ENGLISH LH 5.

2 ANIMALS AROUND US

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Competence and didactic situation

This is the second unit for Primary 5. Across the subjects, the pupils will be looking at how we
observe the things around us. In English we will be observing the animals around us.
In the initial phase the pupils are asked:
What animals do you see when you look around your neighbourhood? A dog, a cat, some birds,
a horse in the distance? But if you observe very carefully, can you see the shy ones, the very
small ones, the ones in water? Wouldn’t you like to know more about the animals around us?

The competence for this unit is the following:

The pupil, describes animals in their environment (their characteristics and how to look after
them) and reports on their findings using the appropriate language and ICT tools and
showing an awareness of the needs of the animals and concern for their wellbeing.

In order to achieve this competence, pupils will find out about types of animals that live
around us; domestic animals such as pets and farm animals and also wild animals.
In the first module, the pupils will become aware of some of the issues involved in having
animals inside in houses and on farms and our responsibilities to take care of animals in our
care. They will prepare and present pet report cards.
In the second module, they will look at animals outside and learn how to classify animals into
different vertebrate and invertebrate groups. At the end of the module, they will apply text-
processing skills to demonstrate the life-cycle of an animal.
Literature will be used in the form of stories, poems and songs to support the theme.
For the final task, the pupils will choose one of the animals that make up a set of different
animal groups and describe their appearance, a DYK fact, and say if they are suitable or not as
a pet. Some of this information will then be used to create a pack of cards to play Happy
families and Guess Who.

The language needed to carry out the tasks is embedded in the activities; sometimes as pre-
work, sometimes as post-work analysis. The specific language items covered in this unit can be
found in section 3.1. of this guide.

1.2. Didactic objectives

1. To select and organize relevant information from various provided sources which respond
to the task, showing an appropriate level of autonomy.

2. To give information about animals (appearance, habits, life cycle..) using the appropriate
language and where necessary, using appropriate ICT tools (text processing, photo search
and upload...) showing an appropriate level of autonomy.

3. To give justified opinions about animal welfare freely and respectfully, and advice on how
to care for animals, using the appropriate language.

4. To reproduce stories, poems and songs making an effort to use acceptable pronunciation
in order to facilitate communication.

5. To participate and cooperate in classroom activities and make an effort to speak in

English and reflect on their work and progress.

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ENGLISH LH 5.2 ANIMALS AROUND US

MAP OF THE UNIT SEQUENCE

INTRODUCTION
Animals around us, Pets’ survey: animals in our class,
Song: AAU

MODULE 1: ANIMALS INSIDE

Pet poems, Looking after pets, Farm animals,
Story: The four musicians

TASK
Write pet report cards

MODULE 2: ANIMALS OUTSIDE

Nature walk, Classifying animals, Life cycles: eel,
frog, butterfly, Song: Sargasso

TASK
Create a life cycle digitally

FINAL TASK: ANIMAL CARDS

TASK - Prepare Happy Families & Guess Who games

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ENGLISH LH 5.2 ANIMALS AROUND US

1.5. ACTIVITY LIST OBJECTIVES

INTRODUCTION – What are we going to do?

0. Introductory situation – comic (Introductory activity) (1,5)

Reading a comic strip to introduce the situation.

1. Animals, animals, animals (Exploring activity) (2)

Brainstorming animal names in English and classifying them into those that are around us or
not.

2. SONG: AAU (Exploring activity) (1,2,4)

Learning and singing a song on the theme of ‘animals around us’.

3. Pets’ survey (Exploring activity) (2)

Carrying out a survey to find out what pets the pupils have and how many, and writing up the
results.

4. What are we going to do? (Planning activity) (5)

Looking at the plan of the project and reflecting on how we will manage with the tasks
and activities.

DEVELOPMENT PHASE - What are we going to learn to do that?

MODULE 1. ANIMALS INSIDE

5. Pet poems (Comprehension activity) (1,4)

Completing poems according to the rhyme and learning one.

6. Mum! Can I have a pet? (Comprehension activity) (1,5)

Listening to a conversation about looking after pets and identifying the main
topics.

7. Looking after pets (Examining activity) (3)

Deciding on the needs of pets.

8. Feeding pets (Application activity) (2)

Finding out what diet pets need.

9. Animals supporting people (Application activity) (1,3)

Thinking of ways in which animals support people.

10. Farm animals (Examining activity) (3,5)

Giving opinions on what are acceptable and unacceptable farm practices.

11. Story. The four musicians (Comprehension activity) (1,5)

Ordering the story of the farm animals who run away to be musicians.

12. Language in the story (Examining activity) (1)

Classifying past tense verbs and writing infinitive and negative forms.

13. Sketch: The four musicians (Structuring activity) (4,5)

Converting the story into a short sketch to read out with partners.
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14. Animal word search (Application activity) (2)

Creating a word search puzzle with animal names.

15. My own pet (SIA) (2,5)

Describing a pet that the pupils have or would like to have.

16. Reflection on our work (Self-assessment) (5)

Reflecting on our work and progress.

MODULE 2. ANIMALS OUTSIDE

17. Nature walk (Examining activity) (2,5)

Walking, observing and noting down (taking photos of) animals we see.

18. Jigsaw reading (Comprehension activity) (1,2)

Reading and sharing information about animals around us.

19. Animal parts (Examining activity) (1)

Labelling animal body parts.

20. Grouping animals - our ideas (Structuring activity) (2)

Classifying animals according to characteristics observed on animal cards.

21. Classifying animals - like scientists (Application activity) (2,5)

Categorising animals according to given scientific classification using a key.

22. Loop cards (Application activity) (1)

Identifying animals according to characteristics given.

23. Twenty questions (Application activity) (2)

Guessing the animal by asking questions about their characteristics and giving short yes /
no answers.

24. Information gap (Application activity) (2)

Asking a partner yes / no questions about the characteristics of animals to discover their
identity.

25. Writing about animals (Structuring activity) (1,2)

Filling in a table about characteristics of animals and using it to write a
description of each type.

26. Animal crossword (Structuring activity) (2)

Creating a crossword puzzle about animals with clues.

27. The life of an eel (Comprehension activity) (1,2)

Interpreting a text in order to make and write the life cycle of the eel.

28. Song: Sargasso (Comprehension activity) (1,4)

Ordering and singing a song about the eels.

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ENGLISH LH 5.2 ANIMALS AROUND US

29. Life cycle: the frog (Examining activity) (2)

Matching and ordering the life cycle of a frog.

30. Digital check (Examining activity) (2)

Uploading photos and text processing.

31. Life cycle: the butterfly (Application / SIA activity) (2,5)

Matching, ordering and writing the life cycle of a butterfly in digital format.

LET’S DO IT!

32. Animal cards: preparation (CIA) (2)

Preparing the information about an animal.

33. Animal cards (CIA) (2)

Preparing the digital template of the animal card.

34. Ready to play? (CIA) (2)

Playing games with the cards: Happy Families & Guess Who.

35. How did we get on? (Self-assessment activity) (5)

Reflecting on the final task.

36. How did we get on with this unit? (Self-assessment activity) (5)
Reflecting on our work and progress made during the unit.

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1.6. DRAFT PLAN OF SESSIONS

1ST SESSION 2ND SESSION 3RD SESSION

1ST WEEK ▪ Introduction – comic ▪ AAU: The song ▪ Pets’ survey*

▪ Animals, animals, animals ▪ What are we going to
do?

2ND WEEK ▪ Pet poems (h/w) ▪ Mum! Can I have a pet?* ▪ Looking after pets
▪ Feeding pets*

3RD WEEK ▪ Animals supporting ▪ Story. The four musicians ▪ Language in the story
people*
▪ Farm animals*

4TH WEEK ▪ Sketch. The four ▪ Animal word search* (hw) ▪ My own pet
musicians ▪ Reflection on our work

▪ Grouping animals - our

TH
5 WEEK ▪ Nature walk* ▪ Jigsaw reading ideas
▪ Animal parts ▪ Classifying animals - like
▪ Quizlet: Animals (hw) scientists.

6TH WEEK ▪ Loop cards ▪ Information gap ▪ Information gap

▪ 20 questions guess the ▪ Writing about animals
animal

7TH WEEK ▪ Animal crossword * (hw) ▪ The life of an eel* ▪ Song: Sargasso*

8TH WEEK ▪ Life cycle: the frog ▪ Life cycle: the butterfly ▪ Animal cards:
▪ Digital check preparation

▪ How did we get on?

TH
9 WEEK ▪ Animal cards (CIA) ▪ Ready to play? (CIA) ▪ How did we get on with
this project?

hw = possible homework
* = could be left out

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 ENGLISH 5.2 ANIMALS AROUND US

MODULE 2 21. CLASSIFYING ANIMALS - LIKE SCIENTISTS

Animals Categorising animals according to given scientific classification using a key.
outside
Activity type Didactic Contents
objective Concepts Procedures & attitudes

2. To give Science: Competence for science

Application
information about - Classification of animals - Classifying animals
animals using the - Characteristics of different classes of - Listing characteristics of different classes of
appropriate vertebrates & invertebrates vertebrates & invertebrates
language showing
an appropriate level Text genre: information Learning to learn, think & communicate
of autonomy. Expressing discourse: describing
Discursive sequence - Giving information
5. To participate and - Descriptive sequence: Animal - Organising the information according to the given
cooperate in information models
classroom activities - Using the appropriate language
and make an effort Linguistic resources
to speak in English Sentence and word
and reflect on their
Learning to be oneself and communicate
- Verb tenses:
work and progress. - Self-regulation of individual response:
o present simple: have, be, can live,
eat, lay, fly, swim o Making an effort
- Question forms: do / does o Persevering
- Lexical fields
o Body parts:
o Wild animals: .
o Habitat:
o Diet:

Mathematical: classification

Norms for self-regulation

- Perseverance
Resources Interaction Assessment criteria
- Teacher's: - Gave information about animals.
o Cards from previous activity Group work - Used the appropriate language for the task.
o Classification headings - Showed appropriate level of autonomy:
o Posters on animal made an effort in individual work, asked for
classification help.
- Audio / visual: DYK
STEPS
- The scientific classification of animals may have appeared in the previous activity. But here we have a chance
to consolidate the ideas.
- 1-2) tell the pupils they are going to use the same cards but this time they have to group them according to the
headings you give them.
o vertebrates: mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds
o invertebrates: with 6 legs (3 pairs of legs), with more or fewer than 6 legs
- 3) They can use the key to help them group the animals. Do an example or two together.
- 4) Check the groups with the whole class.
- You could use at least one set of cards to make a poster on the wall.

Reflection
Get them to think about how they got on classifying the animals. What strategies they used. How well they worked
together. If they managed to do the work in English, etc.
COMMENTS

DYK. We have some interesting collective words in English to talk about groups of the same animals together. E.g. a
school of fish, a pack of wolves, a flock of sheep, a flutter of butterflies and a pandemonium of parrots!

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