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April – Become a voracious reader!

Reading is the key to knowledge, creativity, entertainment, scientific discoveries, and many other

wonderful things… Hans Christian Andersen´s birthday on 2nd April is International Children´s Book

day, and this month, Ewa has produced a number of activities you can use in the ELT classroom to

encourage your children to read and help them develop their imagination. Who knows, maybe the

next Nobel Prize will go to one of your students?

Contents

1. International Children´s Book Day ...................................................................................................... 2

1.1. Creative Writing – B1 Writing (Can be adapted for all levels) ..................................................... 2

1.2. The Hobbit – B1 → B2 Reading and Writing ................................................................................ 3

2. The Tragedy that befell the Titanic - Reading B1 ................................................................................ 5

3. Mona Lisa Smile – A2 Speaking ........................................................................................................... 6

4. Speak like an artist! – A1 Speaking ..................................................................................................... 6

5. Have you met … Picasso? – A2 → B1 Speaking and Writing ............................................................... 6

6. Earth Day – B2 → C1 Listening ............................................................................................................ 7

7. Answers ............................................................................................................................................... 9

7.1. The Tragedy that befell the Titanic – Reading B2 ........................................................................ 9

7.2. Earth Day – B2 → C1 Listening ..................................................................................................... 9

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1. International Children´s Book Day

International Children´s Book Day on 2nd April is a great opportunity to encourage your students to

read in English. There are many ways of doing this, for example, reading out loud to your younger

students and asking them to draw or write about their favourite character, or preparing a workshop

about a particular author of young adult fiction (for secondary students). For a list of some of the

best classical children´s books, click on the following link:

http://www.juniormagazine.co.uk/books/the-top-100-childrens-books/60.html

1.1. Creative Writing – B1 Writing (Can be adapted for all levels)

In pairs, ask your students to create their own picture book. First, ask them to create a draft of their

ideas and then, have them produce a final version on A4 sheets of paper. Staple the pages together

so that they resemble a book. Before starting the project, brainstorm useful storybook expressions

and have a conversation about different literary genres to help your students come up with ideas for

their story.

Useful expressions for…

The beginning The main body The ending

It all began on a stormy night when… /It was a dark and

stormy night… Suddenly…

He/she never saw her/him again

Once upon a time… Unfortunately /Fortunately It had been the perfect day!

One winter´s day… The next day… Katie / James woke up and

realised it had all been a dream

It was the stupidest/scariest thing she/he had ever done…

They didn´t realise that someone had been listening to

their conversation…

Life on Madison Avenue would never be the same again

Finally, the holidays had arrived…

They decided to… The horrible day had finally

come to an end

James woke up in the middle of the night…

They discovered… The mystery seemed to be

solved, for now…

Remind your students that their story should include:

A beginning where you briefly describe the main characters and setting

A middle in which the characters have to face a series of adventures, or solve a mystery

A suitable end describing how your main characters managed to solve the mystery, or come

out of a difficult situation

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1.2. The Hobbit1 – B1 → B2 Reading and Writing

There is no better way of celebrating International Children´s

Book Day than reading an extract from one of the world´s most

cherished fantasy novels such as The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Have a brief conversation with your students and ask them the

following questions before reading the text:

Do you like reading fantasy novels? Why? Why not?

What are the main characteristics of a fantasy book?

What do you know about the world created by Tolkien? What are the creatures that exist

there?

Do you believe in the creatures Tolkien tells us about in his books?

Have you read any other novels written by Tolkien?

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of

worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat:

it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the

exact middle. The door opened on to a very comfortable tunnel with panelled walls, and floors tiled

and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats - the hobbit

was fond of visitors.

This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the

neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not

only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did

anything unexpected. This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure.

What is a hobbit? They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the

bearded Dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the

ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like

you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off.

They dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow

natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads; have long clever

brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they

have twice a day when they can get it).

By some curious chance one morning long ago in the quiet of the world, when there was less noise

and more green, and the hobbits were still numerous and prosperous, and Bilbo Baggins was

standing at his door after breakfast smoking an enormous long wooden pipe that reached nearly

down to his woolly toes (neatly brushed) - Gandalf came by. Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter

of what I have heard about him, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale…

1 The above extract has been adapted for the purposes of this activity. For the original text, consult J.R.R.

Tolkien´s The Hobbit.

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Vocabulary challenge

In your own words, describe the meaning, or look for a synonym, of the underlined terms from the

text. Before consulting a dictionary, try to work out the meaning of each expression from its context.

nasty

fond

for time out of mind2

blundering

bright

clever

remarkable

After completing the exercise, ask your students to create their own sentences with the words from

the table.

Read the text again and answer the following questions as a speaking or writing exercise:

1. Where did Bilbo Baggins live? In your own words, describe his home.

2. Describe what a hobbit looks like.

3. At the end of the text, Gandalf appears. Who do you think he is? The narrator mentions that many

remarkable things had happened to him; what do you think those were?

4. Was it common for hobbits to go on adventures?

5. “This is a story of how a Baggins had an adventure”. Write your own version of The Hobbit by

describing the adventures that he could have experienced after meeting Gandalf.

2 Please note that this is a literary term and isn´t used very often in everyday spoken and written English

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2. The Tragedy that befell the Titanic3 - Reading B1

On 14th April 1912, the Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after hitting an iceberg.

Complete the following exercise and learn about one of the most famous tragedies of all time.

The construction of the Titanic started on 31st March 1909 and was

to be the biggest, fastest and most luxurious liner in the world.

_______________ just three years, Titanic was finished - a floating

city, ready to set sail on her maiden voyage from Southampton to

New York. It carried a wide variety of passengers, including

millionaires, silent movie stars, school teachers and emigrants.

Many of them were ______________ to the United States in search

of a better life.

By the fifth day of its journey, Titanic was making swift ___________ across the Atlantic. Although

Captain Edward Smith had planned a new course upon hearing earlier _________ of ice from other

liners, there were many more communications that day of ice in Titanic's path. On the night of

Sunday 14 April 1912, the sea was flat calm, the sky clear and moonless, and the temperature was

dropping towards freezing. In such ____________, sea ice is very hard to spot.

At 11.40pm the lookout sounded the alarm and telephoned the bridge saying "Iceberg, right ahead!"

The warning came too late to ___________ the iceberg and Titanic struck it less than 40 seconds

later, tearing a series of holes along the side of the hull. Titanic's chief naval architect, Thomas

Andrews, said to Captain Smith that the ship would certainly sink.

Less than three hours ___________ Titanic lay ________ the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, nearly

four kilometres down. The sinking of Titanic claimed more than 1,500 lives. The story captured the

public imagination across the world, inspiring countless books, films, plays, and exhibitions.

1. A After B Over C Before D Behind

2. A swimming B wandering C travelling D touring

3. A development B progress C improvement D motion

4. A stories B descriptions C articles D reports

5. A times B conditions C situations D environment

6. A escape B avoid C leave D dodge

7. A then B following C after D later

8. A at B in C on D under

3 Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/titanic

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3. Mona Lisa Smile – A2 Speaking

Celebrate Leonardo Da Vinci´s birthday on 15th April with this interactive

exercise, in which students will have the opportunity to practise describing

each other in English. Ask two students to sit down together at the front of

the classroom. Student A will be the painter, “Leonardo” (to make this activity

more entertaining for the kids, you can bring a few simple props, such as a

painter´s hat, a paintbrush and palette), while Student B will have to describe someone from the

classroom. At the end of the description, ask “Leonardo” to show the picture to the rest of the

classroom. How many students can guess who “Leonardo” has painted? Choose the next pair of

students and continue the activity until everyone has had their turn.

4. Speak like an artist! – A1 Speaking

This is a memory game you can introduce in the classroom to revise any type of vocabulary you are

working on with your students, as it can be easily adapted. Prepare flashcards with basic art

vocabulary (e.g. painter, paintbrush, painting, sculpture, paint, palette, drawing, sketch, pencils,

crayons, museum, cinema, photography, camera, actor, actress, theatre, singer, piano, violin,

concert, musical, opera, dancer…). Ask your students to sit down in a circle and hand them out a

flashcard each, which they will place before them, face down. The first student will start the game by

saying out loud the word that appears on his/her flashcard. The next student will have to name the

object on their flashcard, as well as that of the student before them, and so on. The last student will

be the one assigned with the hardest task: naming all the objects mentioned by his/her classmates!

You can adapt this activity and use it to revise other vocabulary groups, such as clothes or food. In

some cases, you can ask students to start naming the words after an introductory sentence, for

example: “This morning I had …a strawberry, some cereal, ham… for breakfast” (food), or “For my

weekend over at Granny´s, I packed a pair of shoes, a scarf, a jacket… in my bag “. The more words,

the more challenging the exercise!

5. Have you met… Picasso? – A2 → B1 Speaking and Writing

Organise your students in pairs and tell them that they are time-travelling journalists assigned with a

task to interview a famous artist from the past. Let them choose the artist that interests them most,

be it a painter, actor, actress, musician, author or dancer. Then, after reading the necessary

information about their chosen character, tell them to write up a short interview with them. You can

take advantage of this by introducing useful vocabulary and brainstorming different types of

questions. Finally, ask them to play out the interview they prepared in front of the class, with one of

them being the artist, and the other the journalist.

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6. Earth Day – B2 → C1 Listening

Another event that takes place in April, on the 22nd, is Earth Day. Watch this mini-report from ABC

Australia´s Behind the News with your students and take this opportunity to inform them

about climate change and its dangerous consequences:

http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s3639706.htm

Preparation for listening – dictionary time in pairs or small groups

Match the words below with their descriptions 1-9 4

Great Barrier Reef pollution heatwave dump shortage gauge crops (double) whammy drought

1 A cultivated plant that is grown on a large scale commercially, especially a cereal, fruit, or vegetable.

2 A period of unusually hot weather.

3 A situation when there is not enough of the people or things that are needed.

4 A coral reef in the western Pacific, off the coast of Queensland, (Australia). It extends for about 2,000 km and is the largest coral reef in the world.

5 Substances that make air, water, soil, etc. dirty.

6 An unpleasant situation or event that causes problems.

7 A long period of time when there is little or no rain.

8 An instrument for measuring the amount or level of something.

9 To get rid of something you do not want, especially in a place which is not suitable.

4 The definitions have been adapted from the following online dictionaries: www.oxforddictionaries.com

http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/

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Listen to the recording and decide whether the sentences below are true or false. Before

your students start the listening exercise, read each question together very carefully and

make sure they understand any tricky words.

1 In 100 years´ time the world will be full of cute robots T F

2 In 2100, temperatures will probably have gone up by 4 degrees T F

3 Rising water temperatures help coral reefs grow T F

4 High temperatures may have a negative impact on farming around the world

T F

5 Climate change will probably make various islands disappear T F

Listen to the recording again and complete the sentences below.

1. The World Bank has predicted that in 2100 the world will have ________________ by 4 degrees.

2. Coral may be _________________ if water temperatures go up.

3. Due to climate change, crops will probably die and water sources are likely to ________________.

4. Some islands in the Pacific Ocean are facing serious problems due to ____________________ .

5. The World Bank is calling for all countries to work together to _________________climate change.

6. What are the four ways the World Bank says that 4 degrees will make a difference? You can watch

the video again in order to answer this question.

Debate

Discuss the following issues with your students:

1. What are the different ways of combatting climate change? Discuss elements such as recycling,

saving water, using public transport, etc.

2. Is climate change already affecting the globe? In what way?

3. Do you know any environmental activists? Who are they and what message have they been trying

to transmit to the world?

4. Discuss with your classroom friends whether it is possible to stop climate change. Why / why not?

5. As a follow up listening exercise, listen to Jane Goodall´s speech on TED talks:

https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_goodall_on_what_separates_us_from_the_apes?language=es

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7. Answers

7.1. The Tragedy that befell the Titanic – Reading B2

1 A 2 C 3 B 4 D

5 B 6 B 7 D 8 A

7.2. Earth Day – B2 → C1 Listening

Listening prep

1 crop 2 heatwave 3 shortage 4 Great Barrier Reef 5 cute 6 (double) whammy 7 drought 8 gauge 9 dump

True or false

1 F 2 T 3 F 4 T 5 T

Sentence completion

1 warmed 2 destroyed 3 evaporate 4 rising sea levels 5 fight 6 A. Ocean Changes

B. Heat Extremes C. Food Shortages D. Rising Sea Levels