Using LearnEnglish Kids - British Council


	Let your child imagine and create their own dangerous animals.

more tips

Zoo animals

Animals come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and can capture a child's imagination. Find tips on developing the topic of zoo animals on the Language Assistant,and ideas for using animal flashcards on the British Council/BBC website Teaching English.

useful websites

Here are some websites that have useful information or activities about the topic of dangerous animals.

CBBC
Some fun animal games from the BBC.

BBC Science and Nature
This site from the BBC has a fun quiz where you identify the sounds of different wild animals.

	using learnenglish kids with your child


	Dangerous Animals

The topic of dangerous animals will appeal to most children. In the materials on the site your child will be able to learn some amazing facts about animals whilst they practise their English. All the resources on dangerous animals on LearnEnglish Kids can be found on this page: http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-dangerous-animals.htm

With these materials children will be able to:

			Practise animal vocabulary.
			Create their own dangerous animal.
			Do a quiz about dangerous animals.
			Read and listen to a story about Angel the fish.
			Listen to and sing a song about a hippo.
			Make a crocodile puppet.

Activities are marked with a symbol on the topics webpage http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-topics-dangerous-animals.htm to indicate the best age group and level. Look at these when you choose which activities to use with your child.

Younger children will enjoy the song about the hippo and they will also enjoy creating their own dangerous animal, which they can name and print out.

Older children will enjoy testing their knowledge of some curious and unusual animals in the dangerous animals quiz. They may also like to learn more about the Great Barrier Reef by doing the downloadable worksheet.

Below you'll find an idea for an activity you can try with your child using some of these materials. On the left you'll see a list of links to resources about this topic on teaching websites and other external websites that you may find useful. Please note that the British Council is not responsible for the content of external websites.

SOMETHING YOU CAN DO WITH YOUR CHILD

Print the crocodile puppet and make it with your child. Make one for yourself too! As you are colouring, cutting out and gluing the puppet together you can practice the English for the things you need such as coloured pencils, glue and scissors. When you have made the puppets use them to do some of the following activities.

			Give your crocodile puppet a character and use the puppet to talk to your child’s puppet. This will be easier to do if you use a special voice for your puppet. For example, “Hello! My name’s Kevin the crocodile, what’s your name?” Encourage your child to make up a name for their crocodile puppet too and have a little chat together.
			Once both the crocodiles know each other (!) take them around the rooms in your house and use the crocodile to ask you child some questions. For examples, “What’s this?” as you point to something in the house. You can pretend your crocodile doesn’t speak much English and so your child’s crocodile is helping him.
			Make up a short play with the puppets to show to another family member or a friend. You could use the pictures of dangerous animals from the flashcards to make some more characters to appear in the play. If you print them on card and then use a pencil or a straw as a stick you can make more puppet type characters to play with.
			Tidy up the things you used to make the crocodile and as you do so, use the opportunity to practise prepositions of place. For example, “there’s a pencil under the table, can you pick it up?” or “put the glue in your pencil case please” etc. This will be more fun if you use the crocodile puppet to give the instructions to your child.