London Parks: Lesson Plan

Here is a simple video to teach about London parks.

1. Before watching, ask what students know about London parks. If they know nothing, ask if they think tere are many parks and gardens in London. You may use specific vocabulary that they are capable to understand. For example, you may ask Do you think London is rich in parks? instead of Do you think there are many parks in London? (to practise the expression to be rich in).
2. Ask your students to watch the video and to answer 2 questions: 1) What animals can you see in London parks? 2) What do people love doing in the parks? You may write these questions on the board as well.
3. Then run the video.
4. Let the students answer the questions.
5. Hand out the task that you can download  here.
6. For the first task, ask them: Where can you see this? Then read the names of the parks. You may drill the names together with the students. I find it difficult to work on the word Kensington. So you may want to repeat it several times. Run the video again and ask the students to give the right answers. You may enumerate the things in the list at this stage, and let them say the name of the place. For advanced students you may want to ask them make sentences like: You can see people jogging and walking in St. James's Park. You can see a boat trip on the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
7. Run the video again and ask your students to do the second task.
8. Ask them to read the sentences and correct if necessary.
9. Ask students to fill in the gaps in the text. You may or may not play the video again.

Here is the complete text:
London Parks

British people love animals, and the parks are full of  many different birds and wild animals: ducks, hares, rabbits, squirrels, foxes and pelicans. People also love walking and jogging through the parks, or just relaxing and playing. London parks are beautiful, but the one I really like is Hyde Park. Here you can have a boat trip on the Serpentine. At Kensington Gardens at the end of Hyde Park you can find the statue of Peter Pan.

1. Have them read the text loudly. Pay attention to the words they might not know: wild, full of, jogging, relaxing, the Serpentine (an artificial lake in Hyde Park). It may be fun to ask if they know about Peter Pan, and drill some vocabulary, too: a fairytale character, a cartoon hero. 
2. Ask students to correct sentences. Tell them they are all false. They may want to do this in writing first. So let them write, and then ask to read their answers.
3. The last task is lexical. When they checked the odd word out, ask them to read the whole line without the word. Then ask why the word is odd. In a) it may be tricky as all words mean activities, but the odd one is tennis, because it is not derived from a verb. I use this exercise because of Participle I that we currently study, but your students may not know it. You can change the rules then. In b) the odd one is parks, all the rest are animals or birds. In c) the odd one out is Peter Pan, all the rest are toponyms.
4. Additional activities.

You may want to practise vocabulary by making word charts or mind maps.

In the middle of the board write the word activities and circle it. Explain the word if they don't understand it. Then make sun-rays and write an activity at the end of the ray. It may be horse-riding, jogging, playing, etc., but only one word. Then ask your students to add 5 more activities they can think of. They may just name them, and you may write them down, or you may ask them to write. You may add as many activities as you like.

Then talk it over. You may ask questions like: What do Londoners love doing in parks? What do tourists love doing in London parks? What do you love doing in a park? Have your students answer fully:
Londoners love playing tennis in parks. Tourists love taking photos in London parks. etc.

You may do the same with any other word or expression, too.

Here, for example, you may explain the meaning of full of and add as many words as possible asking What are London parks full of? Then the answer would be London parks are full of trees, lakes, ponds, etc..

It is good to end this lesson by asking your students to tell their story about London parks. 

Teach and have fun)))