FREE ENGLISH LESSONS ONLINE

WRITING LESSON: RIDDLE BOOK

LEVEL: Elementary/Intermediate

OBJECTIVES: The students should be able to:

1. describe an object orally and in written form
2. guess the riddle of their classmates

MATERIALS: oslo paper, bond paper, pens, pencils, crayon, stapler, picture cards, riddle books (simple to more complex ones), picture dictionaries, picture books

TIME FRAME: one hour or more

PROCEDURE:

1.) Play a game with the students. Use five picture cards that you will describe and let the students guess each picture before showing it to them. Make the description simple for elementary students and make it more complex for intermediate students.

e.g. I come in different colors-red, pink, yellow. I live in the garden and the fields. Butterflies love me. What am I? (Flower) This is the simple one.
I can be square, oval, round, and rectangular. I come in different colors. I am soft and am usually seen on beds. I lie under your head. What am I? (pillow) This is the complex one.

2.) Read a riddle book that suits the level of your students. Let them guess what is being described.

3.) Give guidelines on how to make riddles. They should give the color, size, shape, quality or other specific features. Intermediate students should give more clues and specific features.

e.g. I am pink. I am fat. I am somewhat round. I go oink oink. What am I? (elementary)

4.) Distribute picture cards to pairs (for elementary students). Give them time to think of their description. Then call pairs to tell their riddles. The class will guess each riddle. For intermediate students, it is better if they can do the activity individually to challenge them.

5.) Use the same five pictures (procedure 1) to model how to write a riddle. Use the board for the model. Then, ask volunteers to write on the board the riddle description of the picture cards given to them in procedure 4.

6.) Pair off elementary students and let each pair think of five objects to make riddles of. The objects used during the game should not be used again. Intermediate students can do this activity individually. A picture dictionary can help the students. Picture books can be used as well. They will make a riddle book patterned after the riddle book you used in class. It is better if they write the riddle on the front page and draw and color the object at the back of that page to hide the object that needs to be guessed. Staple the pieces of paper to make a riddle book.

7.) Ask the pairs or individuals to exchange riddle books so that they can read and see their peers’ work.

SPEAKING LESSON: TALKING ABOUT A SURVIVAL PLAN

LEVEL: Intermediate

OBJECTIVES: The students should be able to:

1. think of ways to survive in extreme situations
2. write details about their plans to survive

MATERIALS: Some concrete objects that can be used to survive in extreme situations, bag to hold the objects, bond paper, pens, markers, pencils

TIME FRAME: around one hour

PROCEDURE:

1.) Show ten concrete objects. Ask the class to identify each.

Suggested items: flashlight, matches, tissue paper, cup, scissors, knife, blanket, soap, mirror, comb

2.) Tell the class to imagine this scenario:

You used to be passengers of an airplane. The airplane crashed on an island but you do not know if there are people on that island or not. You found 10 objects left on the plane. You need to choose five objects to help you survive on that island. What will you choose and why?

3.) Pair off the students. Each pair should decide which five of the 10 objects they would choose to help them survive on the island.

4.) Ask each pair to tell the class which five objects they have selected and to explain why.

5.) Form groups of four. Put the ten objects inside a bag. Each group leader will pick five items from the bag without looking. Each leader will return the items inside the bag so that the other leaders can pick their group’s five items. Ask them to write the five items on a piece of scratch paper.

6.) Tell the students that they will try to survive on the island using the five objects. They should use each object in different ways (at least three, but encourage them to give more than three if they can). Model how to do the activity by picking a classroom object such as the whiteboard eraser as an example.

Example: Classroom Eraser
1. It can be used as a sponge to clean things and the body.
2. It can be used as a chopping block when cutting things.
3. It can be used as a pestle to pound soft food.

7.) They must write their ideas (sentences preferred) on scratch paper first before they use a piece of bond paper for the final draft. They should also illustrate the objects picked by their leaders. Divide the work among the members.

8.) Ask each group to present their survival plan. The presenters should act out how to use each object in different ways to prove their point. Let them use the concrete objects during their presentation.

9.) Let the other groups decide if the group who is presenting the survival plan will be able to survive on the island or not based on the report. The presenting group should be able to defend their answers.