English Teaching

Animals in English — A Safari Around La Réunion (A1)

⏱ 5 MINUTES  |  📊 A1  |  📚 YOUNG LEARNERS

Animals in English — A Safari Around La Réunion (A1)

🎙 From the classroom: Réunion Island has remarkable animals: giant petrel birds, green sea turtles, chameleons in the garden, sharks in the lagoon. My daughter learned ‘turtle’ before ‘table’. Children learn the words that mean something to them — alive, moving, surprising words.

💡 The Idea

Animal vocabulary in English — organized by where they live makes it memorable: Land animals, sea animals, birds, and farm animals. Key sentence: ‘A [animal] is a [land/sea/bird] animal.’ Also: ‘It has [legs/wings/fins].’ Animals are perfect for total physical response (TPR) — mime and movement stick.

🗣 Example

🦁 LAND: lion · tiger · elephant · monkey · rabbit · snake
🐟 SEA: shark · dolphin · turtle · octopus · whale · fish
🐦 BIRDS: eagle · parrot · penguin · flamingo · owl
🐄 FARM: cow · pig · horse · chicken · sheep · dog

🎯 Try It Now!

🎮 Mime the Animal!

A teacher (or student) mimes an animal. Others guess:

🐊 🦜 🦋 🐘 🐠 🐸

Say: ‘It’s a crocodile!’ or ‘Is it a parrot?’

Then draw your favourite animal and write 2 sentences:

  1. A ________ is a ________ animal.
  2. It has _________.
✅ Check Your Answers

✅ Example sentences: ‘A parrot is a bird. It has wings and feathers.’ / ‘A shark is a sea animal. It has fins and teeth.’ Mime tip for teachers: big slow movements → elephant, fast flapping → bird, swimming motion → fish.

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