A Day at the Zoo!

Objective & content

This activity sheet takes pupils to the zoo with Bruno and his class. They read his short story, seven lines long, and complete it with seven words from a picture box: six animals and an ice cream. Then they draw their favourite zoo animal and write about it. By the end, pupils name zoo animals and describe one with It's ... and It's got ....

Pedagogical guide

The word box shows each word under its picture, in a different order from the story. Each gap has a clue that only one word fits: "a big grey ... It's got big ears" is the elephant, "a tall ..." the giraffe, "a black and white ..." the zebra (penguins are black and white too, but penguins is plural and the gap comes after a), "The ... is funny. It's got a long tail" the monkey, "I love the ...! They can swim" the penguins, "The ... is big and yellow" the lion, and "we eat an ..." the ice cream. Each word goes in once. The story uses the language pupils then need: colours, big, tall, long, It's got ... and They can .... Task 2 reuses it: pupils draw their favourite zoo animal in the frame and complete three starters ("My favourite animal is the", "It's", "It's got"). Page 2 gives the answer key and the teacher notes.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Say the seven words in the box with the pictures; pupils repeat and point.
2. (5 min) Read the first two sentences together: which animal is big and grey with big ears? Pupils write elephant in gap 1.
3. (10 min) Pupils complete the other six gaps alone, each word once; check with the answer key.
4. (5 min) In pairs, pupils read the story aloud to each other.
5. (10 min) Task 2: pupils draw their favourite zoo animal and complete the three sentences; volunteers read theirs to the class.

Adaptations

[S] Pupils number the pictures in the box in the order of the story first.

[A] Pupils add a sentence about one more animal: "The crocodile is long and green."

Materials & prerequisites

One copy per pupil of page 1, in colour or black and white. Pupils need a pencil and colouring pencils for their drawing. Page 2 is the answer key with teacher notes: keep it. Pupils should know the colours and a few simple adjectives (big, tall, long, funny).