Subject: English Conversation
Topic: Asking and telling about someone’s professions
Teacher: Raymund Troy E. Obra
School: KRAI AMNUAY SCHOOL
Level: K1-P6
Asking and telling about someone’s professions
Objectives:
At the end of the lesson the students should be able:
To provide practice of the vocabulary of jobs and of reading and speaking
skills
To introduce the topic of jobs with discussion and a dictation
To identify and exchange information
To allow learners to give their own opinions about what makes a good/bad
job.
Materials:
Flashcards: farmer, bus driver, doctor, teacher, dentist, police officer, chef, hair
dresser, nurse, soldier, fire fighter, student
Target Vocab:
farmer, bus driver, doctor, teacher, dentist, police officer, chef, hair dresser, nurse,
soldier, fire fighter, student
New Learning and Practice:
1. Teach jobs vocab
2. Play "Missing Flashcards"
3. Play "Paper, Rock, Scissors" flashcards
4. Read classroom reader "The Jobs Bus"
5. Sing "What do you do? (The Jobs Song)"
6. Do the "My Dream Job" worksheet
New Learning and Practice:
"What do you
do?"
"I’m a …"
"My dream job"
"I want to be a
..."
1. Teach jobs vocab
Before class, print off the jobs flashcards for the jobs in the song (farmer, bus driver, doctor, teacher,
dentist, police officer, chef, hair dresser, nurse, soldier, fire fighter, student). If your students are
older and can handle more vocab feel free to add more jobs.
NOTE: You'll notice that one of the jobs is "student". Although not technically a job, it is perfectly
appropriate to answer the question "What do you do?" with "I'm a student".
Now you are going to do actions for each job and your students will have to guess what job it is.
Start by looking at the first flashcard (don't show anyone) and do one of the below actions. Perhaps
start with an easy one, like hairdresser, chef or bus driver. Encourage everyone to shout out their
guesses – at this stage it is fine if students shout out the answers in their first language – you can
correct and teach the new vocab as you go.
As each job is guessed, stick the flashcard onto the board and chorus the English word 3 times.
Continue until all of the job flashcards are on the board.
Actions to do for jobs:
• farmer: pretend to rake the soil, milk cows, pick vegetables from the ground and fruit from trees
• bus driver: pretend to drive a bus, beeping the horn, collecting money and giving out tickets
• doctor: pretend to give a student in injection in their arm, check their ears and inside mouth, and
pretend to listen to their heart with a stethoscope
• teacher: point to yourself, pretend to write on an imaginary board
• dentist: demonstrate with a student: get him/her open their mouth whist you look inside and
pretend to check, drill and even pull out teeth!
• police officer: hold out hand in the "Halt" position and blow a pretend whistle, shoot a gun and
drive a police car with sirens blaring (say "nee-naa, nee -naa!")
• chef: pretend to chop food and cook (stir a pot of food)
• hair dresser: pretend to cut hair and blow dry hair
• nurse: take a student's pulse (two finders on inside of wrist) and check their temperature
• soldier: march around and pretend to shoot a rifle
• fire fighter: pretend to hold a hose and fire water at an imaginary fire
• student: point to everyone, pretend to write in an imaginary notebook
2. Play "Missing Flashcards"
Now that you have all of the jobs flashcards on the board, tell everyone to close their eyes. Remove
one of the flashcards. Then shout "Open your eyes" and point to the space where the flashcard was.
Encourage everyone to shout out what it is, then reveal the card. The first person to shout out the
correct answer can come to the board, say "Close your eyes" and remove a flashcard. Keep playing
until every card has been guessed.
3. Play "Paper, Rock, Scissors" flashcards
If your students don’t know how to play "Paper, rock, scissors" (known as jankan in Japan) start off
by teaching and demonstrating the game.
Next, give everyone a job flashcard – make sure you have enough flashcards to give one to each
student. Say to one student "What do you do?" and motion towards their card … elicit "I'm a
(soldier)" - whatever the flashcard is that s/he is holding. Write on the board:
"What do you do?"
"I'm a ..."
Chorus each sentence three times. Then do a quick practice by asking some students "What do you
do?" and have them say the job of the flashcard they are holding. Also, have students ask you and
other students, until everyone is comfortable with the structures.
Now for the game. Get 2 students to stand up to model the game. Start by playing "Rock, Paper
Scissors". The winner gets to ask the loser "What do you do?" and the loser must reply "I’m a ..."
(saying the job on their card). Then the loser gives his/her card to the winner. Ask another student to
come and model with the winner: now one student has 2 cards and the other 1. They play "Rock,
paper, scissors", say the structure and the loser gives his/her card to the winner. The aim of the
game is to collect as many cards as possible. If a student has no cards left, that is fine - s/he can still
play: if they win a game, they get a card, if they lose they remain with no cards (and do not say the
structures).
Once everyone has got the idea, have all students to stand up and hold their flashcards. Get
everyone to pair up and play. As soon as they have finished they must find another person to play
with. Everyone mingles around the classroom playing "Rock, paper, scissors", saying the structure
and winning or losing cards. After 5 minutes stop the game. The winner is the student with the most
cards. This is a really popular game with my classes! .
6. Do the "My Dream Job" worksheet
On the board, at the top, write "My Dream Job". Chorus 3 times. Say "I am a teacher" and point to
yourself. Then say "But … I want to be a … ". Don’t say anything yet. Under the "My Dream Job" title
draw a picture of a job (e.g a police officer) and have everyone try and guess what your dream job is.
It doesn't have to be one of the jobs from the song - I always use "astronaut".
Then give out the worksheets and have everyone draw their dream job and write the word. As they
are drawing, go around the room asking questions and giving lots of praise and encouragement.
When everyone has finished, get each student in turn to hold up their picture and say "I want to be
a/an …". For higher level students you can ask them some questions, such as "Why do you want to
be (a doctor)?"
Idea: You can have everyone stick their worksheets to the wall or notice board under the title "Our
Dream Jobs". You can then use the pictures in future classes to review the vocab.
