hide_on_us] pink hair, etc.”).

4. Play the “Describe your friend” song and do the active listening worksheet
Tell the class that they are going to listen to a song about a boy and a girl. Give out either “Describe your friend worksheet 1” or “Describe your friend worksheet 2” (worksheet 2 is better if you cannot print out [hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] worksheets).

Read the instructions to the class and then play the song. As the song is playing students should do the worksheet activity. Play the song again if required. Finally, go through the song one more time stopping to check answers.

If everyone enjoyed the song, you can play it again and have everyone sing along (especially as it’s such a catchy tune!).

Lyrics for “Describe your friend”

Tell me about your best friend!

Chorus:
What does he look like?
What does he look like?
Tell me all about him.

Verse 1:
He is tall
[hide_on_uk]He has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]He’s got[/hide_on_us] short hair
[hide_on_uk]He has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]He’s got[/hide_on_us] brown eyes
[hide_on_uk]He has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]He’s got[/hide_on_us] blonde hair
But most of all, he is great!

Tell me about your best friend!

Chorus:
What does she look like?
What does she look like?
Tell me all about her.

Verse 2:
She is short
[hide_on_uk]She has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]She’s got[/hide_on_us] long hair
[hide_on_uk]She has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]She’s got[/hide_on_us] blue eyes
[hide_on_uk]She has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]She’s got[/hide_on_us] black hair
But most of all, she is great!

Gestures for “Describe your friend”

There are no gestures for this song – a listening activity with worksheets accompanies the song instead. However, if students enjoy the song you can encourage them to sing along and dance!

For the active listening activity use either of the following worksheets:

“Describe your friend worksheet 1” is a ‘listen and circle what you hear’ exercise.
“Describe your friend worksheet 2” is a ‘listen and draw’ exercise (this is better if you can’t print out the [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] worksheet 1)

Describe your friend song active listening worksheet

[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. Do the “Write about your friend” worksheet
Give out the worksheet and then model what to do – draw a picture of your friend and [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] it in (make sure to add [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] to the hair and eyes).

Next read the example text and show using that to write about your friend. Point out that if writing about a girl, to use “Her” and “She” instead of “His” and “He”.

Then have everyone work on their worksheets – circulate around the classroom helping with the writings.

Finally, do a check by asking individual students to stand up and read their texts to the class. Be sure to give lots of encouragement and a round of applause at the end of each reading.

6. 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)

Wrap up:

1. Assign homework: “Describe your friend”
Hold up the homework worksheet and model what to do – read the first sentence and color the boy’s hair with a black pencil. Do a few more sentences so everyone understands what to do.

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 say, “Tell me about your friend”, and have them tell you one thing about their friend (e.g. “[hide_on_uk]She has[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]She’s got[/hide_on_us] long hair”).

When they give you a suitable 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!