This CLIL unit is designed for 3rd cycle primary students to learn about different animals. It has several objectives including classifying animals, learning their abilities, and using vocabulary to describe animals. A variety of activities are outlined such as using flashcards and websites to learn vocabulary, reading a story, playing a classification game, and creating an animal wallchart. Considerations for diversity and assessing student learning are also discussed.

1. CLIL UNIT
THE ANIMALS

2. GROUP OF STUDENTS
This didactic unit is directed to the 3rd cycle of
Primary education, specifically for the first course.
The characteristics of our session are designed for a
group of 25 students.These students are considered
mature enough and able to work in an independent way.
In general, we can say that our students have not had
problems learning English.
Regarding their education levels, our pupils are of
mixed-abilities.
Considering their social development, the group is quite
cohesive, without any kind of problems. They are
restless children, full of energy, but they are not too
disruptive.

3. OBJECTIVES
Main objective:
 To learn about different animals and how they live.
Secondary objectives:
 To classify animals in the correct category.
 To learn and appreciate the abilities of animals.
 To establish dialogues with peers and the teacher using the
vocabulary learned.
 To use the vocabulary learned to describe pictures.
 To understand morphological characteristics of animals and what
they eat.

4. CONTENTS TO BE DEVELOPED
Concepts
 - Animal characteristics and parts of the body.
Procedures
 Classification of animals: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish,
insects.
 Oral comprehension and expression during interactions with peers
or the teacher.
 Reading of a short story “Mom and I” (about animals and their
babies).
 Elaboration of wallchart containing animals pictures and their
descriptions.
Attitudes
 - Rules that respect nature and its creatures.

5. SEQUENCING OF ACTIVITIES AND TIMING
ACTIVITIES
They are varied, meaningful, entertaining, but informative. Among them we can find:
BLOCK 1: LISTENING, SPEAKING, AND ORAL INTERACTION:
 Presentation and revision of vocabulary through flashcards. (5 minutes).
 Listening to the teacher´s explanations while visiting this site:
 www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/clasification/kc_classification-
reptiles.htm (10 minutes).
 They will learn a song about animals. (4 minutes).
BLOCK 2: READING AND WRITING:
 Shortreading “Mom and I” (to learn more about the animals and their babies). (10
minutes).
 Have the students write a description of an animal at home and bring it to the next
class. (6 minutes).
BLOCK 3: LANGUAGE AWARENESS AND REFLECTIONS ON LEARNING:
 Four corners game: in the playground, there are four labels, one in each corner. They
say: “mammals, reptiles and amphibians, birds and fish”. The teacher shows a picture of
an animal and children will have to run and touch the correct label. (10 minutes).
 Pupils mix the descriptions and the pictures, and they choose one. (5 minutes). Then they
will have to find the matching cards.

6. SEQUENCING OF ACTIVITIES AND TIMING
ACTIVITIES
These are the four aspects on which the CLIL approach is base:
 Autonomous learning.
 Cooperative learning.
 Task- based approach.
 Learner centred.
There are also other aspects to bear in mind:
 Students will be in contact with significant communicative and comprehensible data, which are
near to their interests.
 The previous knowledge of the unit will be taken into account.
 Students should learn to learn, on their own they should be provided with strategies that will
allow them to develop autonomous learning.
 We should promote the pupils´positive attitudes towards the foreign language, towards their
peers and themselves, given the importance of emotional factors in present- day society.
 Clearly structured presentation of content.
 Coherent concepts adapted to the psychological structure and knowledge of students.
 Use of stimulating activities and promoting active teaching.
 Provide opportunities for students to check and apply the acquired knowledge and awareness of
the usefulness of such learning.
 Development of capabilities that can be applied to all areas and contexts in which children
operate.
 Attention to student diversity.
 Adapt the use of different resources to the objetives to be achieved.
This didactic unit is prepared for the second course term, to be developed in May.

7. MATERIALS YOU WOULD NEED
Material resources:
Flashcards (pictures and descriptions of
animals), projector, cards, video player or computer, markers, coloring
pencils or crayons, posterboard, glue, labels for categories, “Mom and
I”, various websites, etc.
Human resources:
The teacher and the pupils.

8. SPECIFIF MEASURES FOR DIVERSITY/ STUDENTS
WICH SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL NEEDS IF NECESSARY
 Activities to reinforce the lessons for children who don´t learn as
quickly.
 - Activities for advanced students who might complete the basic
activities much faster than others or who learn faster than others.

9. BASIC COMPETENCES THAT WILL BE
DEVELOPED
All through this unit, we will deal with all the basic competences, but specially with the following
ones:
 Linguistic communication: we will try to promote reading (story “Mom and I”); and we will use
the English language to communicate in the classrom. Students will also have to learn and use the
vocabulary related to the unit.
 Knowledge of the environment: all through this unit, students will acquire some basic ideas about
the characteristics of the different groups of animals.
 Information processing and digital competence: we will make use of varied websites, and use the
internet to introduce the vocabulary that we need. Children will also play games and have fun using
the technology.
 Social and civic competence: students will assume that animals are part of our daily life.
Students will learn how to look after their pets regarding rules of hygiene, affective aspects, etc.
 Cultural and artistic competence: students will be provided with pictures to colour, to make, the
final task “animal wallchart”. Inadolition, they will play “Scrabble”, and they will have to draw the
animals as accurately as possible.
 Autonomy and personal iniciative: we will try to improve the pupils´ interactions with animals
(including their pets).

10. EVALUATION CRITERIA FOR THE SESSION
Evaluation stages:
 Initial evaluation: to be carried out at the beginning of the Clil Unit to check what students
know about the topic.
 Formative evaluation: to be carried out through the constant observation of the pupils
performances, attitudes and participation in the proposed activities.
 Final evaluation: to take place at the end of the Clil Unit for the final task designed for
the Clil Unit (the animal wallchart).
Assessment instruments:
 Direct observation in class.
 Personal evaluation sheets.
 Behaviours board and evaluation board.
 Self evaluation worksheets (they think about their own participation, behaviour in class
too).
 Coevaluation: when doing games, crafts, activities or songs, our pupils can be the jury. It
is also possible when doing pairwork, too.
 Evaluation criteria.
 The students portfolio.
 Final task “the animal wallchart”.

11. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 “Abre la puerta” Conocimiento del medio, 5º de educación Primaria.
Editorial Anaya.
 www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/classification
/kc_classification-reptiles.htm
 http://www.educarm.es/udicom/unid8.htm
 http://www.eslkidsworld.com
 www.doredin.mec.es/documentos/00620082000170
 www.youtube.com/watch?=AB2CdXVKDWs
 www.youtube.com/watch?=E84UVMU6MY4