It’s a kind of magic!

Kinga | Feb 10, 2025Mar 04, 2025

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson on magic are to:

• learn and practise common verbs and phrases;
• discuss magic from various perspectives;
• watch a video of a prediction trick.

With this lesson, students talk about magic, explore the names of objects magicians use and learn verbs to describe magic tricks. They watch a video of a man making predictions, share their opinions and discuss the reasoning behind magic tricks. Students also evaluate magic tricks, discuss how modern technology influences magic and read about a famous magic trick.

WARM-UP AND VOCABULARY

This ESL lesson on magic starts with a warm-up. Students talk about experiences and opinions on magic and magicians. Then, they complete gaps to create names of objects that magicians often use (e.g. magic wand, deck of cards, magician’s hat, etc.). Afterwards, students read sentences about common magic tricks and props and match them to the objects. Following that, they complete gaps with some common verbs (e.g. pick, mark, pretend, etc.) to create descriptions of other props that magicians use. Next, students match sentence halves to create statements about magic tricks. They choose one statement they agree or disagree with and explain why.

DISCUSSION

At this point in this ESL lesson on magic, students watch the first part of a video where a person presents a prediction trick. They decide if some sentences are true or false and correct the false ones. Next, students guess what predictions the man in the video might make. Then, they watch the second part of the video and verify their answers. Following that, students discuss opinions and reasoning behind magic tricks. Afterwards, they discuss more magic tricks by finishing sentences (e.g. The easiest trick to figure out is…). After that, students read the description of a famous magic trick and complete gaps with common verbs (e.g. hide, lift, cover, etc.). Finally, they discuss questions about the impact of modern technology on magic tricks.

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This lesson plan also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students choose the correct verbs to complete tips. Then, they say which category each tip is in. Students also choose one of the categories and add one more tip using the verbs from the sentences. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.

WORKSHEETS

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