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Canada: The ice road

Episode of the series Look Closer

CEFR: A2

In this episode

Illustrated slideshow (31 images)
Glossary (15 words)
Comprehension quiz (10 questions)
9 cultural notes

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The episode

The ice road to Aklavik, a small village in the north of Canada, is built every winter on frozen rivers, so that trucks and families can drive there until the ice melts in spring.

Episode worksheets (2)

Student sheet In your teacher account
Teacher sheet In your teacher account

Teaching guide

Objective & content

This Look Closer episode (the winter episode of the mini-series Canada through the seasons) is a short documentary about an ice road in the north of Canada, a road on frozen rivers that goes to Aklavik, a small village people can only reach by plane or by boat in summer. A single narrator explains how workers build the road every winter: they take the snow off, because snow keeps the cold out of the ice, then pump water onto the ice so that it gets thicker, and a big truck needs about one metre of ice. For about four months, trucks bring supplies to the village and families drive to the next town to shop. The narrator then looks closely at the trucks, which drive slowly and far from each other, and explains why: a fast truck makes a wave in the water under the ice, and the wave can break the ice. In spring the ice melts, and the road is a river again. It is a comprehension episode: the narration uses the present simple, with can and the comparative thicker, and no grammar point is taught. Learners listen, then answer the 10 questions in the app: 7 on facts and 3 on vocabulary (frozen, thicker, melts). The study topic is Canada through the seasons, one season per episode: here, winter on the ice road.

Materials & prerequisites

The folder holds the audio, the slideshow and the script. Each pack is a one-page PDF with the text, three photos, the key words and the 10 questions: a pupil pack, and a teacher pack with the answers highlighted. It also has a pupil sheet and a teacher sheet with the answer key. It has no lesson plan. Play the episode twice, hand out the pupil pack, then use the closing question (Would you like to drive on a road made of ice?) for a short class discussion about travelling in winter. Learners should know the words road, river, plane, boat, winter and summer. The pack's key words explain the new words (ice road, frozen, pump, freeze, thick).

Curriculum alignment

Tagged daily-life-places-rhythms-seasons (5e, "Le quotidien : lieux, rythmes, saisons", Cycle 4). The episode targets CEFR level A2-.

Possible adaptations

Lower levels: Offer segmented listening and additional visual aids.
Advanced levels: Encourage an oral summary and a debate in English on the theme.
Large groups: Organise group work with differentiated roles.

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