Teaching English Toolbox

Enjoying and Thanking - 3rd / 4th grades

In this task, learners will read "Night at the Zoo" by Tom Reed and write him a thank you letter.

  • Level: A1-A2
  • Coursebook connections: listening to stories
  • SWBAT:· Understand the storylines of several stories / Write a thank you note with the support of a basic frame / Work independently to make a mini book through various stations.

Engage and Activate – Experiencing "Night at the Zoo" by Tom Reed (double lesson)

Warmup ideas

© PHZH (L. Buechel)

On the board, at the top, you the Pop See KoSong by Koo Koo Kanga Roo and this can be used in between the mini book stations if you introduce it at the beginning of the lesson.

Use the words you see at the bottom of the board.
  1. Choral drill - repeat the words after the teacher.
  2. Teacher acts out a word - learners guess.
  3. Teacher MOUTHS a word, learners guess.
  4. Hot Seat game (2 teams): Each team chooses a person whose back is to the board. Teacher points to a word. Learners act it out or describe it for their team member whose back is to the board. 

This can be turned into a game where one learner describes their word “e.g., the opposite of “low” is…” and the other guesses, or where learners compare lists after 2 minutes and see how many unique words they have. In some classes, learners are trained in "Blue is what you do and White is what you write" so in this example, they write "Night at the Zoo" and words they find in their notebooks.

Work with the cover and read the story

Image courtesy of Tom Reed
  • Describe: What do you see in this picture? What time of day is it? From where is the picture taken?
  • Predict: What do you think the title of the story is?
  • List: What animals have you seen in a zoo?
  • Categorize: Which animals live in zoos that we DO NOT have in Switzerland?
  • Analyze: Why do we go to zoos? Are zoos “good” or “bad”?
  • Choose the questions you think your class will understand. 
  • Turn these questions into a worksheet learners can work on if they finish other work early.

Some general storytelling ideas can be found in the article "The Power of the Picture Book".

This story has very little text! The following provides you with some ideas and questions for working with each of the pages. Read the story in a circle, or by projecting the story. The following questions are suggestions and responses can be repeated by all for some language practice or some answers can be noted on the blackboard for later.

  • What animals do we have in the Zurich Zoo?
  • What does a zookeeper do?
  • 1: What does the zookeeper have in their hand? What time is it?
  • 2: what type of moon is it? Why is “zoo” written backwards on the sign? Where is the zookeeper going? If you were the zookeeper, who would you check on first or last?
  • 3: Which animal is this? What is the zookeeper noting?
  • 4: AHH!! Here we have the “Zoo animals night duty checklist”!! What does a zookeeper do for the animals on night duty? (feeds them, makes sure they are in the cages, etc…). Let’s read the animals off one by one! If you know something about the animal, you can say something!
  • 5: Which animals is the zookeeper at now? What are they doing?
  • 6: And now? Which one is this? Can you describe it?
  • 7: Here we have some fun animals! What are they? Where are they from? What’s so interesting about these animals?
  • 8: Oh! Now the zookeeper is at the hippo! Can you say “happy hippo hopped and hiccuped”?
  • 9: This one you know! It’s really _______ The zookeeper has to look ________.
  • 9: Now which animals is the zookeeper at? (hyenas)
  • 10: What’s happening? What is the zookeeper thinking? What might be a problem?
  • 11: Oh my!!! What animal is this?? Guess!!!!!
  • 12: Oh my!! What has happened!! When the zookeeper shined their flashlight, what did they see? How many? Why would the lions do that? Are they male or female lions?
  • 13: What’s happening here? Why are they smiling?
  • 14 – Oh no!!!
  • 15: What could this be? IT COULD BE…….
  • 16!! Oh funny!!! How many legs? How many zebras?
  • 17: HMMMMMMM with your neighbor come up with your ideas! What could this be??? Use “maybe it’s…It could be…”
  • 18: Oh!
  • 19: What’s happening?
  • 20: Why is the zookeeper scared?
  • 21: Who has the zookeeper not yet seen? What could that skull be??
  • 22! Aha!!! What a surprise!!! Whose birthday is it?? Let’s sing Happy Birthday to them!
  • 23! What is happening in this picture?
  • Hmmmmm What happens next? Where are the animals? The people? How do you think the story continues?

Understand the story!

If you want learners to have a bit of fun practicing speaking, you can access the Peaksay dialogue here or write the following on the board and have a little fun with it: 

Hello animal! Are you in your cage?
Yes, I am! It's night! I'm tired!
Did you eat your dinner?
Yes, it was very good!
Okay, good night!
Good night! And Happy birthday to you!!

Exit Card

As the learners leave, have them each tell you either a tongue twister they remember, a fact about the author or story, or why animals are smart.

Create and Share - Writing and sending off a thank you card – Fan Mail to Mr. Reed! (2-3 lessons)

Warmup ideas

Take the kids outside. At one end of the school yard, draw two rings, one with "true" written in it, one with "false" written in it. At the other end of the school yard, form "teams" of about 3 children. They each take turns being the runner. Make a statement (below) and one person from each team runs to the correct answer. Then

  • Reed wrote the book.
  • Reed lives in Bern (no, ZH).
  • Reed is a friend of mine.
  • The story I read yesterday was called “Day at the Zoo”. (no, night)
  • The story was about some animals trying to trick a zookeeper.
  • Zookeepers eat animals. (no, feed)
  • Animals in zoos are mostly in cages.
  • Zookeepers check animals.
  • At the end, the skull was an elephant and some other zookeepers.
  • It was the zookeeper’s last day of work. (No, birthday)
In this exercise, print out the questions (below) and give one to each child. The child then asks someone their question and answers the question they were asked. Then, the pairs swap questions and go to a different partner.
  1. Who wrote the story «Night at the Zoo»?
  • Who wrote the story «Night at the Zoo»?
  • Name 2 animals in the story «Night at the Zoo».
  • What does a zookeeper do?
  • Sing «Happy Birthday to You»!
  • Are animals smart? How?
  • What time does the zookeeper start checking the animals?
  • What zoos have you been to?
  • What is your favorite zoo animal?
  • Where is the closest zoo to your school?
  • How did the animals trick the zookeeper in the story?
  • Which trick was the scariest for the zookeeper?
  • Which animals did you like the most in the story?
  • Do you think the zookeeper will get out of the cage in “Night at the Zoo”?
  • Whose birthday is it in “Night at the Zoo”?
  • Which animals were on the zookeeper’s list?
  • Are zoos good or bad?
  • Was “Night at the Zoo” a good book? What do you think?
© PHZH (L. Buechel)
© PHZH (L. Buechel)

Look at all Mr. Reed's books to find out what we like

In this step, have several of Tom Reed's books. Two suggestions that worked in a third grade are:

  1. Give each pair or trio a book and have them flip through for one minute. Then say what they liked and write this on the board. Pass the books and repeat.
  2. Give each small group a book and give them 10 minutes to read it out loud to one another. Then say what they like. After this, pass the books around just for a few minutes so they see the other books and can say what they like.

Draft Letters to Mr. Reed

Here are various suggestions for this step - choose according to your class' abilities.

  1. Have learners quietly read and put the letter in order. 
  2. Have the learners draft their letter using one of the frames.
  3. Have the learners write their letters nicely on a blank sheet of paper.
  4. Have the learners cut out their letters with zigzag scissors to glue to the inside of the card (A3 dark paper folded).

Decorate the cards

  1. Have dark A3 paper folded in half (card).
  2. Glue the letters to the inside of the card.
  3. Learners cut out shapes of 2-4 animals they like (see materials above).
  4. Learners make a crazy animal out of the shapes. They trace it on the front side of the card and glue the animals on the inside. 
  5. Learners color in the traced crazy animal in black.
  6. With construction paper, learners make a cage around the animal.
  7. They can write "Night at the Zoo: Guess the animal!" or something on the outside.
  8. They can write the names of the animals on the inside.
Students prepared thank you cards by cutting out animals shapes, putting them together and tracing them. On top of the shape, they put black lines to make a cage. In this photo, you see the teacher's example. ©PHZH (L. Buechel)

Share and Send!

The learners can look at each other's cards and guess which animals were used. The cards can be sent to the author and hopefully there will be a response!

Assessment possibilities for and throughout the scenario

  • At the end of each lesson or double lesson, an exit card can be useful to know what the start off with in the next lesson.
  • Some of the materials can be reused in a few weeks to assess learners' reading skills (e.g. putting the story or letter together).
  • Learners can retell the Night at the Zoo story to one another in pairs and the teacher can observe range of language, fluency and accuracy.
  • Learners can write or say something they liked about Tom Reed's books.
  • Learners can recreate their thank you letters from memory.