On Planet Hope
1 Bring in some pictures of space, spaceships, planets, the moon, the sun and so on( from books, magazines or the internet) and share them with students.
2 Ask students to tell you first in L1 what they see in the pictures. Elicit the words in English if they know them, but it is not important at this stage if they do not.
3 Tell students that they are going on an imaginary journey into space to their dream planet( Planet Hope). The aim of their space travel will be to explore the planet, to describe it and to talk about the things they wish to do and can do there.
4 Ask students to imagine what kind of planet Hope is and describe it to a partner using sentences such as:
My dream planet has … My dream planet is full of … There are … on my dream planet.
Focus: Talking about hopes, wishes, descriptions using I wish, I hope, etc.; spa Level: A2( particularly suitable for younger students) Duration: 80 minutes Activity type: Drawing, discussion, descriptions Resources: Pictures of space, planets, spaceships, etc.; cards; paper; coloured
Created by
Kamile Hamiloglú
There aren’ t any I want … I can … / I will …..
… on my dream planet
5 Ask students to report to the class about Planet Hope. Make two lists on the board: one with the descriptions and the other with their‘ wish lists’. Choose the most interesting descriptions with the whole class.
6 Ask pairs to describe the location of Planet Hope and how they can get there using phrases such as You can go there from the moon. It is close to Jupiter.
7 Ask pairs to share their descriptions with the whole class. 8 Hand out cards, paper, coloured pens / pencils and other drawing materials.
9 Ask students to work individually to draw a spaceship to go to Planet Hope on the card. Tell them to give their spaceship a name and to write a description of their spaceship below the drawing.
10 Collect and display the cards on the board and let students look at each others’ spaceships. They should choose one of the spaceships and think of a question about it to ask its owner.
11 Students ask their questions about the spaceships. You could ask each student in turn to come and point to the relevant picture. The person who drew it has to stand up and answer the question.
12 Students choose the best spaceship and the best planet by a class vote.
Follow-up Assign each student a mission on Planet Hope to build and maintain a wonderful living environment. Each student could have a specific area of expertise( e. g. gardener, builder, artist) and write a‘ to do’ list.
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