Lesson plan

Storytelling: Carnival crime

Aims
• To develop extended listening and prediction skills using a short story
• To give learners the opportunity to participate in the storytelling process
• To develop speaking skills
• To reinforce the use of the past simple tense

Age/level
Primary
CEFR level A1+

Time
45+ minutes

Materials
1. worksheet (one per learner)
2. script and cards (one set for the teacher)
3. story text (one per pair of learners, optional)
4. world map and/or pictures of Brazil and the Rio Carnival (optional)

Introduction
Stories are a highly adaptable teaching tool and can be used in a variety of ways to teach a range of skills.
This lesson focuses on extended listening skills and getting learners to actively participate in the
storytelling process, allowing them to use their prediction skills in a creative and fun way. There are also
some follow-up activities that develop speaking skills and different areas of language in the story.

Procedure
1. Warmer (5 • Write Carnival crime on the board and tell the learners that you are going to tell them
minutes) a story with this title.
• Ask the learners if they know what a carnival is and ask them questions to capture
their interest, such as:
Do we have a carnival in our country? or What countries have carnivals?
What do people wear during carnival?
What do people do during carnival?

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 Lesson plan
• Then tell the learners that the carnival in the story is in Brazil and ask them if they
know where Brazil is. If there is a map of the world in the class, get a learner to point
to Brazil on the map and elicit what they know about it. If possible, show the learners
pictures of Brazil and the Rio Carnival, either on the internet or in books.

2. Listening (10 • Explain to the learners that before you tell them the story, you need them to help you
minutes) tell the story by listening and answering some simple questions when you ask them.
• Use the script and cards to help you tell the story and ask the learners questions.
This storytelling activity involves the teacher taking the main role as the principal
storyteller with the learners acting as secondary storytellers.
• It is a good idea to read the story a few times yourself until you can remember it and
then tell the story in your own words, stopping in the same way to get learner input.
Telling the story in your own words as opposed to reading word for word from the
script will make the story seem more real and authentic to the learners.

3. Speaking (10– • After you have told the story, get the learners as a class to tell the story back to you
15 minutes) using the pictures on the board to help them.
• Ask learners to complete activity 1 from the worksheet and join up the pictures in the
correct order. Learners can then use the pictures to retell the story in pairs.

4. Follow-up • Tell learners to look at activity 2 from the worksheet. Explain that they are going to
activity (15 draw a person wearing a carnival costume, but they must follow your instructions
minutes) and only draw what you tell them to.
• Read the following instructions one by one, making sure learners don’t go ahead or
unfold the paper to look back at any stage. Set a time limit for each drawing stage.
1. Draw the head and neck, then draw a carnival mask on the face.
2. Fold your paper and pass it to the person on your right.
3. Draw the arms and top half of the costume.
4. Fold your paper and pass it to the person on your right.
5. Draw the legs and bottom half of the costume.
6. Fold your paper and pass it to the person on your right.
7. Draw the feet and shoes.
8. Fold your paper and pass it to the person on your right.
• Learners then unfold the paper they now have, and in small groups describe the
costumes to each other and take a vote on the silliest. They then write a short
description of their costume to display on the wall together with the costume.

Extra activities • You could give the learners a copy of the original story text and ask them to work in
pairs to find the differences between the class story and the original.
• If you wanted to focus on some of the language from the story, there are online and
offline activities on language for clothes and the past simple on LearnEnglish Kids:
https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/category/topics/clothes
https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-practice

Contributed by
Fiona Lawtie

www.teachingenglish.org.uk
© The British Council, 2018 The United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. We are registered in England as a charity.