Topic

Animals

Subject

English 

Students' Grade

Materials

Infantil 4 years old 

Canva, Google Slides, Quizlet, Pickerwheel.com, flashcards, Smartboard

How is this useful? 

The students in Infantil 4-years are currently learning about animals in class with their teacher, so it is a good time to introduce English vocabulary in the same topic. In my experience, the students in this class are fascinated by animals and the natural world, and equally enthusiastic about learning English nouns/ the names of things. “Que es eso?” is a constant question I get in the classroom, with students pointing to objects and me naming them in English. This activity aims to engage the students’ passion for animals and for naming in an interactive way to boost retention!

Activity 1: The Presentation

Activity 2: Flashcard Game 

Activity 3: Animal Yoga

Activity 4: Let's Sort!

Objectives

  • For students to have a good understanding of the animals included in the activities, such as their English name, their habitat, and their appearance.
  • To demonstrate understanding by raising hands and interacting with the Smartboard.
  • To increase students’ excitement about learning English.
  • To improve students’ confidence when speaking in class, in English, which can often be intimidating. For them to know that it is ok to make mistakes, because it is how we learn!

Activity 1: The Presentation

This activity serves as the introduction to the topic, and so the structure is flexible. I began by presenting a slideshow on Google Slides of each animal, first saying it's name, and then having the class repeat. Students were invited up one by one to touch the animal to play the sound it makes. Since this was more of an exploratory activity, I encouraged students to jump in, sharing with the class about a personal story with an animal or an observation (if in Spanish, I repeated back to them and the class what they said in English.) The interactive elements of this activity were exciting to the students, making the lesson fun and (hopefully) boosting retention of the terms. 

 

Below are some examples of the slides I shared: 

Note: all images are from the Powerpoint images library; the presentation was exported to Google Slides for ease of use. The sounds were downloaded for free from https://elevenlabs.io/ , https://pixabay.com/ , and https://mixkit.co/ . 

Activity 2: Flashcard Game 

Using Quizlet, I created digital flashcards so that the class could practice some more with name memory of the animals. I showed the animal first, asking the students to name it. If a student responded correctly, I then asked, "and what sound does it make?" If they were not understanding the question, I provided an example: "does it make this sound [insert different animal sound instead]?" Then they usually caught on and imitated the correct animal sound, the rest of the class adding on. When I noticed only a few students were dominating the responses, I started calling the quieter students by name, giving them hints when they got stuck. This ensured that everybody in the class got to participate, regardless of their English level or confidence. 

I also printed out the flashcards, and in small groups, played memory games to further improve knowledge of the terms. In this classroom, the students look forward to small group activities with the language assistant (me), and so I planned accordingly. 

 

Below are examples of the flashcards: 

Activity 4: Let's Sort!

Using Canva I created a digital sorting activity, where students could sort each animal into their natural habitat. I called on students by name for this activity, since the habitats made it more exciting and they all immediately wanted to jump up and sort. I picked this activity for 4 years old because I noticed that they love to categorize things, and so this would be a good place to let them practice while learning new vocabulary. 

Note: all images are from the Canva image and graphics library. 

Activity 3: Animal Yoga

Now that the students were a little more familiar with the different animals and their English names, it was time to move our bodies. Using a spin the wheel website, I invited students up to spin the wheel, and then I demoed the yoga pose it landed on, corresponding with an animal. this was an especially silly activity, with lots of falling over and laughter - the goal of this ending was to bring some joy into the classroom and make their primary memory of learning english a fun one! 

 

Below is an example of the wheel and some animal yoga poses: 

Note: graphics are from the Canva graphics library. 

Reflection

Overall, this topic was a success! Most of the students were able to recall the names of the animals correctly, and it seemed like they were having fun while doing it. The Animal Yoga was especially fun, and so I plan to repeat the activity with other topics later in the year.