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In this lesson students will master vocabulary describing the most common clothing items: t-shirt, shirt, pants, shoes, dress, skirt. The teacher will first show the flashcards of the six target clothing items, get the students to recognize them and point to the clothing items they see around them. The teacher will spent some time rehearsing the words after with three interactive, music, sound and body-based activities.
This lesson plan is perfect for kindergarten level and up. It follows the PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production) format. The teacher is encouraged to use the TPR (Total Physical Response) technique. This method is perfect for young learners and focuses on using body movements, gestures and facial expressions while modelling the target language. The idea is to create neural connections between speech and action. It basically imitates how children naturally learn their mother tongue; parents use a lot of physical instructions to communicate with the child. This technique helps children to acquire English instead of learning it.
Learning Objective
Student will be able to recognize and produce the key words related to clothing.
Students will activate prior knowledge of action verbs.
Success Criteria
Students can identify the six articles of clothing independently.
Students can follow instructions given in English.
Students react, repeat or reply to a partner, as a result of listening.
Students can complete the tasks with or without the teacher's help.
CEFR Level
A1 level:
Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type.
Can introduce themselves and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where they live, people they know, and things they have.
Can interact with other people in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.
The teacher points to a piece of their clothing and encourages everyone to point to the same piece of clothing on themselves.
Teacher shows students 3 flashcards (see Printable Clothes Flashcards), one which displays the piece of clothing pointed to. Children are encouraged to point to the flashcard that shows what the teacher pointed to on their clothing.
Then the teacher shows a flashcard of pants and gestures to everyone to point at the students wearing pants.
The teacher does the same with the flashcards with the images of a shirt, skirt, T-shirt, shoes, and dress.
The teacher then quickly starts switching between the flashcards, showing them faster and faster, and asking the students to point faster and faster.
Presentation (10 minutes)
The teacher lays out real pieces of clothing on the floor in front of the students. There is 1 piece of clothing for each keyword.
If possible, teacher plays the video. As different clothing items are being shown, students point to the actual items laying in front of them.
The teacher approaches the real pieces of clothing and picks each one up, encouraging students to say the pieces of clothing again, stepping in if children are struggling with any names. The teacher can also play around with using funny voices (talking loudly, quietly, through the nose, from the throat, in a high pitched voice, a "dramatic" voice, in a whisper etc.) when naming items and encouraging children to do the same.
Support for Lower Grade/Struggling Students:
Students understand first in their own language. For students who struggle with these terms, they can identify the item in their own language, and then attempt to say the English equivalent.
The teacher spends some time correcting any potential pronunciation issues and checking for understanding of the new words
a piece of clothing for women and girls that hangs from the waist and does not have legs
Do boys wear skirts? (ans.no)
/skɜːt/
The same as above
Pants
a piece of underwear covering the area between the waist and the tops of the legs
Do you wear pants on your head, hands or legs? (ans. legs)
/pænts/
May struggle with /æ/ sound
Dress
a piece of clothing for women or girls that covers the top half of the body and hangs down over the legs:
What does a woman wear to a wedding? (ans. dress)
/dres/
May struggle with /e/ sound
Shorts
trousers that end above the knee or reach the knee, often worn in hot weather or when playing a sport:
What is better to wear in summer, pants or shorts? (ans. shorts)
/ʃɔːts/
May struggle with /ɔː/ sound
Shoes
one of a pair of coverings for your feet, usually made of a strong material such as leather, with a thick leather or plastic sole (= base) and usually a heel.
What do you wear on your feet when you go to school? (ans. shoes)
The teacher rings a bell or makes a sound with anything available. When the students hear the sound, they have to stand up fast. The fastest student repeats all the target words after the teacher while the teacher shows the flashcards.
For this activity, the teacher either uses real pieces of clothing laid out on the floor or draws the key clothing items on the board. T tells the students that they will have to recognize the clothing items by their English names. The teacher then plays any upbeat dancing song. For example, 'Can't stop the feeling' from Trolls
Round 1: Keep students standing up and dancing to the music, and tell them that they have to sit down when the music stops. The last student to sit down answers the teacher's question. The teacher tells the student to touch a specific clothing item on the floor. Teacher helps the student or asks the class to help (point), if necessary. This round can be repeated 3-5 times with the other words.
Round 2: The children keep dancing but this time on their toes. Again, when the music stops, everyone sits down and the last students to sit down answers the next question. Repeat the round 3-5 times.
Round 3: Everyone is dancing but this time with their eyes closed. Repeat the round 3-5 times.
Allocate 15-20 minutes to the game. If the time is limited, one student shouldn't go up more than once; another student who was among the last to sit down gets picked. For younger students (kindergarten level), the rules of the whole game might be too complicated so it is enough to use the rules from round 1 for all the other rounds.
Extension: Students translate the English word into their own language.
Activity 3 - Free Practice (10-15 minutes)
The teacher reads out the loud one of the keywords, and the students are to touch one person wearing it and not to let go of them until the teacher names another clothing item. Next, a student changes roles with a teacher and the game continues.
Extension: Activity can be extended with the phrase "I am wearing..." for older students where a students can say, for example,
I am wearing shoes.
I am wearing pants.
I am wearing a T-shirt.
I am wearing a shirt.
I am wearing a skirt.
I am wearing a dress.
The teacher first spends some time drilling the phrases. Check that the students accurately use the article 'a' in this sentence.
Extension Task (5-10 minutes)
More advanced student volunteers can be asked to say the target words one after another; as the student says them, all the students wearing the mentioned clothing item have to stand up. The student volunteers monitor if all the right students have stood up and if not, the ones who made a mistake are "out". The game goes on until one or more winners are left.
Advanced students can express how shirts/t-shirts and pants/skirts/dresses are alike and different.
Plenary / Assessment (5-10 minutes)
The teacher does a quick revision by showing all the flashcards, asking everyone to repeat the words after him/her and touch the items of clothing mentioned: "Today we have learned: t-shirt, shirt, pants, shoes, dress, skirt."
Students get a pile of flashcards with the key words on them (see Printable Words Flashcards) and have to match the words for the clothing item to the item on the floor.
Resources and Materials
A projector and computer OR a blackboard and chalk
