Intro Lesson (Ages 8-12) Lesson Plan

Notes:

This lesson provides a good platform to begin the course with your older kids (8-12 years) as it provides an opportunity for everyone to get to know each other and also sets the ground rules for behavior within the classroom. 'Wh' question forms, modal verbs for rules and stationery vocabulary will also be practiced.

Lesson Procedure:

Warm Up and Maintenance:

1. Greetings & names
Greet the students as they enter the classroom and gesture for them to sit down.

Greetings & names When everyone has sat down and is ready say, "My name is ..." and give your name. Then tell everyone to stand up. If there is room, have everyone form a circle. Take a ball and hold it and say your name. Then throw the ball to one student and they say their name. Students throw the ball around randomly, saying their name each time they catch the ball.

Then, play the same throwing game, but instead of saying your name, say the name of the person who threw the ball to you - start by asking one student to throw the ball to you and as you catch it say their name. Then throw to another student and they should say your name as they catch it. If anyone gets a name wrong (or can't remember) they have to sit down for 3 throws. By the end of the activity everyone should have a good idea of everyone else's names!

2. Name Tags
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. For students who use a non-roman alphabet (e.g. Japanese), they should write they name in English letters - if they have never done this before you may have to help (possibly prepare their names on paper to copy).

New Learning and Practice:

1. Do the "Ask Me" activity.
On the board draw a little stick man / woman and write your name under it.

Then write some answers to the following questions (just the answers) around the board:

Age: How old are you?
Hometown: Where are you from?
Pets: What pet do you have?
Food: What is your favorite food?
Drink: What is your favorite drink?
Color: What is your favorite color?
Brothers / Sisters: How many brothers and sisters do you have?

For example:

Do the "Ask Me" activity.

The idea is to try and have your students guess what the answers relate to and the what the question is for each answer. Start by writing on the board:

Name: What is your name?

Then point to your name on the board.

Next, point to your hometown on the board and try to elicit the question "Where are you from?". As you elicit and help, write the questions on the board until all the questions are there.

2. Practice asking and answering questions
Have your students draw a stick man / woman on a piece of paper with their name underneath, and write down their answers to the questions on the board - basically doing the same thing as you did on the board. Then put students in pairs and have them practice asking and answering the questions about themselves. As they do this circulate and monitor, helping out with mistakes and pronunciation, and always give lots of praise.

3. Do a class survey
Give out the survey sheets to each student. Go through the column headers and make sure everyone understands that they have to ask questions to 8 other students to complete their survey. Just to make sure, model the activity with a student, asking the questions and showing writing the answers. Then allow everyone to get up and mix around as they complete their surveys.

Do a class survey

4. Create a Classroom Rules poster
Setting rules and boundaries is extremely important in your kids lessons - kids can feel comfortable knowing what is and isn't accepted and having this clearly stated at the beginning of the course will really help with classroom management. This part of the lesson can be enjoyable and is a good way to practice modals "can", "can't", "must", "mustn't".

Firstly, prepare your board as shown below:

Create a Classroom Rules poster

For each column explain and elicit:

We can = it is ok for us to do. E.g. "We can ask our teacher questions"
We can't = it is not ok for us to do. E.g. "We can't talk while our teacher is talking"
We must = very strong - things we have to do. E.g. "We must do our homework"
We mustn't = very strong - things we never do. E.g. "We mustn't take things without asking"

Create a Classroom Rules poster Next, put your students into groups of 4-6 students. Give each group a large sheet of paper and colored marker pens to create their rules poster. Have them copy what you have on your board. Then explain that they must write down as many ideas as they can on their rules poster - they can even include some strange rules if they wish!

NOTE: If your student's level is too low to write sentences, they can draw their ideas instead.

Some ideas:

Create a Classroom Rules poster

As the groups are making their posters, circulate and help with grammar, vocab, spelling. Also, make sure the rules you want are on each poster. Allow students to use different colors and draw pictures - the posters should be attractive and fun.

When the posters are finished, get everyone in the group to sign it. This helps to reinforce the rules as a kind of classroom "contract"- if any rules are broken in future lessons you can point to the rule which the offending student has signed.

Finally, get your students to pin their posters to the wall. Groups can then present their rules poster to the class - this should bring up some good discussion as well as the use of modals.

5. Classroom stationery quiz
We will finish the lesson with a fun activity based around the vocab of classroom stationery. Before class, prepare a box of loads of different classroom stationery (pen, pencil, eraser, crayon, ruler, stapler, staples, glue, paper, folder, hole punch, pencil sharpener, white out, scotch tape, pencil case, marker, calculator, etc.).

Put students into teams (of 4-6) and tell them that you are going to show them some objects that they must write down on a piece of paper. Points will be given for each correct answer as follows:

perfect answers (correct word and spelling): 3 points
nearly perfect answers (correct word but incorrect spelling): 2 points
slightly correct (e.g. "pencil sharp" instead of "pencil sharpener"): 1 point

Classroom stationery quiz Explain that the winning team will win a prize (prepare some stickers or candy)!

Take out each object and teams work together to write down the answers - some they will probably know and some not.

At the end, get each team to swap papers and go through the answers as teams mark the answer sheets. Present the prize to the winning team.

6. Play "What's missing?"
Finally, line up all of the stationery so that everyone can see. Tell everyone to close their eyes - then remove one item. Say "Open your eyes" and everyone must shout out the missing item. Do this for all of the items.

Wrap Up:

Assign Homework: "Classroom Objects" worksheet
Hold up the homework worksheet and model what to do. Give out the worksheets and say "Put your homework in your bags".
Do "Quick Check"
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 check one new word (e.g. hold up a stationery item and ask "What's this?"). 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!