Use visuals to name a variety of animals.
Label them in both the home language, if possible, and English. Encourage talk. Categorise the animals. Do the students know the baby animal names? Focus on animals the students know before moving on to others. Use a matching game such as animal bingo. Read animal stories from the school journal stories.
The students can draw their own bingo sheets. The class decides on a group of animals and baby animals from which the students can choose to draw a finite number. The students make matching name cards. The teacher has a complete set of the animals and baby animals chosen by the class and calls these out.
Read a shared book such as The Zoo by Anthony Browne (Julia Macrae 1992). Children name the animals as they appear on the pages. Discuss what each one looks like.
Create a word bank - write words such as 'tails' and 'fur' on a chart as you read the story and a student can draw on the word bank a picture that goes with each word, or write the word in his/her first language. The teacher can refer to this word bank often in following lessons.
Published on: 09 Jan 2018
