Target Language: What does s/he do? S/he's a (occupation).
Vocabulary: Teacher, Farmer, Doctor, Cook
Target: Young Learners
Greetings and Warm-up
Greet the class with a good-morning or good-afternoon depending on the time of day. Have the class stand up and respond to your greeting and do a warm-up. Ask the students, "Do you want to sing a song?" Usually, they'll nod and/or begin to twitch and move their bodies. Some will respond with a yes. Songs I teach young learners include the "Eensy Weensy Spider", "Head & Shoulders, Knees & Toes", "The Alphabet Song", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush," "Ring Around The Rosey", and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".
After the warm-up, sit the students down. Introduce the new vocabulary using flashcards. Show the flashcard or pin them on the blackboard. Point to the flashcard and say doctor. Have the students repeat after you. Do this a few times for all the new vocabulary.
Model the dialogue with a puppet. I use a Panda puppet to help me do this. Pin the flashcards on the blackboard. Take Panda out of a special bag. Say "Hello Panda" and then introduce him to the class. Then, ask Panda "What does s/he do?" while pointing to the teacher flashcard. Panda's answers: "She's a teacher." Do this for all the pinned flashcards and repeat the question/answer routine a few times. Get Panda to make a mistake or two along the way. Point to the doctor flashcard. Have Panda say, "He's a cook." then turn to the students, and have them tell Panda the correct answer.
Divide the class into 2 groups. One group asks the question "What does s/he do?" And the other group answers, "He's a doctor." depending on the flashcard shown. Run between the two groups. Better still, if you have a helper or if the homeroom teacher is present, ask them to help you. Alternate the dialogue between the two groups a few times until they get the hang of the dialogue.
Pass activity
Sit the students in a circle. Hold up a flashcard and say, "Doctor". Pass it to the student beside you. Have the student say, "Doctor". The student then passes the flashcard to the child next to him/her, who says, "Doctor" who then passes on the flashcard to the child beside him/her. Follow the flashcard along encouraging and helping the students to say the target language.
Activity
Sit the students in a circle. Hold up a flashcard (doctor), point to it and say, "He's a doctor." Then hold up a ball and say, "What does s/he do?" Demo with several students. Give the ball to one student and the flashcard to another student. Have them stand up. Get them to practice the dialogue. Do this several times with several different students until the class gets a feel as to what they are suppose to do. If the students are very timid or shy, have two students for each part stand up and do the dialogue. So, two students say, "What does s/he do?" And the other two students say, "He's a doctor." Play the music and get the students to pass the ball and flashcard around the circle, both going in opposite directions. Stop the music. The two students holding the ball and the flashcard stand up and do the dialogue.
Activity
One, two, three, turn around. Divide the class into two equal groups, teams A and B. If there's one team with an extra member, have one student play twice. Line up the two teams in two straight lines, and then sit them down. Demo the game with a few students. Have two students, one from each team approach the front of the classroom. Turn them around. They are now facing their teams. Have them count to three and then turn around to face the front of the class again. Show them one of the flashcards. The student who correctly identifies the flashcard first and shouts out the answer, i.e., Teacher, scores a point for their team. This is a fun game to play with learners with very limited speaking skills. Demo with several students so that the class gets a feeling on how to play the game.
If I there's a helper in the class, I'll play the "What does s/he do?" game. Divide the class into two equal groups, teams A and B. If there's one team with an extra member, have one student play twice. Line up the two teams in two single straight lines. Demo the game with a few students. Team A students go to Team A teacher and Team B students go to Team B teacher and is asked the question "What does s/he do?" while being shown a flashcard. The respective student responds. They then go to the end of the line and the next student advances. When ready, start the game by shouting out go and encourage the students to advance to the front. Show your student a flashcard and ask him/her "What does s/he do?" S/he answers, "He's a doctor." Have them go to the end of the line and encourage the next student to advance. The first team to get through the questions wins. As a reward, give the winning team a round of applause.
If there's time remaining, teach them a new song or sing again the song you did in the warm-up.
End the class with a good-bye and say, "That's all for today. See you next time."