S1E30 - Picnic in the Countryside

Objective & content

The Walker family set up a picnic in a field outside Bristol, just as the forecast promised. Then George hears thunder, the rain arrives, Paul falls in a muddy puddle while running for the car, and they end up laughing over dry sandwiches. The episode is a payoff for the previous forecast episode and adds no new grammar: it reviews be + adjective for how people and things are (I'm completely wet and muddy.). The vocabulary is weather and nature: sunny, thunder, rain, wet, mud, puddle, dry, field, tree, blanket. Learners listen for what goes wrong and how everyone feels, then check their understanding with the in-app quiz.

Pedagogical guide

The forecast was right in the last episode and wrong here, which gives pupils a reason to listen for sunny against thunder and rain. Weather and physical states take be in English, not have: French pupils who say j'ai chaud may produce I have hot, so the correct form is I am hot. Repeat be + adjective sentences (wet, muddy, dry) so the pattern settles.

Suggested procedure

1. (3 min) Warm-up: ask what the weather is like today, recall the forecast from the last episode and ask whether it will be right.
2. (5 min) Set the scene (a field, a blanket, a tree) and preview the ten words.
3. (4 min) First listen: was the forecast right, and what happens to the picnic?
4. (8 min) Second listen with pauses: what did the forecast promise, what sound does George hear, what happens to Paul, and what is wet and what is dry?
5. (7 min) Grammar focus: practise be + adjective (I'm wet, The sandwiches are dry) with a thumbs up or down drill (I is wet is wrong).
6. (6 min) Pupils draw "the forecast" and "what really happens" and describe both to a partner.

Materials & prerequisites

The episode in the PLAY app (audio, slideshow, text and quiz), a student sheet and a teacher sheet with the answer key. Learners need the episode before it (the forecast), weather words and be with adjectives.

Curriculum alignment

Cycle 3 (6e), axis "The child and their close environment": weather and nature.