A while back, one of my elementary schools requested that I read some English picture books to my sixth graders.\u00c2\u00a0 So I ran to the nearest Junkudo (an hour away) and picked up the three most interesting (but still simple) I could find from their small selection.\u00c2\u00a0 I was surprised how well it went over, considering that this was one of my more difficult classes that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really seem to have a lot of confidence or interest in English.\u00c2\u00a0 So I started always bringing the books with me as sort of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbreak glass in case of emergency\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tool.\u00c2\u00a0 They proved to be especially useful in my younger classes when I had extra time because other activities went shorter than expected.\u00c2\u00a0 The reception was even better than with my sixth graders \u00e2\u20ac\u201c little kids love<\/em> pictures books regardless of what language they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in.\u00c2\u00a0 The books were probably even more<\/em> exciting because they were in English.<\/p>\n It came time to teach animals to my first and second graders at the same elementary school.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the books I had happened to pick up was From Head to Toe<\/em> by Eric Carl (a classic for many of you, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure).\u00c2\u00a0 The book introduces twelve or so animals and gestures commonly associated to them in simple English.\u00c2\u00a0 So I thought to myself, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hey, why not use this book as a jumping off point for the animal lesson?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 What was a spur of the moment idea turned into a three lesson mini unit that was really fun for the kids and got them to remember the names of the animals in the book really well.<\/p>\n The lessons go as follows (please note that each \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lesson\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was actually only about fifteen or twenty minutes out of the class period).<\/p>\n Lesson 1<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n For the first lesson I read the book twice.\u00c2\u00a0 The first time the kids just listen.\u00c2\u00a0 The second time I have the kids do the gestures as written in the book after each page \u00e2\u20ac\u201c cat arches its back, gorilla thumps its chest, etc. (be careful on the donkey page! I usually just have the kids do a small one foot kick, but some kids may actually try to stand on their hands and kick as pictured so make sure they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accidently hit anyone).\u00c2\u00a0 Each page ends with \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI can do it! I can do it!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 which I try to have the kids repeat as they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing the gestures (though some kids will just say it on their own \u00e2\u20ac\u201c super cute!).<\/p>\n After we finish with the book, I use flashcards and drill the kids on the animal names and gestures.\u00c2\u00a0 Since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all still new at the point they may need quite a bit of repetition, especially with the more unusual animals: buffalo, camel, crocodile, parrot (the parrot doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually have a gesture in the book so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your choice if you want to include him or not.\u00c2\u00a0 When I did, I used an arm flapping motion).\u00c2\u00a0 After enough drilling, we play a simple gesture game.\u00c2\u00a0 First I do the gestures and the kids have to guess what animal I am.\u00c2\u00a0 Then I call out an animal and the kids have to do the correct gesture.<\/p>\n Lesson 2<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n In this lesson we review and consolidate what we did in the first.\u00c2\u00a0 I read the book for review, but only once, and I have students do the gestures as I read.\u00c2\u00a0 Afterwards we drill the animals again with flashcards and gestures.\u00c2\u00a0 They should be starting to get the hang of them now, but make sure to work on the ones they have trouble with.\u00c2\u00a0 We ran out of time this lesson due to other activities, so we finished with a quick round of the gesture game for practice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lesson 3<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n This was the grand finale.\u00c2\u00a0 We drilled the animals with flashcards and gestures one more time, though this time I asked students, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What animal do you like?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because we had also been working on that as well (but with fruit).\u00c2\u00a0 By this time, the kids have all the animals and gestures down (the HRT and I were so proud of them!) so we played the Mysterious Animals game from Englipedia.\u00c2\u00a0 The kids have a secret animal card on their back and have to guess what it is by having another student perform the right gesture for them.\u00c2\u00a0 If they get it right they would come to me or the HRT, say the animal name, and then get a new card.\u00c2\u00a0 There are sets of cards on Englipedia, but since I used From Head to Toe,<\/em> I made my own set using clip art I found on Google.\u00c2\u00a0 I laminated the cards (since the little ones have a habit of destroying things), punched a hole in each one, and then tied a string through it so I could easily put it over the kids heads.\u00c2\u00a0 The kids had a ton of fun!\u00c2\u00a0 The only problem was, the kids were so good at the animal names and gestures that the HRT and I had our hands full giving the kids new cards so they could keep playing!<\/p>\n Points to be careful of and resources<\/span>:<\/p>\n\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/animalcards-image.jpg\" "\\"Animal")
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