Junior activity (8-9 years old) – Cristina Garcia

Inside our house (100min)

- Aim: students will be able to describe their own house.

- Vocabulary: living room, bedroom, bathroom, garage, kitchen, toilet, dining room, hall...
- Grammar: prepositions, subject-pronoun, there is/there are
- Materials: picture of a house (inside), flashcards (objects of the house), worksheet,
cardboard, stick, markers, pencils.

In this lesson, students learn to identify the different parts of a house and to identify key objects
that belong to them by using the grammar structure “there is/there are” (e.g. “In the living room,
there is a sofa”). Once they understand it, students are supposed to draw their own house using
markers and a cardboard and do an oral presentation to the rest of the class.

- 5’ Lead in (introduction): the teacher asks the students about their houses/apartment
(e.g. “where do you live?”) and talks to them for a few minutes. This serves as an
introduction to the topic and puts students in the mood for English.
- 5’ Pronunciation: the teacher writes the different parts of a house on the board and asks
students to repeat each word after her/him. This serves as a way to improve
pronunciation.
- 5’ Controlled practice 1: the teacher shows the students a picture of a house (inside)
and sticks it on the board. Since students have been learning English for the past two
years, they are probably familiar with these words and are able to identify those parts.
With the help of the students, the teacher matches the first two words with the correct
place of the house and then, asks each student separately (they can even come to the
board and draw the line themselves).
- 5’ Pronunciation 2: the teacher sticks the flashcards with the objects around the class,
while she/he does this, she/he asks students to repeat the word after her/him as many
times as necessary. The aim of this activity is to improve pronunciation skills.
- 7’ Controlled practice 2: once all the flashcards have been stuck, the teacher puts
students in pairs and gives each pair a piece of paper with a part of the house. Each pair
must stand next to the object that is commonly found in the part of the house given.
Each pair that stands in the correct place, earns one point. This activity can be done a
few more times.
- 10’ Grammar explanation: the teacher explains the use of the grammar points by using
the parts of the house and the objects commonly found in these places. The teacher
writes on the board the key grammar points and then asks for examples (e.g. “What’s
 Junior activity (8-9 years old) – Cristina Garcia

next to the living room? The bedroom is next to the living room”). The teacher has to
give as many examples as possible while pointing to the correct grammar structure, that
way students identify the structure and learn when to use it.
- 10’ Controlled practice 3: the teacher gives a worksheet to each student. The worksheet
contains a picture of a house that shows its different parts and rooms along with some
objects (e.g. a bedroom with two beds). Students must fill the gaps with the information
they see in the pictures (e.g. ……………….. the bedroom (solution: there are two beds in)).
- 15’ Controlled practice 4: the teacher gives each student a cardboard, pencils and
markers and explains them that they are going to draw their house and each part. Each
student must also write (with the help of the teacher) each part of the house at the
bottom of it. Students can help each other while they do this activity. It would be also
helpful if the teacher plays some background music in English (it creates a nice
atmosphere).
- 15’ Free practice (oral presentation): once they finish drawing and painting their house,
each student comes to the front and explains to the rest of the classroom how her/his
house is (how many beds, how many tables, where is the living room, etc.).
- 10’ Free practice: students are put in groups of three and compare their houses. This
activity improves communication skills and closes the lesson with a free practice of the
vocabulary and grammar taught.

This lesson actually lasts 87 minutes (instead of 100min) but sometimes students arrive late and
also as a teacher we have to bear in mind that every group is different and some students may
need more practice on pronunciation, others they might need to focus on grammar explanation
or maybe it might just take longer for them to complete the exercises. I always think that it is
better to have enough time than to rush students.