English lesson plans

for Grade 2
Lessons in this section
2.1 Listening and speaking: others likes and dislikes 48
2.2 Speaking and writing: present continuous for now 52
2.3 Reading and speaking: The cat and the cockroaches 55
2.4 Speaking: polite requests – Please can I have some …? 58
Resource sheets for the lessons 61

Using these lesson plans

In contrast to the lesson plans for Grade 1, these lesson plans are drawn from
different parts of the curriculum. They do not represent a week’s teaching,
although lesson 2.4 draws on what has been done in lesson 2.1.
The objectives for the lessons are drawn from the curriculum standards for Grade 2.
The relevant main standards are shown in bold beside the objectives at the top of
each lesson plan.
It is assumed that certain structures, functions, topics and sub-skills have already
been learned by the students. For example, lesson 2.1 focuses on third person
singular simple present ‘s’ and this is usually dealt with after students have
practised I, we and they with simple present verbs like want, need, have and like.
Similarly, lesson 2.2 revises the use of the present continuous tense, which will
have been introduced in Grade 1, in order to introduce some new action verbs and
to get students to write the ‘-ing’ endings. The lesson plans also refer to ‘revision
vocabulary’ which it is assumed has been taught earlier. Teachers will have to
adjust the vocabulary load depending on what really has gone before.
Each lesson plan has sufficient material to support at least 45 minutes of direct
teaching. Teachers may need to supplement the activities provided with additional
simpler or more complex tasks if they have a mixed ability class. If there is too
much material for 45 minutes (this depends on the class), it is up to the teacher to
designate which activities will carry through to the next lesson. However, to
maximise the learning cycle, teachers should be selective about which tasks to cut,
and not just drop the last task because it comes at the end. Extra practice tasks are
included to accommodate students or groups of students who learn faster than the
rest of the class.
The lesson plans are organised as three-stage lessons with a feedback session at the
end to sum up learning for students. In the vocabulary and speaking lessons, the
three stages are presentation, practice and production. In the listening, reading and
writing lessons the three stages are pre-, while, and post- (e.g. pre-reading, while
reading and post-reading). However, at this early learning level, many of the tasks
require integrated skills, so the stages or the lesson type sometimes merge.

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 2.1 Listening and speaking:
other’s likes and dislikes
Objectives • Talk about and respond to other people’s likes and dislikes.
Grade 2 curriculum
standards 1.2, 1.4, 4.2,
• Pronounce final ‘s’ in third person singular simple present tense and plural
5.2, 6.2 nouns: /s/ and /z/.
Presentation
Realia or picture drill
Resources
Pre-teach vocabulary using real fruits and vegetables or the pictures in teacher’s
Real foodstuffs resource 2.1.
Teacher’s resource 2.1
Hold up each food item/picture and get students to make sentences with There are
Vocabulary
some …
apples
bananas Teacher’s cues Students say
mangos
apples There are some apples.
carrots
tomatoes bananas There are some bananas.
dates mangos There are some mangos.

Revision vocabulary tomatoes There are some tomatoes.

bread carrots There are some carrots.

fish (fish fingers) dates There are some dates.
fruit
food Get students to remember the words in a chain.
meat
A: There are some apples.
pizza
chips B: There are some apples and some bananas.
C: There are some apples, some bananas and some mangos.
D: etc.
Kim’s game
Put all the things on a tray (or stick all the pictures on the board) and give students
time to memorise what’s there, and how many of each thing, there are (count out
the dates, bananas, apples etc. with them).
Divide the class into two teams. Cover the tray or remove the pictures. Get teams
to take it in turns to remember one thing at a time from the tray/board until they
have them all. For each correctly remembered thing the team gets one point.
Model sentences
Draw a face of a boy and a girl on the board, name the boy Salim and the girl
Zahra. Tell students Salim and Zahra like different things. Show students the
picture cue card of dates (from teacher’s resource 2.1) and get them to say the
model sentence.
Model sentence: Salim likes dates

Show the picture cue card of mangos and get them to say the model sentence.
Model sentence: Zahra doesn’t like dates. Zahra likes mangos.

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 Concept check
Under Salim on the board, stick the picture cue card of dates. Under Zahra stick the
picture cue card of mangos. Make sure students can hear the difference between the
initial /s/ in Salim and the final /s/ in dates, the initial /z/ in Zahra and the final /z/
in mangos.
Practice
People pairs
Resources
Hold up the picture cue card of carrots. Say the word aloud and get students to
Tape script 2.1 determine if it sounds like /s/ or /z/ at the end.
Worksheet 2.1a
• Who likes carrots? Salim or Zahra?
Elicit ‘Salim’ and stick the cue card under Salim’s picture on the board.
Hold up picture cue card of apples (/z/).
• Who like apples? Salim or Zahra?
Elicit Zahra and stick the cue card under Zahra’s picture on the board. Once
students get the hang of how to match the ending sounds to the people, get them to
do the rest and then to say the words aloud.
Answer key
Salim Zahra
dates mangos
carrots apples
bananas
tomatoes

Board drills
Check all the vocabulary again by asking yes/no questions and getting students to
reply with short answers.
• Does Salim like tomatoes? No, he doesn’t.
• Does Zahra like tomatoes? Yes she does.
Etc.
Get students to make sentences from the lists on the board linked with but.
Salim likes dates but he doesn’t like mangos.
Salim likes carrots but he doesn’t like apples.
Zahra likes bananas but she doesn’t like dates.
Zahra likes tomatoes but she doesn’t like carrots.
Listen and match
Give students worksheet 2.1a and explain they are going to listen to three children
– Penny, Jack and Bob – talking about what they like and don’t like. Check all the
pictures with them to make sure they can ‘read’ each picture and remember the
appropriate food word. Do the first one together: play the tape or read tape script
2.1 for Penny and show them how to tick the boxes for the things Penny likes and
cross the boxes for the things she doesn’t like. Then play the rest of the tape (or
read aloud the rest of the tape script) and get them to tick or cross the boxes for
Jack and Bob. Check students’ answers, and if there are any wrong answers, get
them to listen a second time, so that they work out the right answers for
themselves. In pairs, get students to talk about Penny, Jack and Bob.

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 Bob likes ice cream. Bob likes fish. Bob doesn’t like fruit. Bob doesn’t like
carrots.
Production
Board game
Resources
Put students in groups of three and give each group the board game on worksheet
Worksheet 2.1b 2.1b and three different coloured counters. Choose one group to demonstrate the
Dice (one for each group)
game and get the rest of the class to come and stand around so that they can see
Counters or buttons in
three colours what to do. Show students how to put their counters on ‘Start’. Check ‘Who’s
blue? Who’s red? Who’s green?’ so that every child knows which colour they are.
Get them to read aloud the words in the middle of the board: ‘Bob likes …’ and
explain this is a game to talk about what Bob likes and doesn’t like. Check that
they understand the pictures in each square.
• What are these? They’re cats.
• What’s this? It’s ice cream.
Tell them who will go first, second and third. Throw the dice, and get the students
to say aloud the number it lands on. Show the first student how to move their
counter along the board the same number of squares. Get them to then say what’s
in the square. Show them that if there’s a smiley face it means Bob likes it and if
there’s a frowning face it means Bob doesn’t like it. Give an example of what they
then have to say.

☺ ice cream Bob likes ice cream.

cats Bob doesn’t like cats.

Get the demonstration group to play a few turns so that the rest of the class
understand what to do, then have the rest of the class go and sit down and play
their own game. Tell students the first one to get to the end is the winner. Monitor,
help students make sentences about Bob and correct what they say, paying
particular attention to the /s/ and /z/ sounds at the end of plural nouns, the /s/ at the
end of ‘likes’ and the /z/ in ‘doesn’t’.
Feedback
Summary for students
Resources
S card: pocket-size card In Arabic
with a big red letter S
Write the letter S on the board and get students to tell you what it means at the end
of words like carrots, tomatoes, dates. Establish that it’s for plurals: for when there
is more than one thing. Ask how many ways they have learned so far for
pronouncing ‘s’ at the end of a word and establish two ways, so far: /s/ and /z/.
(There is also the /iz/ as in washes and oranges which they will learn next.)
Tell students when we talk about what other people like we also need an ‘s’ at the
end of like – so I like and we like, but he likes, she likes, Bob likes, Salim likes,
Zahra likes, Penny likes – Emphasise the pronunciation of the final ‘s’ in all your
examples.
Show students your S card. Tell them that every time they forget to put the ‘s’ on
the end of a word you are going to show them the S card and make them say it
again correctly.
Elicit the negative of like is doesn’t like and get them to pronounce it clearly.

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 For Penny: Penny likes bread. She has bread for breakfast every morning.
Tape script Bread’s great! But she doesn’t like milk. She never drinks milk.
2.1 Yuk! Penny’s favourite food is pizza. She really likes pizza. When
she goes to the shopping mall she always has pizza. Penny also
likes apples – she likes green apples, red apples, yellow apples – in
fact she likes all kinds of apples.
For Jack: Jack loves chips. Chips for breakfast, chip for lunch, chips for
dinner. Jack likes his chips! Jack likes bananas too. His mother
says, ‘Take a banana to school’ and Jack says ‘Yes! I like
bananas.’ But Jack doesn’t like mangos. His mother says ‘Take a
mango to school’ but Jack says ‘No! I don’t like mangos.’ Jack
doesn’t like tomatoes either. Yuk! Tomatoes are really bad, thinks
Jack.
For Bob: Bob doesn’t like carrots and he doesn’t like fruit. No carrots for
Bob, no way. No bananas, no apples, no dates, no mangos for Bob.
No fruit at all. But he really likes ice cream, yummy yummy ice
cream, yes please! And he like fish too. He likes fish for dinner.
Especially fish fingers.

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 2.2 Speaking and writing:
present continuous for now
Objectives • Use action verbs in the present continuous, third person singular and plural, to
Grade 2 curriculum talk about what people are doing now.
standards 1.2, 4.2, 4.3,
6.1, 3.1, 3.3, 10.2 • Complete a postcard by filling in the gaps with labels and tracing letters.
Presentation
Wordsnake
Resources
Pre-teach the new verbs. Revise the old verbs. Call out the verb in Arabic and get
Teacher’s resources 2.2a the students say the verb in English. Call out the word in English and get the
and 2.2b
students to mime it. Copy the wordsnake (teacher’s resource 2.2a) onto the board
Vocabulary or present it as a poster. Tell students to find as many words as possible in the
(to) watch TV wordsnake. Give them coloured board pens and ask them to take it in turns to come
(to) cook lunch to the front and circle any word they can see in the snake. Each time a new word is
(to) fix a bike circled, write it out on the side of the wordsnake in a list for the students to see.
Revision Vocabulary When they’ve circled a word, have them pass the pen on to another student to find
(to) eat and circle another word. For further participation, you can nominate students to
(to) write find a particular word in the wordsnake.
(to) play
Maysa, show me where swimming is.
(to) swim
(to) fly Hadeel, show me where riding is.
(to) ride Answer key
(to) run
eat, eating, writing, swim, swimming, fly, flying, cook, cooking, play, playing, run, running, fix,
(to) sleep
fixing, watch, watching, riding

Picture presentation
Show students an enlarged version of the picture on teacher’s resource 2.2b.
Elicit everything that is going on in the picture, by pointing and asking questions.
• What’s he doing?
• What’s she doing?
• What’s this boy doing?
• What’s the old woman doing?
• What’s the cat doing?
• What are they doing?
• What are the old people doing?
Etc.
After each elicited answer, get the students to repeat the sentence in English.
He’s cooking.
She’s riding a bike.
They’re watching TV.
He’s flying a kite.
The cat’s sleeping.
Etc.

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 Practice True/false repetition drill
Resources Using teacher’s resource 2.2b, make statements about the picture. If the statement
Teacher’s resource 2.2b is true, tell the students they must repeat it. If the statement is not true, tell the
students they must stay silent.

Teacher says Students do

The cat is sleeping. repeat
The boy is flying a kite. repeat
The mouse is sleeping. stay silent
The mouse is eating. repeat
The old people are watching TV. repeat
The woman’s fixing a bike. stay silent
The woman’s writing a letter. repeat
Some girls are running. repeat
Two boys are playing football. repeat
A boy is riding a bike. stay silent
A girl is riding a bike. repeat
An old woman is cooking. stay silent
An old man is cooking repeat

Picture drill
Point to a person or persons in the same enlarged picture (teacher’s resource 2.2b)
and get the students to tell you what they’re doing, with no oral prompts from you.
Then have students practise the question form.
Model question: What’s he doing?
Model question: What are they doing?
Model question: What’s the boy doing?
Model question: What’s the woman doing?
Model question: What are the old people doing?
Etc.

Put the students into two teams and get them to take it in turns to ask and answer
questions about what is going on in the picture. The first team asks, the second
team answers. In the next turn, the second team asks and the first team answers,
and so on. For each correct question they get a point, for each correct answer they
get a point.
Put students in pairs and get them to ask and answer questions about the picture in
the same way as they did in teams, but with no scoring. Monitor, help and correct.
Production
Gap-fill writing
Resources
Stick an enlarged version of teacher’s resource 2.2c(i) on the board. Before
Teacher’s resources reading the gap-fill text with them, get students to tell you what they can see in the
2.2c(i) and 2.2c(ii)
Word cards
surrounding pictures.
Worksheet 2.2 Tom is writing the letter.
His mum and dad are cooking.
His brother is playing football.

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 His granddad is fixing a bike.
His sister and her friends are swimming.
Read the letter aloud with the students and pause at the gaps. Elicit what verb
should go in the gap by pointing to the relevant picture and get students to choose
from a set of word cards made from teacher’s resource 2.2c(ii) the correct one.
Have them come to the front and stick the word card in the gap.
Read the completed text together and get pairs to read the text aloud to each other.
Give students worksheet 2.2 and get them to trace and write the ‘-ing’ on the end
of all the verbs marked. Monitor to help students with their writing. Check
comfortable posture, pen grip, direction of letters, letter formation.

Feedback Summary for students

In Arabic
Today we talked about what people are doing. Can you remember what some of
the people are doing in the first picture? Tell me in English. And in the letter? Tell
me in English. We practised asking and answering questions about them.
We also practised writing three letters. Which three?

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 2.3 Reading and speaking: The
cat and the cockroaches
Objectives • Read a short picture story and answer questions about the main ideas and
Grade 2 curriculum details.
standards 1.2, 3.1, 3.3,
4.3, 8.2, 8.3 • Re-tell the story in the simple present tense.
Pre-reading
Rub out and remember (Arabic and English)
Resources
Pre-teach the new vocabulary and elicit the revision vocabulary from the Arabic.
Teacher’s resource 2.3, Write the words on the board. Get the students to remember/read the words aloud
cut into cards; one set
per group. with you as you point to them. Continue to point and get the students to
remember/read the words aloud to you, but start to erase the words or parts of the
Vocabulary
words, eventually leaving only the initial phonemes.
window
cockroaches w_____ o___ h___
(to) throw out c__________ sh _ _
Revision vocabulary th _ _ _ o _ _ t___ t_
open
shut When all the words have been reduced in this way, point to each one in turn and
(to) talk to get students to remember and tell you what they are. Fill them in again once the
(to) help students have named them correctly and check students remember the meanings.
Picture description
Tell students they are going to read a story but first they are just going to look at
the pictures from the story. Show them the pictures, enlarged from teacher’s
resource 2.3, in random order. While you are doing this, elicit what is going on in
each picture. Use Arabic or English, depending on the level of the class.
• Can the cockroaches get in? Do they like the fish? Are they clean? Do they
make the fish clean? [Picture 3]
• Does the woman eat the fish? Why not? What does she do with it?
[Picture 5]
• Does the cat eat the cockroaches? Do the cockroaches like the cat?
[Picture 2]
• Is the woman happy? Does she like the cockroaches? Does she want the
fish? [Picture 4]
• Is the cat happy? Why? [Picture 6]
• Is the cat happy? Can he see the fish? Can he get the fish? Why not?
[Picture 1]
Ordering
Put students into groups of four. Give each group a set of cut-out pictures made
from teacher’s resource 2.3. Tell students to put the pictures into the right order to
make a story. Let students order their pictures and then, from the order they have
decided on, ask them to predict (in Arabic) how the story goes. Don’t correct any
‘wrongly ordered’ stories and encourage different groups to come up with different
possible sequences.

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While reading Shared reading
Resources Hand out worksheet 2.3. Read the story aloud all the way through and get students
Worksheet 2.3 to correct the order of their pictures. Ask students to come up and stick the
enlarged pictures in order on the board. Make sure everyone agrees on the order
and understands why.
To check understanding, ask the following questions in Arabic.
• Is the cat clever? How do you know?
• Why does the woman throw the fish away?
Read the story aloud again, and ask students to follow the text with their finger as
you read. Stop at key words and phrases, pre-taught words and CVC words. Get
students to read these words and phrases aloud for you.
fish, cat, wants, shut, can’t get in, get the fish, can get in, run, sees, Oh no!, she
doesn’t want the fish, the cat gets the fish
As you move on to each new picture, ask students to point to where you are in the
text. Ask them what is happening in the picture and try to elicit their answers in
English. Also point to the speech bubbles and ask
What does the cat say?
What does the woman say?
Get students to reread the story in their groups, taking it in turns to read aloud.
Monitor and help with individual reading.
Post-reading
Picture drill
Resources
Use the enlarged pictures from teacher’s resource 2.3 as picture cue cards. Elicit a
Teacher’s resource 2.3 simplified version of the story with each card.

Help me
get the
fish

The cat wants the He talks to the The cockroaches run

fish. cockroaches. all over the fish.

Oh no!

The woman doesn’t She throws the fish The cat gets the fish.
want the fish. out. The cat is happy.

Elicit and drill these simplified sentences, building them up one at a time into the
story. Get students to re-tell the story in their groups without reading it. Each

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 student tells one or two pictures and then the next person in the group continues.
Monitor, help, elicit, correct. Assess individual students’ progress.
Feedback
Summary for students

In Arabic
You can use the pictures to help you understand the story and you can put the
pictures in the right order.
You can read and understand the story of the Cat and the cockroaches.
You can tell the story again without reading.

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 2.4 Speaking: Polite requests –
Please can I have some …?
Objectives • Make and respond to polite requests with Please can I … in a shopping context.
Grade 2 curriculum
standards 1.2, 4.2, 5.2,
• Begin to distinguish between countable and uncountable nouns.
6.6, 6.8 • Build and revise food vocabulary.

Presentation Slap the board

Resources
Pre-teach the vocabulary in the context of a sweet shop. Use pictures from
Teacher’s resources 2.4a
teacher’s resource 2.4a. Stick the pictures at random on the board – some low,
and 2.1 some high. Select two teams of five to stand behind a ‘starting line’ on the floor
about two metres from the board. Get the first member of each team to approach
Vocabulary
the starting line. Call out one of the new words (e.g. chocolate). The first student to
chocolate
slap the correct picture on the board wins a point for their team. The winner goes to
sugar
cakes
the back of the line and the loser goes back to his or her seat and is replaced by
sweets someone new from the class. The next couple step up to the starting line and the
teacher calls out another word (e.g. sweets). Once the class sees how to play the
Revision vocabulary
game, get students who are not in either team to call out the sweet shop words.
ice-cream Continue playing until everyone has had a go or the vocabulary is thoroughly
dates
practised. The team with the most points wins.
apples
bananas You may want to add more picture cues from, teacher’s resource 2.1 for a more
mangos challenging game.
Set the scene
Tell students they’re in a sweet shop. Elicit which things they like and want. Tell
them they must ask the shopkeeper nicely for the things they want.
Teach them they must start their request with Please can I have some …
Presentation rhyme
Teach students the rhyme.
You can use only one verse if you need to shorten the input.
Verse 1
Please can I have some candy?
Please can I have some sweets?
Please can I have some chocolate?
Please can I have some treats?
How much is the candy?
How much are the sweets?
How much is the chocolate?
How much are the treats?

Verse 2
Please can I have some sugar?

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 Please can I have some cakes?
Please can I have some ice cream?
Please can I have some dates?
How much is the sugar?
How much are the cakes?
How much is the ice-cream?
How much are the dates?
Divide the class into two and get half the class to do the Please can I … and half
the class to do the How much … Use the picture cues in order from teacher’s
resources 2.1 and 2.4a to prompt the students.
Practice
Picture drill
Resources
Use a mixture of picture cues from teacher’s resources 2.4a and 2.1 and drill the
Teacher’s resources polite request Please can I have … Do the first couple of cues with the whole class
2.4a, 2.1a, 2.4b
repeating chorally and individually. Then move on to a one-cue-card-one student
format, mixing the cue cards and getting weak students to say ‘known’ sentences,
more able students to say ‘new’ sentences.

Teacher’s cues Students say

chocolate Please can I have some chocolate?
sugar Please can I have some sugar?
sweets Please can I have some sweets?
cakes Please can I have some cakes?
dates Please can I have some dates?
apples Please can I have some apples?
bananas Please can I have some bananas?
mangos Please can I have some mangos?

Teach students the polite response Of course. Here you are and get them to practise
request and response, first in open pairs, then in closed pairs. Stick all the picture
cues on the board so that students can work through several exchanges
independently while you monitor and assist weaker students.

Teacher’s cues Student pair work exchange

chocolate A: Please can I have some chocolate?
B: Of course. Here you are
sugar A: Please can I have some sugar?
B: Of course. Here you are.
sweets Etc.
cakes
dates
apples
bananas
mangos

Go shop
Keep students in pairs and give each pair a set of ‘Go shop’ cards, made up by
photocopying the playing-card sized drawings on teacher’s resource 2.4b onto

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 card and cutting them up. Photocopy the resource four times for each complete set
so that in every deck of cards there are four of everything, as in a pack of cards.
Use one pair of students to demonstrate the game, and get the others to stand
around and see how to play it. Tell the students the aim is to get as many pairs as
possible. Shuffle the cards and deal four to each player. Put the rest of the cards
face down in a pack on the table between them. Show them how to put their cards
into pairs, depending on what they’ve got in their hand. The one who starts asks the
other, Please can I have some …? The other player must hand over that card if they
have it, saying, Of course. Here you are. If not, they reply, Sorry. Go shop. and the
requester must take the top card from the pack. Each time a player makes a pair,
they place them down on the table. The one with the most pairs at the end is the
winner.
Production
Roleplay
Build the following dialogue with the students, with half the class as the
shopkeeper and half the class as the customer. Get them to swap roles, then
practise in pairs.
Customer: Please can I have some ice cream?
Shopkeeper: Of course. Here you are.
Customer: How much is it?
Shopkeeper: Three riyals.
Customer: Here you are.

Use real food stuffs, or the pictures from the teacher’s resources to set up a shop.
Put some prices on price tags on the items – show students your price tags and
make sure they can read the prices aloud in English. Elicit from the students what
sort of things they want to buy in your shop. Tell them to choose different things
from the dialogue they just practised. Practise How much is it? and How much are
they? with the things they choose. Demonstrate a new dialogue based on the first
dialogue, with one good student. Be the shop keeper and let the student be the
customer. Add some other words like Hello. Can I help you? and Anything else? or
Do you like apples? They’re very good today etc. to signal to students they can go
beyond the frame if they want or are able.
In pairs, get students to practise their own new dialogue. Get one or two pairs to
come to the front and do their roleplay for the whole class. Correct any mistakes
with positive reinforcement after they have finished their roleplay.

Feedback Summary for students

In Arabic
Establish that it’s important to ask for things you want politely. Teach students that
they must always be polite in shops with sales assistants because that’s the custom
in English-speaking countries. Elicit the phrase Can I please … for polite requests
and Of course. Here you are for the polite answer.
For uncountable things like sugar, chocolate, ice cream – where there’s too much
to count each little bit of it – we say How much is it? but for the things we can
count – like five mangos, three bananas, two apples, ten sweets – we say How
much are they?.

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