A variety of French vocabulary words that are used in the context of the zoo.
Vocabulary used in this episode:
Nouns of Animals
- monkey / le singe
- elephant / l’éléphant
- polar bear / l’ours polaire (m)
- tiger / le tigre
- wild boar / le phacochère
- giraffe / la girafe
- flamingo / le flamand rose
- lion / le lion
- turtle / la tortue
- octopus / la pieuvre
- penguin / le pingouin
- snake / le serpent
Verbs
- to climb / grimper
- to walk / marcher
- to swim / nager
- to be sleepy / avoir sommeil
Continents
- North America / l’Amérique du Nord (f)
- South America / l’Amérique du Sud (f)
- Africa / l’Afrique (f)
- Asia / l’Asie (f)
- Australia / l’Australie (f)
- Antarctica / l’Antartique (m)
- Europe / l’Europe (f)
Adjectives
- beautiful / beau (belle)
- tall / grand(e)
- wet / mouillé(e)
- ferocious / féroce
- small / petit(e)
- ugly / laid(e)
Lesson 9 - Zoo Animals
Objectives
- To learn names of certain animals
- To learn verbs of motion regarding those animals
- To learn names of some continents
- To study and review some descriptive adjectives
Information for the Teacher
In French schools, children learn that there are five continents: America, Europe, Asia, Africa and “Oceanie” which encompasses Australia, the South Pacific Islands and New Zealand.
Description of the Video Lesson
Mme. Dubois is talking to students who have each brought two stuffed animals. She tells them the name of those animals and on what continent they live, placing each animal on its corresponding continent on a world map.
Video Clips
Zoo animals in action, Descriptions of zoo animals
Mme. Dubois and students talk about the physical characteristics of certain animals. The giraffe and the flamingo have a long neck. The monkeys have long legs, arms and tail. The zebra, the tiger, the elephant, the giraffe and the lion have long tails. The lion also has a mane. The elephant has large ears and a trunk. The tiger has strips, and so does the tiger.
Also they go over how some animals move around: flamingos fly, elephants, monkeys, giraffes, tigers, zebras and lions run.
Video Clips
Zoo animals in action, Descriptions of zoo animals
Game: Each student grabs an animal from a bag, says what it is, what it looks like and where it lives.
Song
Nous allons au zoo
le singe l’éléphant le tigre le lion grimpe nage féroce
Follow-up Activities
- Use the Next Step French Again video lesson to review the emphasized vocabulary.
- Have pictures of zoo animals. Group them by physical characteristics. You could write “quatre pattes” (four legs) “deux pattes” (two legs), “a rayures” (has stripes), “cou long” (long neck).
- Using the same pictures as activity two. group animals by the way they move.
- Create a graph of animal locomotion. Put the actions on the top “courent, marchent, sautent, rampent, nagent” (run, walk, jump, crawl and swim). Put pictures of the animals in the appropriate graph square.
- Have students draw 1-2 animals. Have them label animal body parts and colors. An alternative: students draw “Crazy Animals” with parts from various species put together and labeled.
- After these follow-up activities, let students view the video lesson again so they can respond and practice with the children on the lesson.
Supplemental Activities
- Have a global map. Have cut-outs of pictures of animals. Show animal. Student names it in French and puts it on right continent on the board.
- Using a large “Twister”-type game mat, place drawings of various animal parts on the circles. Students close their eyes and toss a beanbag onto the mat, opening their eyes and naming the animal part the beanbag lands upon and an animal possessing that part.
Remember to use the vocabulary words as much as possible in class during the next week. This should be especially easy since the words relate to the days of the week. Every morning ask the students in French what day is today (Quel jour sommes-nous?) and they should answer with “Aujourd’hui c’est .
