This is a fun dinosaur comparatives EFL ESL lesson plan for children. It will last about one hour and is suitable for primary aged kids from about 8 to 12 years old. Teenagers would probably enjoy it too though and you could adapt it for them to make it slightly more complicated.
In the lesson we will learn about different types of dinosaurs and their characteristics. We’ll also look at which dinosaurs were bigger, smaller, faster, slower or more ferocious than the others. At the end of the lesson, we will make our own dinosaur Top Trumps card game to play together. This is part of a very short series of lessons on dinosaurs so if you enjoy this, you can find the others here.
For this Dinosaur Comparatives EFL ESL lesson plan, you will need:
- Paper, card and coloring markers
- A set of dinosaurs flashcards or top trump cards – I used these but you could make your own or use something like this.
Songs and videos:
- Spinosaurus | Dino Road Trip by Nat Geo Kids
- Argentinosaurus | I am the Best by Pinkfong! Kids’ Songs
Introduction – Meet the Dinosaurs
Begin the class with your usual Hello routine or, if you prefer, you can use one of my ideas for starting a lesson. Then you can start introducing the dinosaurs. Draw some dinosaurs on the board or ask the class if they know any dinosaurs and can come and draw them. I normally draw a very simple T-Rex, a Diplodocus and a Triceratops to start off. Ask the kids to describe them and as you learn the different adjectives, use lots of TPR to show the class exactly what you mean. Then get out your flashcards or Top Trumps card and start looking at all the different dinosaurs. How many different adjectives can you find to describe them. Think about color, size, height, weight, speed, temperament and diet. Write the vocabulary on the board next to each dinosaur.
Dinosaur statistics
Now that we’ve looked at general adjectives to describe dinosaurs, we’re going to start getting specific. This is the comparatives of this Dinosaur comparatives EFL ESL lesson plan.To keep this simple and easy to understand I would concentrate on 4 or 5 dinosaurs. Draw a very simple picture of them on the board and make a chart labelled with name, height, weight, length, and ferociousness. It should look something like this:
Fill it in together with your group. I found the information here and made up the rest. The important thing is not the accuracy but to see the differences between the different dinosaurs. You will probably have one child in your class who is a dinosaur expert and will correct you though so probably best to be as accurate as possible.
Comparatives
Using lots of TPR, compare the different dinosaurs on the board. Take two dinosaurs at a time and ask the kids which one is taller, which is longer, which is heavier and which is more ferocious. You don’t need to worry about asking them the numbers, unless you think they’re up to it. The important thing is to get them using taller, longer, heavier and more ferocious and doing the actions to show them. Practice asking “Who is taller?”, “who is heavier?”, “who is longer?” and “who is more ferocious?” by getting them to ask each other the questions.
Let’s make our game cards
Give each child 3 or 4 pieces of cards. They need to be big enough to draw a small picture of a dinosaur and then write its height, weight, length and ferociousness score. Using the dinosaur flashcards or top trump cards, ask them to make their own game cards for different dinosaurs. They’ll need to either find out the information using the Dino Database site that I used to make my chart above or, if you don’t have access to the internet or any other dinosaur information, they could invent the dinosaurs and make up the information. They need to draw a picture on each card and fill in the information about each dinosaur. You can of course change the information on the cards to practice different vocabulary like faster, more intelligent, shorter, etc. It’s completely up to you.
Let’s play Dinosaur top trumps
This is the fun part. Put the kids in pairs with their game cards and let them play top trumps. They need to look at the first card on the pile and ask their partner, “Who is longer?” or “who is heavier” and so on. Whoever has the longest or the heaviest dinosaur of the pair wins the card of their partner. The winner is whoever wins all his or her partner’s cards. If you prefer to move the kids around a bit and let them practice with more people, get them to swap partners after each round of questions. They will probably love this game and it’s a great way to really get them talking in English to each other so let them play as long as you can. Do check though while they’re playing that they are doing it in English and not their own language.
Conclusion
If you’ve still got time at the end of the class, you can watch one of the videos about dinosaurs and sing the song. Then have a quick practice again of the comparison questions using the dinosaurs on the board. To finish the lesson, do your usual goodbye routine or use one of my favorite goodbye songs.
I hope you enjoy teaching this Dinosaur Comparatives EFL ESL lesson plan. The kids in my class had so much fun making their cards and then playing the game so I’m sure your classes will enjoy it too. Please leave a comment to tell us how it went and if you changed or had any good ideas to adapt it for your classes. If you’ve enjoyed this lesson plan and want to see some more, you can find all my lesson plans here. To keep up to date with new lesson plans and posts, you can follow the GoogooEnglish Facebook page. You can also sign up for email updates below to keep up to date with everything that’s happening at GoogooEnglish.