S2E12 - Who Lived Here?

Objective & content

George and Ollie stop in front of a painting of Sir Hartley and a suit of armour, and piece together who the knight was, when he lived and what he built. The episode teaches the past simple of be in positive, negative and question forms (He wasn't alone; Was he a knight, do you think?), with the past forms lived and built. The vocabulary field is castle life and history (knight, painting, hall, helmet, ancient). Learners listen for the facts about the knight, then take the in-app quiz.

Pedagogical guide

German and Italian learners have a close parallel here (war/waren, era/erano), so this episode builds confidence before harder past-simple questions. The point to drill is was with a singular subject and were with a plural one. Sir Hartley is an invented knight, so the episode is not teaching real history.

Suggested procedure

1. (3 min) Show an old portrait and ask how old it is and who the person was.
2. (5 min) Introduce George and Ollie, then preview knight, painting, hall and helmet.
3. (4 min) First listen: who was the man in the painting, and what happens near the armour?
4. (8 min) Second listen with pauses after Ollie's joke about the frown, the five children and the helmet falling.
5. (7 min) Write the positive, negative and question forms on the board with one script example each.
6. (6 min) In pairs, ask three was / were questions about an old object, person or place.

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 present simple of be and numbers to a thousand.

Curriculum alignment

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