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SUBMITTED BY: Raegina Taylor / Patrick Bickford     BORROWED FROM / INSPIRED BY: Gillian Stewart     EDITED BY: まだ

Relative Park Drawing

GRAMMAR: Relative Pronoun     EXAMPLE: That is the book that I bought in America.     DATE ADDED: Jan 30, 2008

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 15-30 min.
 
28 Votes: 5 Stars
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Brief Outline: Students listen to a description of a park scene and they must draw it.

 

Materials Needed:

 

Detailed Explanation:

  1. Students work in pairs and listen to the instructions and draw a scene. The aim is for students to draw a correct and good picture. Give a time limit of ten seconds after each set of instructions.
  2. After finishing the drawing, display them on the board and get students to sign on their favourite drawing. Also, check the drawings yourself and award bonus points to correct drawings. You could do this whilst students are completing a writing task.
  3. Instruction list
    • There are 5 trees, 2 that are big and 3 that are small.
    • There are 6 apples that are in the small trees.
    • There is one girl who is sitting under a big tree writing a love letter.
    • There are 2 boys who are playing soccer.
    • The 2 boys who are playing soccer are wearing baseball caps.
    • There is 1 pond in the park.
    • There is 1 man who is swimming in the pond.
    • There are 5 birds that are flying in the sky.
    • There are 6 clouds,2 that are big, 4 that are small.
    • There is 1 girl who is walking her dog.
    • There are 2 rabbits that are eating carrots.

 

Variations:

  • Have the instructions posted around the room and students have to run, remember the set and explain it to a drawer. For this, cut down some the instructions. It could be made into a whole lesson activity.

 

Tips/Cautions:

  • This worked well in all levels of classes. For higher level, have more sentences than the lower-level.

 

Comments:

  • (Dec 13, 2011) englipatrick (mod) said: Also, I added in colors into the sentences. Students don't get to bust out their color pen/pencils very much in English class so this added to the excitement. Especially, when there was more than one color in the sentence: "There are 2 pink rabbits that are eating orange carrots."
  • (Dec 13, 2011) Andy said: Echoing what everyone else has said, this is a fantastic activity. I teach at a low level high school where students have low motivation and this worked great with them. I hid the sentences under desks, behind curtains, one in the corridor etc. and the students loved searching high and low. Just remember to reinforce that the student who goes to read each sentence relays it back to their partner in English, as many students will try to translate the meaning when reading and just say it in Japanese to the artist.
  • (Dec 5, 2011) MC said: I used this today with my two third grade classes. It went pretty well in the first kumi and really well in the other. I was surprised at how even the kids who are usually disinterested during class got pretty into it and quieted down to listen to my directions. A good number made some really nice pictures too. I hope to use this activity again for a different grammar point or for a different grade...thanks so much for such a great idea!
  • (Nov 22, 2011) Plucka said: Thanks for this worksheet. Used it today with two 3rd grade classes, it worked a treat!
  • (Nov 8, 2011) Anonymous said: I've had a lot of success with this activity too, even in one of my problem classes where I have two boys who talk and disrupt the lesson. All the other students kept getting them to be quiet so they could hear the next instruction.
  • (May 2, 2011) Anonymous said: I've done this activity several times now, and every time it goes amazingly well. Even classes that are never engaged are listening to me waiting for the next direction. I've also reworked it for other grammar points to use with 1st and 2nd graders. Really a great activity.
  • (Dec 1, 2010) Richard Benoit said: Did the variation as well where you post the information around the room. I put them all over the place, up high down low, in lockers, and under desks using magnets. The best part was only a handful actually saw where I placed them.The result was a scavenger hunt, and reporting activity rolled into one. They loved it. But I would advise that you use every trick in your book, if your students are like mine, to try to make them report in ENGLISH!!!
  • (Nov 29, 2010) Pan said: Great activity, since it requires very little prep. Helpful for when your JTE decides to sneak attack you with a lesson!
  • (Nov 19, 2010) wind said: Great activity!!
    Variation:
    I did this activity with my 3rd year class today and it worked really well. I had the students worked in groups, I gave each group an A3 size paper and they had to pass it around so each student had a chance to draw. I read a bunch of sentences about my imaginary classroom (made a lot of relative clause sentences about the students in class and their classroom beforehand) and students just drew what they heard. Then the JTE chose the best one(s)to reward. For the 2nd half of the class, I gave each student a piece of A4 size paper and they had to draw their imaginary park. Then I collected the drawings and passed them out randomly (no students should receive his/her own). Then students paired up and they had to describe the drawing (someone's else imaginary park)that they received to their partner. The partner had to draw the park. My JTE and I also told students to use whatever English they know to describe the drawings. It worked really well!
  • (Nov 10, 2010) suimi said: This is a great activity. I posted the instructions around the room as in the variation, without cutting them down at all, and my students got really into it, so much so that I made another version for the next day, with more difficult words and more complex sentences, and a different scene (a party, with me asleep under a table in the middle of it) and they loved it. They were able to understand fairly difficult relative clause sentences. Hooray!