How smart are animals?

Megan | Oct 02, 2024Nov 12, 2024

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

• discuss human-animal relationships and animal intelligence;
• learn and talk about animal behaviours, abilities, and stories;
• hypothesise an animal’s point of view and discuss scenarios.

With this ESL lesson about animal abilities, students talk about the roles animals play in our lives, as well as differing opinions on animal behaviour and intelligence. They read about animal abilities and learn some fascinating animal stories. There is a video about a crow’s problem-solving activities and lots of questions on the topic. Students also do an exercise in which they speak as though they were an animal with the power of speech.

WARM-UP AND VOCABULARY

Students begin this ESL lesson about animal abilities with a warm-up in which they brainstorm all the different spheres in which animals play a part in our lives. There is an optional vocabulary activity at this point in the lesson which will help students to discuss animal abilities. The optional task covers words connected to ability (e.g. capable, able, inability), and students complete sentences with the correct form of the word. After that, they read and discuss some varying opinions about animal intelligence and our relationship with animals. Next, students read about some animal abilities and guess if animals are really capable of them or not, justifying their answer. 

VIDEO AND DISCUSSION

The ESL lesson about animal abilities continues with a video in which a crow solves a puzzle. Students complete a sentence to summarise their thoughts (“I was/wasn’t surprised that the crow was able to solve the problem because…”). Afterwards, they discuss questions. The questions cover signs of animal intelligence, animal abilities we’d like to have, and various ‘human’ characteristics displayed by animals. After that, students read about real-life animal stories and try to predict how each story will finish. Following the stories, they discuss related questions and consider animal behaviour. This ESL lesson about animal abilities finishes with an unusual exercise! Students look at some animal scenarios (e.g. a monkey at a zoo, a horse at a riding school). Students imagine they are the animal in the scenario and that they have the power to speak to humans about their life and experience.

WORKSHEETS

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