S2E22 - The Harbourside

Objective & content

Paul and George are on the quayside at Bristol harbour, waiting for the ferry. Paul asks George to read the fares and the timetable, then stops for chips, and a seagull takes them. The episode teaches the questions how much for a price (How much are the chips?) and how often for frequency (How often does the ferry go?), with travel vocabulary (ferry, ticket, timetable, adult, child, pounds). Learners listen for fares and times, work out the family fare, and check their understanding with the in-app quiz.

Pedagogical guide

The fare board makes the arithmetic part of the comprehension: two adults and two children make sixteen pounds. The predictable error is one question word for both ideas (How much do you come here?); German uses wie and Italian has the same split, so drill the two questions side by side. Chips means hot fried potatoes, not crisps.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Warm-up: draw a fare board on the board (child £3, adult £5) and ask pupils to work out the price for two children.
2. (7 min) First listen, books closed: do they catch the ferry?
3. (10 min) Second listen with the comprehension questions; pause after the family fare and check the sum together.
4. (10 min) Grammar: two columns, How much...? answered with money and How often...? answered with a frequency; sort every question from the script.
5. (8 min) Vocabulary, then pairs role-play a ticket desk using a fare board they invent.
6. (5 min) Wrap-up: pupils write the point of Paul's last line in one sentence.

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 numbers to a hundred, telling the time, and is/are and do/does questions.

Curriculum alignment

Cycle 4 (5e), programme axes "The United Kingdom" and "Daily life: places, rhythms, seasons": buying a ticket and reading a timetable in Bristol.