Activity

Animals are doing things.

Your students will practice making present progressive (present continuous) sentences from silly pictures of animals.

Description:

This is a slideshow (it uses Powerpoint, but could be converted to Google Slides) in which 1st year JHS students practice using the present progressive or present continuous form. The students see an animal doing an activity on the screen. Then they answer what the animal is doing. (Ex: "A hedgehog is skateboarding.")


Requirements:

  • Students need something to write with.
  • Students can write in their notebooks, or you can give them writing paper.
  • You need a computer (or maybe a tablet) to run the slideshow off of.

Procedure:

1) Show the students an animal and ask them if they know its English name.
2) Show the students the spelling of the name and give them 1 minute for writing time.
3) Call on some students to answer.


Tips & Advice:

  • On the slide is the most basic answer. But if your students try, they should be able to come up with 2-3 more answers for each picture. (Ex: "A monkey is using a smartphone." --> "A monkey is taking a bath." OR "A monkey is holding a smartphone.")
  • It can be difficult for them to imagine the extra answers at first so I like to give them some examples for question 1. I may ask the teacher to say an answer as well.
2
Submitted by NagaokaMike October 21, 2022 Estimated time: 25-30 mins
  1. NagaokaMike October 21, 2022

    Slideshow coming soon, I hope. The network at one of my schools doesn't allow me to upload files. :(

  2. Mrouzo October 31, 2022

    where is the Powerpoint or pdf? I would love to share this with 1st year students..

  3. NagaokaMike November 1, 2022

    Curse my network! It won't let me upload files. I'll upload a file later if I can. In the mean time, you can make a simple slideshow on your own if you want to try it.

    First get about 8-10 images for the students to look at and write sentences. Examples to google: "cat eating sushi", "pig doing karate", "monkey using smartphone", "dog drinking coffee", "hamster playing the guitar", "squirrel using a camera", "elephant playing basketball", "hedgehog skateboarding".

  4. NagaokaMike November 1, 2022

    To make the slideshow: Start with the image. Next, I show the animal's name so the students can start writing. (ex: "The elephant") I ask the students if they know the animal's name in class. I show it after they guess. Last is the second partof the sentence. (ex: "is playing basketball.")

    So to review, the animations are: (1) The image appears. (2) The first part of the sentence appears. (3) The second part of the sentence appears.

    Do this about 8 times and you're done.

  5. NagaokaMike November 1, 2022

    If anyone tries making a presentation (or already has one), feel free to upload it here. I'll add mine when I find a workaround for my network blocking everything trying to get out...

  6. UonumaRobert November 1, 2022

    https://www.altopedia.net/activities/851-what-are-animals-doing-game

  7. NagaokaMike November 1, 2022

    Yes. My slideshow is like this. ^ But I haven't made it into a full-fledged game. It's writing practice and a chance to get stickers. Before the game (and sometimes after) do a gesture game, like charades, and get the students to guess what I'm doing. That's about enough for one lesson.

  8. UonumaRobert November 1, 2022

    Sure, but until you can get it uploaded a user can grab the pictures from my old one. Although google search 'animals doing human stuff' provides plenty of good hits.

  9. NagaokaMike November 1, 2022

    Thanks. You're a legend.

Sign in or create an account to leave a comment.