Little kids love learning about animals. It’s also really fun to teach about different animals and their sounds and actions. This is a Going to the Zoo EFL ESL lesson plan for preschool children. We’re going to learn all about different animals that you can see on a visit to the zoo. What can you see? What can the elephant do? The lesson will last about one hour and we’ll end with a fun and easy craft activity to make an animal. Get ready! We’re going to the zoo!
For this Going to the Zoo EFL ESL Lesson plan, you will need:
- Animal flashcards: make your own or use something like this
- Coloring pens, paper, scissors and glue
- Cardboard toilet rolls or card
Going to the Zoo songs and videos:
- Who’s in the Zoo? by The Kiboomers
- Let’s Go to the Zoo by Super Simple Songs
Introduction
Start the lesson with your usual Hello routine or use one of my favorite Hello songs. Then start drawing some animals on the board and ask the children what they are and if they know where you will be going today. If they don’t guess, tell them you are going to the zoo. Then sing the Who’s in the Zoo song together. What other animals can they think of that you might see at the zoo?
Meet the zoo animals
Using a mystery bag or box, pull out your flashcards and learn the names of the different animals. Don’t forget to use lots of actions and TPR to help the children remember the names of the animals. Then play a What’s Missing game: take one card away and put the others on the board or the table and let the class guess which animal is missing.
Let’s go to the zoo!
It’s time to go to the zoo and see what the animals are doing. Sing the song together and do the actions for each animal. Then ask the class, “What can you see?” and do the actions for one animal. Let them reply, “I can see a …..”. Once they’ve got the hang of this, choose one of them to do the actions and let the class ask another child what they can see. Let everyone have a turn.
What can you see?
Put the kids in pairs in a line or in a circle and give everyone an animal flashcard. Practice asking the question and replying so you are sure everyone is clear. Then let them work in their pairs asking each other the question, “What can you see?” “I can see an elephant / a bear/ a tiger etc.” Then change partners.
Zoo animal craft activity
We are going to make very simple cardboard roll zoo animals. Get everybody sitting down and give everyone a cardboard toilet roll and some paper and scissors. Tell the children that they can choose an animal. Show them how to draw, color and cut out the face, paws and tail of their animal. Then help them stick it on to the cardboard roll. While you’re doing this, ask them to tell you what animal it is and show you its actions.
Conclusion
If you’ve still got some time, play the question game again but using your animal models instead of the flashcards. Sing one of the zoo songs again to finish the lesson or choose one of my favorite Goodbye songs. Then send the kids home with their animal models
If you teach this lesson with your class, I’d love to hear how it went so please leave a comment. If you’ve enjoyed this lesson plan and would like to see more, you can see all my lesson plans here. To stay up to date with news and new posts from GoogooEnglish, you can follow our Facebook page or sign up for email updates below.