Lesson Plan: House and Home

 

Lesson Level: All grades Duration: 45 Minutes

Lesson Title: House and Home

Grammar and Vocabulary

No new grammar.

Vocabulary of rooms and furniture.

Lesson Objectives

To practice household rooms and household items vocabulary.

To listen to a short audio tape of someone looking around a house and demonstrate listening comprehension.

To be able to describe a home to a partner and to describe a partner’s home to the class.

Materials Required

Audio from Headway Elementary or similar¹.

Poster of prepared questions for listening exercise.²

List of rooms on cards.³

Preparation

Prepare the materials.

You will need two people to record a dialogue of someone showing a visitor around their house.¹

You will need a poster with a prepared set of questions based on the audio.²

Procedure

1

Put class into groups of eight.

2

Groups to list as many rooms as they can in one minute.

Ask group one for a room – write it on the board.

Repeat for all groups.

When all groups done check if any group has any other rooms to add.

Check that students understand nature and function of each room. (5 Minutes)

3

Give each group a card with ONE room on from the following

Kitchen, Living Room, Hall, Bathroom, Bedroom, Dining Room, Study, (Some rooms may be allocated to more than one group.)

Groups list as many household items for that room as they can think of in two minutes.

Divide board into columns – one for each group.

At end of two minutes a student from each group comes to board and writes the list.

When done check that all words are correct and correctly spelled.

(15 Minutes)

4

Put questions poster on board.

Explain listening task

“You will hear someone showing a man around her house. When it is finished answer the questions.”

Play the audio tape.

Elicit answers from the class.

Play again, stopping after each room is visited and check answers, (15 Minutes)

5

Ask more questions directed at any students who are not participating. (2 Minutes)

6

Put students into pairs.

Tell each student to describe his/her apartment to another student.

Elicit feedback from some students describing their partner’s room to the teacher.

(8 Minutes)

Notes

1

This lesson, as I do it, uses the audio from Unit 12 of the Starter volume of Hotline. To the best of my knowledge this book is no longer available and, of course, even if it were, you probably wouldn't have a copy. No matter. You can record your own suitable audio. Here is  a suggested dialogue that I have written. I would have included a transcript of the original but let's avoid copyright issues.

The dialogue requires two people to record it -one male and one female, preferably NOT the teacher. You can do without the sound effects if you can't make them.

<Sound of Doorbell>

Mrs Johnson: Hello, Mr Morris?

Mr Morris: Yes, that's right, I've come to look at the house.

Mrs Johnson: Come in, then.

<Sound of door closing>

Mrs Johnson: This is the hall.

Mr Morris: Hmmm. Very compact. How many rooms does it have?

Mrs Johnson: Well downstairs, there are two rooms and the kitchen and there are three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.

Mr Morris: Let's have a look at the living room, then?

<Sound of door opening>

Mrs Johnson: Here it is.

Mr Morris: It looks crowded. Three armchairs and a sofa? A bit too much furniture for a room this size, really. Hardly enough room for the television. Or the bookcase. And isn't that sideboard a bit old fashioned.

Mrs Johnson: It was my mother's.

Mr Morris: Oh well, I suppose it goes with the table.

<sound of door opening and closing again>

Mrs Johnson: And this is the dining room.

Mr Morris: Isn't it a bit of a squeeze? How did you get such a large table in here?

Mrs Johnson: It comes apart.

Mr Morris: Can I see the kitchen now.

Mrs Johnson: OK

<sound of door opening and closing again>

Mr Morris: Ah. this is better. It's quite a big kitchen and very modern. Is there a lot of cupboard space?

Mrs Johnson: Yes. We had it fitted about two months ago. There are cupboards here and here and here. And there, overhead cupboards along that wall.

Mr Morris: What about upstairs?

Mrs Johnson: Come on. I'll show you.

<sound of climbing stairs>

Mrs Johnson: This is our bedroom, me and my husband.

Mr Morris: The wardrobe and the dressing table. More of your mother's furniture?

Mrs Johnson: Yes. How did you know?

Mr Morris: Lucky guess.

Mrs Johnson: And I see you have green wallpaper with a blue and red carpet. You have an interesting eye for decoration.

Mrs Johnson: Thank you.

Mr Morris: Hmmm

Mrs Johnson: And this is our son's room.

Mr Morris: Black ceiling, yellow walls and the carpet! What would you call that colour?

Mrs Johnson: I'm not really sure.

Mr Morris: He's clearly inherited your design skills. Makes the room look even tinier.

Mrs Johnson: Well next door is our daughter's room. We can look at that now.

Mr Morris: Well. I wasn't expecting that. She's done it very nicely, hasn't she. Keeps it very clean and tidy. And these pictures of flowers on the wall.

Mrs Johnson: She painted them herself.

Mr Morris: She's very talented.

Mrs Johnson: Would you like to see the bathroom now.

Mr Morris: Yes, please.

Mrs Johnson: Here it is.

Mr Morris: Not much room is there? Is there a bath?

Mrs Johnson: No. It's just a shower. And a toilet of course.

Mr Morris: Of course.

Mrs Johnson: Well. Would you like to see the garden? And we have a garage. It's at the back of the house.

Mr Morris: No. That's OK.

<sound of walking downstairs>

Mrs Johnson: You can call the estate agent and make an offer.

<sound of door opening>

Mrs Johnson: We might accept a lower price.

Mrs Johnson: We can leave all the fittings and fixtures.

Mrs Johnson: OK. let us know if you are interested.

Mrs Johnson: Goodbye.

2

Suggested questions for the poster (Junior Classes)

1. What rooms does he visit?
2. What furniture does he see?
3. What rooms does he like?
4. How many bedrooms are there?
5. What colours are the bedrooms?
6. Is there a bath?

Suggested questions for the poster (Senior Classes)

1. What rooms does he visit?
2. Does he think the house is small or big?
3. How do you know? (What words does he use that tell you?)
4. Does he like the furniture in the living room.
5. How do you know.
6. What other room has similar furniture.
7. What does he think of the decoration?
8. How do you know?
9. Do you think he will buy the house?
10. Why?

3

The list of rooms for the cards is Kitchen, Living Room, Hall, Bathroom, Bedroom, Dining Room, Study, Prepare at least four copies of each.