Learning Animals Through Play

In 1st Grade Primary Education, we focus on English with an active and playful approach, using play as the primary method of learning. In these sessions, students learned animal vocabulary and reinforce the structures It’s a and I’ve got, practicing listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

No 1º curso de Educación Primaria seguimos ensinando inglés con unha metodoloxía activa e lúdica, onde o xogo é o principal motor do aprendizaxe. Durante estas sesións, o alumnado aprendeu e practicou o vocabulario dos animais e a estructura I’ve got, traballando a comprensión, expresión, lectura e escritura de forma integrada.

The first activities focused on listening comprehension of vocabulary.

Through games such as listen and pick up the animal, pupils listened carefully and identified the correct picture, helping them connect sound and meaning.

In activities like listen and order, they had to arrange the animals following oral instructions, improving listening skills, attention and memory. Once the vocabulary was well established, pupils were encouraged to lead the activity themselves, increasing autonomy and confidence.

These games were complemented with interactive activities such as Race Game, designed to reinforce listening comprehension in a dynamic way.

As primeiras actividades céntranse na comprensión oral do vocabulario. A través de xogos como listen and pick up the animal, os alumnos escoitaban e debían identificar a imaxe correcta, conectando son e significado. Noutras propostas, como listen and order, os nenos tiñan que ordenar os animais segundo as instrucións orais, mellorando a atención auditiva e a memoria. Cando dominaron o vocabulario, os alumnos dirixiron o xogo, gustándolles reforzar a súa autonomía e confianza no uso da lingua. Estes xogos completáronse con actividades dinámicas como Race Game, que reforzaron a comprensión oral.

Speaking skills were developed mainly through the game I’ve got – Who’s got?, a highly motivating activity in which pupils said which animal they had and asked for the next one. This game allowed them to practise the target structure in a repetitive but meaningful way, improving pronunciation, fluency and confidence when speaking English.

A expresión oral traballouse especialmente co xogo I’ve got – Who’s got?, onde cada alumno decía que animal tiña e preguntaba polo seguinte. Este xogo axudou a practicar a gramática de forma repetitiva e significativa, mellorando a pronunciación, fluidez e seguridade ao falar en inglés.

To move towards written language, specific games focused on word recognition, such as Tutti Frutti, were used. In this game, pupils identified animal words, reinforcing global reading and visual discrimination of the vocabulary learned in class.

Para avanzar no recoñecemento da palabra escrita, realizáronse xogos sobre a grafía do vocabulario, como Tutti Frutti, onde o alumnado debía identificar correctamente as palabras dos animais, reforzando a lectura e a discriminación visual.

The learning process was completed with hands-on activities focused on reading and writing. Pupils chose an animal picture and found the matching word card in uppercase and lowercase. They then built the word using letter tiles and copied it following a model. Throughout the activity, the teacher guided the process and reinforced oral language using the structure It’s a…, asking pupils about the animal they had at the end.

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O proceso rematou con actividades enfocadas na lectura e escritura do vocabulario. Os alumnos elixiron unha imaxe dun animal e buscaron a tarxeta correspondente, tanto en maiúscula como en minúscula. Logo, compuxeron a palabra con letras móbiles e escribíronna partir dun modelo. Durante esta actividade, o docente actuou como guía, reforzando a expresión oral coa estrutura It’s a…, preguntando polo animal que tiñan ao final.

These activities allowed pupils to work on listening, speaking, reading and writing in an integrated way, as well as attention, memory and cooperative learning, creating a positive classroom environment where learning English is enjoyable and meaningful.

Todas estas actividades permitiron traballar de forma conxunta a comprensión e expresión oral, a lectura e a escritura, así como a atención, a memoria e o traballo en equipo, nun ambiente positivo e motivador onde aprender inglés foi unha experiencia agradable e significativa.