Storytelling and CLIL activities, based on the story by Jonathan London
The following is quite a long lesson plan. You don't have to do all the activities in the same lesson, you can spread them over different days or choose only the activities that suit age and level of your students.
Before telling the story:
- ensure children are familiar with family and clothes vocabulary. If not, you can review it using flashcards
- introduce new vocabulary used in the story
Tell the story:
- interact with children while telling the story. We divided the class in two groups: one group played Froggy's mum and the other group played Froggy. The first group repeated the line: "Frooogggyyy!", while the second group answered: "Whaaaaat?". This way children play an active part in the process of storytelling;
- discuss the pictures in the story
- ask questions on the clothes that appear in the story: "what colour is it?", "how many are there?" and so on.
Check what they remember of the story:
- discuss protagonist
- where is the story set?
- talk about the weather or the season
Check understanding of the story:
- ask children to tell you what is the main idea of the story
- organize a story sequencing activity: order the clothes in the way they appear in the story or order the clothes in the way they should be
Apply the main idea to a different context:
- you can discuss what clothes students wear, in what order
- you can create a different story, where Froggy gets dressed in summer clothes; what would he wear?
Ask children to evaluate the story:
- what's the best part of the story?
- what is their favourite item of clothing?
Introduce a creative moment:
- students may design a new outfit for Froggy
- students may create outfits using recycled materials (paper, post it notes, plastic bags), transform the classroom in a catwalk for children to parade their creations
Introduce CLIL element: why do frogs hibernate?
- explain that when it is very cold, things freeze
- explain meaning of the expression "I'm freezing"
- explain that frogs can freeze in winter and de-frost in spring
- explain how: frogs fill water in their body with sugar so they become like a slush drink rather than an ice cube. They hide in ponds, under the mud
- create a class poster with hibernating frogs (a good example of this could be draw sleeping frogs under the mud in winter and jumping frogs in spring)
Homework: science experiment
- ask children to verify the hibernating process at home with the following science experiment:
- take two plastic cups
- fill both with water
- put a tablespoon of sugar in one cup, write "sugar" on the cup so you know
- put both cups in the freezer
- check after 1 hour: which is completely frozen (like an ice cube) and which looks more like a slush drink?
Let us know how it went!