At the swimming pool

Objective & content

A two-page pack for one everyday situation: going swimming and buying tickets at the pool. Pupils learn the words (goggles, swimming cap, towel, locker, lifeguard, swimming bag) and the phrases to buy tickets and ask questions (How much is it? What time does the pool close? Where are the lockers?) and understand the rules and answers (You must have a shower first. It closes at seven.). Then they hear the same language in a real conversation, the Listen Up! episode "At the swimming pool", and use it themselves in a role-play. By the end, they can buy tickets at a pool, ask about the times and the rules, and understand the answers.

Pedagogical guide

Page 1 is the language of the situation. Pupils talk about a picture of a mother and her son paying at the reception desk of a sports centre, write six words under new drawings (the first is done), read a box of useful phrases (what you say or ask, and what you hear), and match five questions to their answers. Page 2 puts the language to work. Pupils complete a short dialogue with words from a box (Leo and his sister at the pool), then listen to the episode: Priya and her dad want to swim, but the big pool is closed for a school class. A QR code on the sheet plays the recording on a phone or a tablet, with no app and no login. Pupils tick true or false, listen again for four short answers, then do a role-play with A and B cards: a customer buys tickets and asks the receptionist about the pool. Card B holds the information card A needs, so pupils have to ask. Every task opens with an example. Page 1 and the dialogue use other names, places and prices, so they never give away a listening answer. Page 3 is the answer key with the teacher notes.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Pupils look at the picture on page 1 and say where the people are and what they are doing.
2. (5 min) Pupils write the words under the pictures; check together.
3. (5 min) Pupils read the useful phrases aloud in pairs, one asking and one answering.
4. (5 min) Pupils match the questions to the answers.
5. (5 min) Page 2: pupils complete the dialogue with the words in the box.
6. (10 min) Play the episode once for true or false, then again for the short answers.
7. (10 min) Role-play in pairs with card A and card B, then pupils swap cards.
8. (5 min) Check the answers with page 3.

Adaptations

[S] Pupils read the useful phrases aloud in pairs before the role-play, and keep page 1 in front of them while they play it. [A] Pupils invent their own problem in the same place and act it out without the cards.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of pages 1 and 2 per pupil; cut out the role cards on page 2. Page 3 is the answer key: keep it. To play the episode, pupils scan the QR code with a phone or a tablet, or you play it to the class from the app (Listen Up!, "At the swimming pool"). Pupils need telling the time, prices, and must for rules.