Five-Minute Activities for Young Learners

1.14 Human attributes of animals
Level
***
Language focus
Discussion, because, so, adjectives
Skills focus
Speaking
Thinking focus
Explaining and justifying choices
Teaching approach
Promote creativity – accept errors
Interaction
Group work, suitable for large classes
Preparation
List the animals on the board and write the sentence stems
from Box 16. Do not write the personal characteristics.
Procedure
1 Ask the children to suggest a personal characteristic which matches an
animal on the board. Write the personal attribute alongside the name of the
animal. You may have to give them an example to illustrate. See Box 16.
You might also like to add other animals which are familiar to the children.
2 When every animal has a human attribute, ask small groups of children
to decide which animals should live in the same community, and give
reasons for their choices. For example, I think the owl and the sheep
should live together because the owl is wise and the sheep are stupid. The
owl could tell the sheep what to do. In their discussions, encourage the
children to use the sentence stems from the board.
3 Ask the groups to report their findings back to the whole class.
Five-Minute Activities for Young Learners
24

---