Talking about animals is always fun for my pupils. Each year, I try to introduce fresh activities to keep them engaged and help them learn and use new words.
As a warm-up, I asked the pupils to look at the poster on the board and guess which animal I was describing. We recalled our last year's lessons, where they worked in groups to create animal habitats. We mentioned where different animals live and what they eat.
Next, two volunteers read a short text from our book about turtles. We discussed their size, colour, habitat, and what makes them special.
Then, I drew a large mind map on the board and asked the pupils to do the same in their notebooks. We brainstormed what to include in their writing, and agreed on: name, size, colour, habitat, food, abilities, and fun fact. To support weaker pupils, I wrote sentence starters as well: My favourite wild animal is ... . It lives in ... . It can ... . One interesting fact about it is ... . The pupils used the information from their mind maps to write a short paragraph about their favourite wild animal.
To wrap-up, a few volunteers read their paragraphs and received feedback.
In the next lesson, pupils designed infographics showcasing their favourite wild animals, using the information from their mind maps.
