Pets unit Flashcards for Kindergarten English Language Learners

 Starting with the Pets Unit Flashcards and activities on how to use them for introducing the new vocabularyof the unit and impulse speaking.This unit is an opportunity to learn about animals and promote creative thinking. LINK to the complete resource:   https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pets-Unit-for-Kindergarten-Holistic-English-Series-16-6837926

Use the Animals Pets unit Flashcards to identify and describe the pets using the verb to be. Students will learn the pets vocabulary.You can find the dog,frog,turtle,hamster,bird, rabbit, mouse,fish and cat among others.

Place the pets flashcards in random order one on top of the other on the board and have the students guess the animal. 

Teacher: What’s this?

Students: cat!

Teacher: What color is the cat?

Students: black and white.

Teacher: It's a black and white cat.

Place all the flashcards on the board and have the students name them all using a pointer.

Students can sort all the same animals under each column. Learning and thinking comes as they find similarities and differences between the animals.

 Also use them to have the students say the animal sounds.

Model some sentences: The bird is blue. The bird isn´t green.

Play Show me!

Use the flashcards for graph as recording information the board.

Place the color flashcards on the board and have the students sort all the pets into colors. Sorting helps with attention and memory. When it is done, ask questions.
Teacher: Which pets are blue?
Students: fish! Bird!
Teacher: What color is the fish?
Students: purple!

Ask yes/no questions!

A little counting. Students need to experience numbers in different ways. Use the see flashcard to get the meaning across of the structure: How many (pets) do you see?

Place the flashcards in random number order on the board. Have them count with you and write the number of pets that on the flashcard.
Teacher: (Show the see flashcard or point to it on the board)
How many fish can you see?
Students: one, two, three, four! Four fish!
Use these flashcards to review the structure: What are these?

Let’s do BIG or small. Learning and using adjectives will make their sentences more meaningful as they can describe the pet's size.

I used the words on the flashcards for the baby animals as I see on most text books. I can do any other word if needed. Divide the board in two sections. Write the words big and small. Review with your students the words. Tell them to place the flashcards on the section that they belong.

Then, use a marker or chalk and trace a line from the big bird to the birdie. Students can help you with this.

Use these flashcards to do the mommy-baby relationship with fishy,kitten,bunny,birdie,puppy. Students will associate the baby pets with their mothers.Some will say cats and baby cats.

Show the students the like flashcard and the don’t like flashcard. Have them imitate the faces for each one. Place these flashcards on the board. Have the students pick a pet that they like and one that they don’t like and place them on the corresponding part of the board.  

Teacher: Do you like birds?

Student: Yes, I do.

Ask questions with do as they place their cards. This is a way for the students to express their likes and dislikes.

Student: I don't like cats!

Then graph the results with the class. Show students how to read a graph and ask questions about it.

Students can express what pet they have. Graph as students talk about their belongings.
Pedro: I have a bird.

All pets have a name. Place the pets flashcards on the board and have them give a name to all the pets and write them.
Students: A cat.
Teacher: What’s its name?
Students: Lola.
Teacher: What’s this ?

Ask your students about the name their pets have.

Review the shapes with these pets flashcards. Have the students differentiate the pets. Students will separate the pets based on their similarities.
Draw the 4 shapes on the board and divide into sections.
Hand in the pets and have the students sort the pets on the board according to its shape.
When all the pets are placed ask questions.

Teacher: What shape is this?

Students: rectangle!

Teacher: Let’s name the animals here. ( point as the students name them)

Students: rabbit, cat, frog, fish, turtle, bird, mouse, dog.

Introduce the grammar point: I want and - or He/She wants.

Place all the flashcards on the board.  Introduce the first flashcard: Wendy (pointing to the girl) wants a bird (point to the bird)
Continue with the help of the class with all the other children. You can also ask questions.

Teacher: What pet does Kay want?

Students: a fish!

Teacher: Kay wants a fish!

Teach students how to express their own wants.

Teacher: What do you want?

Have is another word to introduce for the simple present. Choose several students to come to the front. Hand in a flashcard to each one and show it to the class. Have them take one step forward and say the sentence that have modeled.
Student: I have a hamster.

Ask questions:

Teacher: Who has a fish?

Students: Mary!

Teacher: What does Billy have?

Students: a cat!

                              Use the flashcards as well. Ask questions:

Teacher: Do you have a cat?

Student: Yes, I do.

Use the possessive pronoun: my.

Student: This is my fish!

Students can bring a picture of their pets and you can do this activity using those instead of the flashcards. You can also make a graph asking the same question.
Tell students that the family members also have pets! Ask about how the family members take care of pets.

 Place a family member flashcard along with a pet flashcard on the board. Model a sentence.

Teacher: Grandma has a rabbit.

Students: Grandpa has a cat.

Ask questions:

Teacher: What pet does Mom have?

Students: A dog.

Name a pet and students say the family member that has it.

Teacher: frog!

Students: Dad!

Say the family member and the students name the pet that person has.

Teacher: Brother!

Students: Iguana!

Tell students that pets move using the flashcards: fly,swim,jump,walk,eat.   They will identify the animal movements.

   Have them share what they know on how their pets move and perform the action. Place one by one the action flashcards on the board. Say the action and have your students do the action.

Teacher: What is this?

Students: a bird!

Teacher: How does the bird move? It flys!! ( perform the fly action)

Students: fly ! fly! Fly! (have the students perform and say the word three times).

You can also use the TPR action as Flap like a bird or swim like a turtle.

Add some sentences using can. 

Teacher: The fish can swim!!

Students will be able to identify how the pets move.

Teacher: Can a cat walk?

Students: Yes, it can.

Teacher: Can a dog fly?

Students: No, it can't.

These flashcards can work for Commands. There is another one. Wash!

Bring in some plastic dogs into the class, add some dirt on it and have the students to actually wash it.

Tell the students that the pets have a place as a home or a habitat.They should be able to associatepets with their homes. Explain about the characteristics of each one.
Place the pets flashcards on the board and then one by one the pets home.

Teacher: What’s this?

Students: a hamster.

Teacher: This is the hamster’s home. A hamster cage.

Students: A hamster cage.

Continue with the all the pets.

Teacher: What home is this? A rabbit’s.

Teacher: Where does the rabbit live?

Students: In a rabbit cage.

Pets eat!  Students will identify, classify and describe the food  or drinks for eachpet. 

I did a little research on what pets eat. I will leave a note on that here.
Place a pet on the board and have the students guess what they eat as you have all the food flashcards on the board ledge for the students to see.

Teacher: This is a turtle. What does it eat?

Students: tomato!

Teacher: YES!

Students: milk!

Teacher: NO!

Place the correct ones next to the pet. Continue with all the other ones.

The pets have emotions. Have the students sort the animals according to the emotion. Then, say a pet’s emotions and have a student come and take it off the board.
Teacher: Gina, a sad dog!

The pets have a body. Place any flashcard on the board and with your students have them name the body parts that they know and introduce the new body parts that belong to that pet. I made my example with the bird.The body parts would include: tail, paw, fin, wing.

Ask questions. How many legs does the bird have?

                      Students: two.

Students can describe the pets on the flashcards and talk about what sounds animals make. Place several flashcards on the board and see what sounds do the students know.

Review the numbers using the frog numbers flashcards.

Teacher: What number is this?

Students: five!

These flashcards can be used to place them in order on the board.

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