S2E15 - The Trip Report

Objective & content

George tells his parents everything about the school trip: the castle, Sir Hartley and his soldiers, his friend Ollie, and the pen he nearly lost. The episode is the module's consolidation of the past simple, mixing was / were (The castle was amazing), regular verbs (we walked up a big hill), irregular verbs (A knight called Sir Hartley built the castle) and did questions. The vocabulary field is sightseeing and history. Learners listen for the events in order, then take the in-app quiz.

Pedagogical guide

French and German learners often regularise irregular verbs by analogy (finded, builded), so put found and built on the board and say them aloud. The episode closes the pen story from the previous episode, so pupils who have heard it will catch the callback.

Suggested procedure

1. (3 min) Ask pupils to tell a partner one thing they did on their last school trip.
2. (5 min) Preview knight, soldiers, pen and history.
3. (4 min) First listen: where are George, Kate and Paul, and what is George telling them?
4. (8 min) Second listen with pauses after built the castle, I lost something important and You bought me a pen?
5. (7 min) Sort the script's past forms into four families on the board: was / were, regular, irregular and did questions.
6. (6 min) In groups, retell a real or imagined school trip with one was / were, one regular and one irregular verb.

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 past simple forms from the earlier episodes of the module.

Curriculum alignment

Cycle 4 (5e), axis "School and society": a school trip to a historic site and reporting it to the family.