Zoo Animal Games

Teaching Activity - Kim Isabell Dinter/June 23rd, 2022/Drama Lab/course ID: 17475/SoSe 22

1. Introduction 

The game is called “Zoo Animals and their Traits” because it combines connecting zoo animals with the corresponding traits and facts about them. 

1. Target Group and Time

This game is most suitable for children in year 5 till 7 because the vocabulary that is required for this game is quite simple but there are also a few words that are more difficult. The minimum time needed for this activity would be around 10 minutes. The length of this game can be adjusted freely depending on how many cards for each animal one prepares. 

1. Learning Objectives 

The main objective of this game is to learn something about zoo animals and to be able to describe them. Furthermore, the children practice their reading, explaining and describing skills since they not only need to read and understand single words but as they turn the card around they see the word paraphrased in English. Lastly, the children also learn something about the endangerment of zoo animals, why they are poached and what zoos do against that.

1. Instructions to set up the activity

• Print out six zoo animal pictures, prepare at least three cards with traits for each zoo animal
• On the back of the cards: rephrase the words/phrases (functions as a scaffold)

1. Letting it run

(1) Spread cards with traits and animal pictures on the ground —> group work: children should talk about their guesses and match the corresponding traits and facts to the zoo animals

(2) Ask children if all of them know what is meant by every word and repeat them together

(3) Second level: Spread cards with the word “endangered” on the ground and let the children guess what this word means and if these zoo animals are endangered or not

(4) Talk about the reasons why these zoo animals are endangered and what role zoos play in relation to species conservation.

Zoo Animals | Diddy Kong Macarons |Eren

This activity teaches students zoo animals in a playful manner. The target group is ideally young and in an early stage of learning English since it is a rather playful activity that still requires some basic understanding of English. It should take around 10-15 minutes.

The students will learn new vocabulary (animals and their features and environment), it will promote their activity and kinaesthetic memory as well as their movement.

The activity requires pictures of zoo animals (for sustainability reasons I painted them on scrap paper). Furthermore, the teacher needs to prepare questions related to the animals. It is important to hold up the correct pictures while asking the questions. The questions are answered by the students imitating the correct animal. For example, if the teacher asks: Which of these two animals has orange fur? While holding up a picture of an elephant and a tiger the students would all roar like a tiger. At the end the teacher will state the correct animal and the students will repeat the name of the animal. The questions should not be too hard for the participants to answer, or it won’t be fun. It should definitely be introduced properly so there won’t be misunderstandings.

Unfortunately, I could not join the Drama Lab; however, I imagine this method to be fun since the students shouldn’t feel overwhelming pressure of being in the spotlight on their own. A possible difficulty might be that students will not know the answer or how to imitate certain animals for which case the teacher or assistants will have to be prepared to help out. 

Lara Filips:

Introduction: This game is supposed to be an ice breaker and slowly introduce the children to the topic acting, since was the warmup. It is divided in two parts. First the children must solve a “What animal am I?” quiz, which is read out aloud and after every new clue there is a little break so the students can guess. In the second part of the game the children are the ones who must come in front and let the others guess which animal they are. There are two options: they can act it out or also do a little quiz if they don’t feel comfortable with acting. 

Target group and Time:

• Target group: 5th graders (the game can easily be adjusted for other target groups if you use harder or easier quiz questions and different vocabulary or visual aid)
• Time: The quiz only took a few minutes, while the second part of the game took a little longer and with 5 students, we were able to do 3 rounds of “What animal am I?”.

Learning objectives: They need to use their vocabulary to solve the quiz and to create one of their own. This way they can repeat the vocabulary to memorize it. They also learned some new words as some of them did not know what a “parrot” was. They also need to use the simple present sentence structure to describe what animal they are. 

Instructions to set up the activity:

1. Let the students introduce themselves.
2. Optional: If you think the questions are too hard, hand them a worksheet with either the answers printed as pictures (of course in the wrong order) or the questions on it so they can read It while listening to it.
3. Let the quiz begin.
4. After the quiz explain the second part of the game. Do one example round by yourself, where the students must guess which animal you are.

Letting it run:

• Always ask if the student understood the questions, if they seem uneasy and if not explain it to them (preferably in English, if it’s needed then German)
• Make sure that there is enough space for the children to move around to act their animal out.
• If they seem too shy to act, make sure to ensure them that describing it is also fine.

Rescue the Zoo Animals – Ufuk 

Introduction: I wanted to help the students learn new vocabulary on the animal kingdom. A quiz with animal pictures and scraps of paper with the name of the animal and its natural habitat. 

Target group: Grade 5 and 6. The teacher can adapt to the English skill level of the students and insert more difficult animals names for example. 

Learning objectives: Learn new vocabulary by playing the quiz. Learn mnemonic. Put the paper stripes in the right order. Besides those primary learning objectives. Naturally the students need to collaborate with one another. Pay attention to pronunciation etc. 

Setting up the quiz: The teacher needs to print out pictures of animals and sentences with their names and their habitat. The sentences need to be cut in scraps of paper. The students work as a team and help each other to find the correct animal name. After finding the animal’s name the scraps of paper need to be put to the right picture and in the right sentence order.

• April Hochberger Teaching Activity – Zoo animals – Taboo/Charades cards

Introduction: 

Each player picks a card and imitates or describes it. The other players get to observe and guess the animal. The cards depict zoo animals and other interesting/important information (habitat, food, if endangered).

Target group and time:

Learning objectives:

The players need to figure out how to describe the animals with words they know or how to mime the animals so other players can guess the correct animal.

The pictures on the cards help the students connect their thoughts with pictures and get the opportunity to ask for new vocabulary words. The players can decide if they want to explain a zoo animal card just verbally (taboo) or act out the animal (mime).

Instructions to set up the activity:

• Make and print out cards (what target group? – cards can be adjusted)
• zoo animals: the giraffe, the frog, the tiger, the horse, the pig, the cat, the duck, the chicken, the flamingo, the penguin, the snake, the crocodile, the fish, the monkey, the lion, the elephant

Letting it run:

• As a teacher you can/should go first
• Let the first student pick a card
• Help the student with missing vocabulary - Or help the guessing students by giving tips