Sport

Introduction

In this lesson, learners will review vocabulary for sports and extend it with the equipment needed to play various sports. They watch a story about an adventure camp and also take part in a pyramid discussion. There is an option to make a poster.

Learning outcomes

• Develop and practise vocabulary for sports, sports cequipment and extreme sports.
• Practise listening for detail
• Take part in discussions

Age/ Level

Aged 9-12 (CEFR A2+)

Time

110-120 minutes over 2 lessons

Materials

• Lesson plan
• Presentation
• A4 paper - 1 per group
• Access to a projector and Internet access
• Story: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/short-stories/buzz-and-bobs-big-adventure 

Optional

• Paper and coloured pencils for making a poster (stage 4)

Lesson one (50-60 minutes)

Warmer (10 mins)

• Pretend to kick a ball. Ask learners what sport you are playing and elicit ‘football’. Now ask learners what other sports they know and brainstorm a few on the board. 
• Put learners in small groups. Give each group a piece of blank paper and ask one person to be the group writer.
• Say a letter of the alphabet. Groups must write down a sport starting with that letter and hold up their paper. Give points for correct answers. NB: Avoid difficult letters. 
  Some ideas:
  Athletics/ aerobics; Baseball/ basketball; Cycling/ cricket; Diving/ darts, E, Football/ Fencing; Golf/ gymnastics, Hockey/ handball; Ice-hockey; Judo/ Javelin; K; Long jump/ lacrosse; Motorsport/ marathon; Netball/ nine-pin bowling; Orienteering/ open water swimming; Paddleboarding/ paragliding; Q; Rugby/ rowing; Skateboarding/ skiing; Tennis/ table tennis; Ultimate frisbee/ unicycling; Volleyball/ vaulting; Wrestling/Weight-lifting/ X; Yachting/ yoga; Zumba/ zorb football
• Repeat this action several times. Then check how many points each group has got.
• You could show slide 2 at the end. You may need to explain or bring up photographs of some of the sports.

Sports revision game (10-15 minutes)

• Mime a sport and ask learners to guess the sport. Say “What sport is this?”
• Ask the student who guesses correctly to be ‘;teacher’ and to mime another sport. They should ask the question. Drill the question, if needed.
• Nominate one student in each group to be teacher. Indicate that the person who guesses correctly takes the teacher role. 
• The ‘teacher’ in each group mimes a sport and the other group members guess what it is. 
• Monitor and support. Allow time for most learners to have had a turn at miming.

Sports equipment (20 mins)

• Put learners into groups. Ask them to prepare their notebooks and pens.
• Ask them to write 1-16 in their notebook. Tell learners they will be doing a group quiz.
• Elicit the meaning of equipment, write it on the board and drill the pronunciation.  
• Tell learners they will see 16 pictures of sports equipment. They need to write down the name of the sport and the name of the equipment. They get 1 point for each correct answer. 
• Tell learners they have 10 minutes and display slide 3. You can also draw the equipment on the board or use flashcards (see useful links). 
  Answers (accept any reasonable guesses):
  1.    Bat and ball (baseball/ rounders)
  2.    (rugby) ball
  3.    Boxing glove
  4.    (foot) ball 
  5.    Racket and ball (tennis)
  6.    Pins (bowling)
  7.    Skate (skating)
  8.    Flippers (snorkelling/ diving)
  9.    Skateboard
  10.    Weight (weight lifting)
  11.    (golf) clubs/ bag
  12.    Swords (fencing/ kendo)
  13.    Bow and arrow (archery)
  14.    Yacht
  15.    (cricket) bat and ball
  16.    Goal and ball (football)

Speaking (10-15 minutes)

• Ask learners to decide on a sport. Ask them to individually write or draw the clothes and equipment that you need for that sport. Monitor and support with vocabulary as needed.

• Drill the following target language:

   - For this sport you need…

   - Is it ……?

• Describe the equipment needed for one sport (using ‘For this sport you need…) and prompt learners to guess the sport (using ‘is it…?).
• Put learners into groups. One learner describes a sport by the clothes and equipment it needs and the others in the group try to be the first to say the sport.
• Monitor and support with language 
  Note: For a more challenging activity,groups can choose a sport and make a poster about it. They can draw and write about the clothes and equipment needed, where it is played, the rules of the game, famous players of the sport and any other ideas they suggest. Monitor and help with language where necessary. When they have finished, display the posters around the room.  

Lesson two (60 minutes)

Extreme sports vocabulary (20 mins)

•    Ask learners if they know what an extreme sport is and if they can give you any examples. Draw the following sports on the board or use slide 4 to help elicit or teach them:
 - Rock climbing, snowboarding, parachuting. canoeing
  - If possible, play the ‘Extreme’ word game (see useful links). Or display slide 5 and ask learners to match the pictures and text.
Answers:
1.    F - BMX biking
2.    A – Caving
3.    B - Parachuting
4.    E- Snowboarding
5.    D - Rock climbing
6.    J - Surfing
7.    G – canoeing
8.    H – Ski jumping
9.    I – Skiing
10.    C – Bungee jumping 

Pyramid discussion (20 minutes)

• Put learners into pairs
• Ask them to rank the sports in order of how dangerous they are. Write and drill some useful discussion language on the board:
  1.    I think _____ is more dangerous than _____
  2.    _______ is the most dangerous 
  3.    I agree
  4.    I don’t agree
• Allow 5 minutes for discussion. Monitor and support with language throughout. Encourage learners to give reasons for their opinions.
• Put pairs together to make groups of 4. They compare their ideas and try to reach an agreement. 
• After 5 minutes lead a whole class discussion. Write the final rankings on the board. 

Story (15 minutes)

• Tell the learners they are going to watch a story about two cousins at an adventure camp. What extreme sports do they do?
• Ask learners to write the days of the week in their notebooks.
• Ask them to watch the story without writing
• Put them into pairs and discuss what they remember. Display slide 6 They should write the sports next to the days.
• Ask learners to listen a second time to check their answers. Allow time for pairs to discuss after watching.

Note: You may have to repeat the story again if learners find the task difficult. This is a learner training strategy
Answers:

Monday – BMX biking
Tuesday – Rock climbing
Wednesday - Rafting
Thursday - Caving
Friday - Surfing
Saturday – Parachuting

• Ask learners if they’d do any of the extreme sports. If you have time this could be a good class discussion.

Setting homework (5 mins)

• Learners can watch the story again at home. If they are members of LearnEnglish Kids, they can also read the comments on the ‘Sports’ Your turn and then leave their own: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/read-write/your-turn/sports 
• Alternatively, you could give them the ‘Sports’ worksheets to complete.

Useful resources

•    Online sports equipment game: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/grammar-vocabulary/word-games/sports-equipment
•    Sports flashcards: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/print-make/flashcards/sports-flashcards 
•    Extreme sports word game: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/grammar-vocabulary/word-games/sports-extreme 
•    Sports worksheets: https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/worksheets/sports