Page in Japanese

"I have a question!"
Adjectives Lesson
+ "Is it...?" Guessing Game

Target English: Adjectives, "I have a question!", "Is it....?"
Target grade: All ages (although the game is a little tricky for younger kids!)
You can find this song in the Teacher's Set
And in the new curriculum Level.

One key skill is to be able to express things even when you don't know the words in English. For example if you don't know "grandmother", but can come up with "My mother's mother" you're doing well. It's not about being perfect, it's about communicating what you want to say. I wrote the GenkiEnglish songs to help the kids express questions ( e.g. "how" appears in "how much?", "how are you?", "how did you get here?" etc. so then kids can then imagine how to say other "how" questions), and for describing objects, adjectives, plus a couple of other words like "fruit", "animal" etc. are the way to go. Luckily they're also some of the most fun words to teach!

So we have this great Adjectives song, which also contains the very useful classroom English "I have a question" and "Please let me try".

Here's how to teach it ...
:
1. Introduce "I have a question" and "Please let me try" in previous lessons.

2. Using the picture cards above, run through the adjectives, a capella (i.e. singing but without the music), in a similar way to the TPR warm up. Gestures are key and make it fun.

3. Now run through again, reviewing all the words but instead of "It's...." , introduce "Is it...?" with all the adjectives. The kids should be cool with this.

4. Next the teacher sings ( and does the gesture ) "Is it...?" then the kids reply with "It's ...". This is great for getting the kids out of the trap of answering questions with questions!

5. Now play along with the music! Adding the music at this stage ( make it as loud as you can) brings the class back up to full genkiness level!

6. Change roles with the kids and have a go through with the music again.

When you get some practise at this it does end up being a lot easier to teach than it sounds! And don't forget the gestures......


"Is it big?"



"Is it small?"




"Is it a fruit?"




"Is it an animal?"




"Is it heavy?"




"Is it light?"



"Is it red?" ( point to something red )

"Is it green?" ( point to the something green )


Or any other gestures the kids come up with!




Then it's time for the "Is it...?" Guessing Game




Then in the next lesson you can review the song and then the magic part is using the original Karaoke version on CD3.
Or you can download the animation I use in the video above - right click and select "save as" then drag it into your internet browser when you want to use it offline!
Adjectives Game Animation. 2.1 MB


1. Put several picture cards (or the animation above) on the board (e.g. animals and fruits or even sports).

2.One kid comes to the front and closes his/her eyes.

3. Another kid points to a card on the board.

4. Everybody sings the "I have a question, please let me try" part

5. The first kid opens their eyes and has to guess what picture card was pointed to by singing "Is it an animal?" "Is it big?" "Is it yellow" etc. etc.

6. The class answers with either "Yes it is!" or "No it's " plus the opposite word (e.g. if you say "Is it red?"and it's a lemon, the answer is "No, it's yellow!")

7. If the kid gets the card in 4 questions they win!

8. Another kid comes to the front repeat from 2.

The fast timing of the music really gets the adrenaline going and the unpredictability of the questions is great practise! The kids need to be quite good to do this, but it works really, really well!



Other Games

The recommended game for this theme is to do the karaoke version as mentioned above, or the "I like pink fish game"!




Worksheet


This is a classic game that I used to play with Pokemon cards (try and find what is popular in your schools!). The kids split into pairs, each kid has a worksheet. Each kid chooses one item, but doesn't tell the opponent. One player asks a question e.g. "Is it big". If the word "big" is on their opponent's item then they have to say "yes", if not they say "no". The opponent then asks a question. When one person thinks they know what their opponent's card is they say "Is it a/an �c.." plus the item. If they are correct they get a point! One extra rule, you can only answer words that are on the card you have chosen e.g. even if you chose mouse and your opponent says "Is it cute?", you must still answer "no" as "cute" is not written on the card!

Readers' Comments

It's a fun song
Sayid

Copyright (C) 1999/2023 by Richard Graham www.GenkiEnglish.com

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