Country Lessons Aims
This is the beginning of a two-hour long subject of work that should help familiarize the students with the meaning of “Country” “Capital City” “Nationality” “Borders” “Relativity of countries” “Currency” “Places to visit” “majority religions”. In the first lesson the target will be to familiarize the students with…
1) Flags
2) Countries
3) Capital Cities
4) Nationalities
This will be done through playing various games and lots of speaking to the class and encouraging them to speak within group pairs.
Materials Needed
1) Hand drawn flags of lots of countries.
2) Classroom materials as standard.
Procedure
Begin the lesson nice and fun with game one. Write on the board the question…
Q: What country does this flag represent?
A: This flag represents the country of __
Get the students to repeat this several times and then begin the game.
Flag Game (See games section in portfolio for more details)
Using the pre-prepared hand drawn flags you have made previously, hold them up in the air and the students have to guess the name of the country. For each correct answer given award a house point but a house point can only be given if the student answers in full! Emphasize this by shunning people who scream out “THAILAND” to the Thai flag and so on. This will improve their speaking of the question and answer.
After the game is over move on to another game almost immediately.
“It’s a knockout” Countries Game (See games section in portfolio for more details)
Get all the students to stand up and go round the class asking each student for a country. Each student has five seconds to think of one. If he or she does not get a country within those five seconds, he or she must sit down. The last student remaining standing is the winner and gains 5 house-points for his or her team. The twist however is that the students must give a country to a specified letter given to them by the teacher. Begin by rotating alphabetically e.g. Austria, Brazil, China, Dominican Republic, England… and so on but as the game goes on make it more tricky to catch out the smarter ones! A good fun game!
After this move on to a new question…
Q: What is the capital city of
A: The capital city of is _
Get the students to answer this question a few times with your help and then ask lots of questions to the class. Then move on to nationalities…
Q: What nationality are people from ?
A: People from _ are _
And do the same. Do not worry that the students aren’t writing the subject material in their books, as there will be a revision sheet for this at the end of the topic!
End the lesson with Countries/Capital Cities bingo and then possibly (if you need to kill five minutes) resort to Hangman. Bringing us swiftly on to lesson two…
Time management
Country Lesson 2
Following on from lesson 1 – this final lesson in this section of learning is devoted to teaching the meaning of…
1) Borders (what borders are and which countries border which)
2) Currency
3) Religion
4) Relativity of places to each other
This will conclude the subject yet be an introduction for a future subject of holidays and places to visit!
Materials needed
1) A deck of cards
2) Hand drawn flags of lots of countries
3) A world map
4) Classroom materials as standard
5) Student Revision Sheets x2
Procedure
Begin the lesson by refreshing the student’s memories by playing a house-point earning game!
Higher or Lower
Ask the students as a class a question that has been taught from the previous lesson… e.g. What is the capital city of Cambodia? And when a student answers correctly let them stand up and then reveal a deck of cards. Put 10 cards in a row face down and then bring the first card face up. The student has to guess whether the next card will be of a higher or lower value. If the values match then the student has to answer another question. If the student guesses incorrectly then they must sit down. Another question is asked to the class and the student that successfully turns over the last card wins two house points. Play this game two or three times before continuing with the lesson.
After the games completion move on to the two questions…
Q: How many borders does have?
A: has __ border(s).
Q: What are the borders of ?
A: The borders of are _________.
Explain what these questions mean by showing examples and get the class to answer this question themselves a few times. Then move on subsequently to the questions…
Q: What is the currency of _?
A: The currency of is _
Q: What is the major religion of ?
A: The major religion of is _. (Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Sikhism, Islam, Hinduism)
Q: Where is in relation to
A: is (Near to/Far from/Next to)
Dealing with each question in the same way so that the student gains a comprehension that they can take into the future. End the lesson with a quick-fire game called…
Stick the country on the flag game
Stick your world map on the board and have your flags ready. Ask the students a question which has already been covered and the first to answer correctly stands up. That student is then presented with a flag and has 3 seconds to stick that to the world map at which point the same student will be presented with a second flag and so on until an error is made. The amount of flags successfully stuck to the map is thus counted and the student receives an equivalent amount of house-points.
Play this until two minutes before the lessons conclusion and then hand out two revision worksheets for the students to work from in the future.
Countries Used
USA, England, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Korea, Morocco, Egypt, Australia, Chile, Brazil.
Fill in the blanks depending on the adequate answers!
Q: What country does the flag represent?
A: The flag represents the country of _
Q: What is the capital city of Thailand?
A: The capital city is Bangkok.
Q: What nationality are people from Chile?
A: People from Chile are Chilean.
Q: How many borders does Thailand have?
A: Thailand has 4 borders.
Q: What are the borders of Thailand?
A: The borders of Thailand are Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia and Cambodia.
Q: Where is Japan in relation to Brazil?
A: Japan is far from Brazil
Q: What is the currency of USA?
A: The currency of USA is the dollar.
Q: Where is a good place to visit in France?
A: The Eiffel Tower is a good place to visit.
Q: What is the majority religion of Thailand?
A: The majority religion of Thailand is Buddhism.
Important words
Please write down the word in Thai so you DO NOT FORGET! Thank-you J
Near to –
Next to –
Far from –
Currency –
Religion –
Place to visit –
In relation to –
Capital City –
Nationality –
Borders –
View more ESL lesson plan suggestions.