An Animal Merry-Go-Round

Today we set on a very interesting journey. During our trip we’re going to meet different animals. So Fluffy Mouse welcomes us! (Its picture is on the blackboard).
Now split into two teams. Name your team (the names are written on the blackboard, the teacher scores the points).

Task 1. Our merry-go-round needs some fuel. Your correct pronunciation will lubricate its engine.

Look at the blackboard. Can you read the sounds? Repeat after me. What is the main sound in these words?

N1	N2	N3	N4
[i:]	[i]	[ai]	[a:]
eagle	oryx	bison	shark
zebra	pigeon	lion	giraffe
cheetah	gorilla	crocodile
	hippo	python
	lizard

Task 2. Why not to practice using your tongues? Here are tongue twisters.
1. For fine fresh fish phone Phil.
2. Fren feeds fish fresh fish food.
3. Swan swam over the sea.
“Swim, Swan, swim!”
4. Swan swam back again;
“Well swum, Swan!”

Task 3. Man has always lived with animals. Can you describe them using only 1 word?
Try to give antonyms.
(P1 – P2, e.g. wild – domestic, tiny – huge, etc.)

Task 4. In your childhood you used to listen to a number of fairy tales. Try to guess some characters.
1. He is little. He is very funny. He is pink. His best friends are Christopher Robin and a teddy bear”. (Piglet)
2. He is a kind of wild animal. He likes playing tricks on Brother Fox. He can always find ways out of difficult situations as he is smart and quick-witted. (Brother Rabbit)
3. And of course you have watched a lot of films about animals. Do you remember who were Mougly’s friends? (Baloo, Kaa the Python, Bagira the panther, etc.)

Task 5. It’s time to share your knowledge. Can you answer the following questions?
A.
1. Do you know that zoos in many countries are changing?
2. Have you ever been to the Moscow Zoo?
3. Do you know any rules for visitors in safari parks?
2. Does Moscow Zoo look like a safari park?
5. How do visitors move through Safari parks?
6. Do big animals live in small cages there?
7. I am sure you know Nikolai Nikolaevich Drozdov. He has been hosting a very popular show “V Mire Zhivotnykh” (In the World of Animals). He is afraid of no animals but angry elephants. Can you tell why? What about you?

B. Take some paper and write the rules for visitors in a Safari park.

Task 6. Now let’s talk a-key language.
For example, in Russian we’ve got:
ма – ка, ма – ша = каша
ма – та, ма – рел, ма – ка = тарелкa
It’s the same in English:
key – r, key – a, key– t = rat

Now it’s your turn. Give a name of any animal you met in the text you read at home. Use a key language. (The teams guess 2 animals.)

Task 7. Find habitats for animals. Give comments. (There are 28 small cards with animals and 6 big cards with habitats, such as Arctic region, Sea, River, Mountains, Desert, Forest.)
The teacher adds some facts to the pupils’ speaking about the Desert as a habitat:
“Do you know there is the Banderic Desert in Iraq? It is surrounded by sanddunes. Though it is about 50 degrees in the daytime and about zero at night you can sleep outside. The climate is very dry there. You can enjoy the Milky Way with millions of stars.”

Task 8. You’re going to check your knowledge of the names of birds, fish, and animals.
Translate into Russian as quickly as you can. (The teams give the words from the cards in turn.)

platypus	bison	passenger pigeon	elephant
giraffe	penguin	ostrich	cheetah
crocodile	python	whale	dodo
wolf	oryx	gorilla	monkey
hippo	lion	zebra	dinosaur
walrus	worm	frog	mouse
koala	rat	kangaroo	spider
hippo	lizard	tortoise	shark
turtle	eagle	panda	parrot
budgerigar	camel	bear	rabbit

 

Task 9. So I see you’re ready for the next task. Take my cards. Read the sentences.
Your classmates will guess the names of the animals.

1. It is 3 metres tall/ 10 m long/ it weighs more than 5 tons. (an elephant)
2. It is 4 m long/ more than 1 m tall/ it’s got small ears/ it has got a small tail. (a hippo)
3. It is more than 1 m tall/ weighs 165 kilos/ lives in the mountains. (a gorilla)
4. It is more than 3 m long/ it is up to 3 m tall/ weighs up to 1,350 kilos. (a bison)
5. It used to live in North America/ it used to like nuts and seeds/ it used to be up to 46 centimetres high. (a passenger pigeon)
6. It used to be 15 m tall/ used to have a very long neck about 11 m long/ used to be of 24 m long/ used to weigh 22,000 kilos. (a dinosaur)
7. It used to live on an island in the Indian Ocean/it didn’t fly. (a dodo)
8. It lives in the desert in Saudi Arabia/ it can protect itself with long horns/ it has got tall and slender legs. (an oryx)

Task 10. At home you prepared crosswords and wordsearches.
Do 2 of them.

f	c	r	o	c	o	d	i	l	e
b	w	e	h	a	n	q	r	j	p
k	a	v	e	m	t	p	y	l	g
o	l	s	w	e	i	c	a	f	h
y	r	k	o	l	u	t	m	t	a
n	u	j	e	r	v	i	b	p	x
q	s	r	t	h	p	g	j	l	a
v	o	w	u	p	a	r	r	o	t
d	z	s	c	a	j	k	l	p	g

 

f	c	a	w	l	b	m	g
p	e	n	g	u	i	n	o
t	a	y	r	o	d	s	r
e	h	n	k	l	o	c	i
w	u	j	d	g	n	f	l
i	v	c	b	a	e	r	l
l	i	z	a	r	d	y	a

Task 11. It’s interesting to know there are some proverbs with the names of some animals.
Can you find Russian equivalents to English proverbs?

1. Can a leopard change its spots? (Горбатого могила исправит.)
2. The fox may grow grey but never good. (Горбатого могила исправит.)
3. Every dog is a lion at home. (Дома и стены помогают.)
4. The owl thinks her own young the fairest. (Каждая Алёнка хвалит свою бурёнку.)
Our Animal merry-go-round is stopping. But the world of literature is open for you. While reading you will meet a terrific “Hound of the Baskervilles” and a friendly dog with “Three Men in a Boat”. You will be puzzled when viewing the huge grin of Cheshire Cat who was an acquaintance of Alice in Wonderland.