This is a Circus Directions EFL ESL Lesson Plan for children suitable for preschool and primary aged kids. It will last about 1 hour – 1 and a half hours although you can adapt the activities if you need to make the lesson longer or shorter. In this lesson we’ll be learning about prepositions and giving following directions using fun songs and games. We’ll make a circus themed obstacle course around the classroom and then we’ll invent a funny Clown dance for all the class to do. This would be a great lesson to do outside if that’s possible. If not, don’t worry, we’ll use classroom equipment. So get ready and warm up because we’re going to be moving around a lot today. We’re off to the circus!
For this Circus Directions EFL ESL lesson plan, you will need:
- Circus flashcards – you can make your own or use something like this from the British Council
- Paper
- Colored markers
- Classroom equipment like chairs and tables to build the obstacle course. If you’re outside you could use benches, tables, anything really to go under and over. Plus some sheets or tablecloths to go over them.
Prepositions Songs and Videos:
- Over the Deep Blue Sea by Super Simple Songs – we’re going to change the words completely to this song so you don’t need the video, just learn the tune
- Circus music – you can use anything but I used Circus Music by The Hit Crew
Introduce your lesson
Start your lesson with your usual Hello routine or, if you prefer, you can use one of my favorite Hello songs. Then start introducing your theme. If you’re doing this as part of a series of Circus themed lessons, you’ve probably already looked at the different people you find at the circus. If not, have a look at them now and drill the vocabulary using lots of TPR. When you’ve done this, you can start looking at directions. You’ll need to teach up, down, forwards, backwards, around, under and over. Do this by pointing and moving in each direction with lots of actions. Get the kids to do the movements with you.
Play a game
It’s time to practice our directions. You’ll need a bit of space for this so if your classroom isn’t very big, see if you can use the corridor or the playground as well. Get the children to make a line and hold on to each other’s shoulders, like a long train. They could be the Circus Train. Then give them directions so they have to move along and around the classroom. When they’ve got the hang of it, let the child at the front of the train call out the directions. Change over a few times so that more kids get a go giving directions.
Learn a song
Now we know the directions, we’re going to learn a song. It’s sung to the tune of Over the Deep Blue Sea but I’ve made up new words to reflect our Circus theme. This is how it goes:
'Twas a sunny day when I went to play and the Circus came to town
I went into the circus tent and there I met a clown
We're going over, under, forwards, backwards
Up and down and round and round
And over the elephant
While you’re singing, do the actions for the directions and make up some actions for the tent, the clown and the elephant. Change the words if you want to add other circus people or different directions.
Let’s build a Circus Tent obstacle course
Before building your obstacle course, you need to design it with your class. Ask them to take turns to draw on the board and obstacle that you might find in the circus tent. Or you draw it and ask them to guess what it is. You could have: go around the strongman, go up the ladder, go under the elephant, go over the clown, anything you like really. Once you’ve decided on all your obstacles, it’s time to build it in the classroom using chairs, tables, benches, sheets and anything else you can find to represent the different circus obstacles. You can put your flashcards on them or draw pictures to remind everyone what they’re supposed to be.
Do your Circus obstacle course
One at a time, let the kids go round the obstacle course while the rest of the class give them directions. Make sure they don’t go too fast, they need to listen to the instructions. Maybe change the order of the instructions every now and again to make it more difficult and more interesting. Be careful that no one falls over or gets hurt, try and keep everyone calm.
Make up a funny Clown dance with directions
Once everyone has completed the obstacle course, it’s time for something different. Using the different directions we’ve learned, we’re going to invent a dance for one of our circus clowns. You could either do this as a whole group or put the kids in smaller groups to make up a dance which they can then teach to the rest of the class. Use circus music or any other music you want. Just remember, it has to use the directions and it has to be funny. Once you’ve invented the dance, do it all together, saying the directions as you do. This would be a great activity to show to parents or to other classes once you’ve all learned the dance.
Draw your Circus Tent
You probably won’t have much time left once you’ve finished all the other activities. But if you do and want to do a drawing activity to finish the lesson, ask the kids to draw the circus tent with the different obstacles. Then they can draw arrows to show which directions they need to go in and explain the obstacle course to you.
Conclusion
When you’ve finished everything, tidy up and put everything in the classroom back in its usual place. Then sing the song again and end with your normal Goodbye routine or use one of my favorite Goodbye songs.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this Circus Directions EFL ESL lesson plan for kids classes. It is such a fun way to learn and practice directions and prepositions. If you try it, let me know how it went in the comments. Did you change anything? How was your crazy clown dance? As always, if you’ve enjoyed this lesson plan, you can find lots more here. To stay up to date with new posts and teaching ideas, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page or sign up for email updates below.