TEACHER’S GUIDE

LESSON 1: WHO ARE YOU?

Video summary: Anna introduces herself and her friend Max. Then she takes a walk and sees an owl.
Functional purpose: Introductions
Grammar: Simple Present Verb – BE (Advanced: Contraction I’m)
Letters and sounds: Aa, Ii, Mm; Sounds of Aa
Numbers: 1, 2, 3
Questions: Who are you? (Who is he? Who is she? What is it?)
Answers: I am _____. (She is ____. He is ____. It is a/an ____.)
Key words: I, she, he, it, am, name, walk, owl, one, two, three, love

PREPARE TO WATCH
Get students’ attention

Here are some ideas to introduce the lesson points.

See the How-to Guide for more ways to do this.

• Introduce key words and questions: Who? Who are you? Who am I?
• Bring a puppet, picture, or stuffed animal to class. Ask: “Who is this/he/she?” Students can give
names and practice repeating the question and answer.
• Show pictures of famous people or characters you think students may know and ask, “Who is
he/she?”
• Say words that rhyme with who: hoo, moo, zoo

Connect to students’ experiences

This can be done in native language or English.

• Tell students the goals for the lesson. Then ask (choose as needed):
• “How do you introduce yourself in English? In your native language?”
• “Where do you like to take walks?” (in the city, in the woods, in your neighborhood…)
• “How do you feel when you walk outside?”

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Guess: What will happen?

• Give students a clue (a small piece of information) about the video story.
• Ask: “What will happen?” (After watching the video, who guessed correctly?)
• Say: “Anna thinks about who she is. Then she takes a walk and sees her favorite animal. What
animal do you think it is?”

WATCH AND REVIEW THE VIDEO

Check understanding with specific questions (add your own as necessary)

• “Where is Anna?” Explain the word treehouse and that in every lesson Anna leaves her
treehouse to explore.
• “Who/What is Max?” Max’s job is to help Anna teach. He gives her questions in each lesson.
• “What does Anna see on her walk?”
• “What does Anna eat?”

Talk more about the video

• Ask students what they liked, what made them laugh, and what parts they want to see again.
• Teach one or two new words from the video.
• Ask students to say what happened in the video.
• Ask: “What do you see when you walk in nature near your home?”

See How-to Guide for more questions on the video.

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ACTIVITIES
1. Name Game Ball Toss

Set up/materials

• Bring a soft ball or beanbag to class.

How to

• Write on the board and say/repeat: “Hello. I am (name). Who are you?”
• Have students stand at their desks or in a circle.
• Explain to students: “Hold the ball. Say ‘I am (name)’ and then throw the ball to someone else.
They will catch the ball and say their name in the same way.”
• Demonstrate by introducing yourself, then throw the ball to a student.
• Students continue until each student has caught the ball and has said “I am (name)”.

Variations

• Have students walk around the classroom greeting each other saying, “Hello, I am (name)”
• This ball toss activity can be used for other lessons, for example, kinds of fruit. Students say the
name of a fruit before throwing the ball to another student.

2. What’s Your Name?

Set up/materials

Explain in native language that Who are you? may be a question about identity and roles (a friend,
a sister, a son or daughter, a teacher, a student, or a helpful person) and that What’s your name? is
the more polite way to directly ask someone’s name.

How to

• Say and repeat with students: “What’s your name?”

• Next, teacher says “I am __________.” Say and repeat “I am” with class.
• Next, divide class in half and have students form two lines where each student stands facing
another student. Each student asks, “What’s your name?” to the student facing them. Each
student also gives the answer “I am _______.” Then each student moves one step to the right

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and they repeat asking and answering the question. The student at the right end of each line
moves to the opposite line. Repeat many times.

Variation

• Teach contraction I am _____. = I’m ______. Say and repeat with students.
• Repeat the activity with two lines, but now students say the contraction. Have students say, “Hi,
I’m _______.” to each student who stands across from them.

3. Three Sounds of A

Set up/materials

Use a board or shared screen. Draw a simple 3-column chart on it with labels at the top saying ape,
apple, and Anna. Write these words on cards or on another part of the board: able, ant, animal, as,
at, aha, and, ask, am, ate, age

How to

• In the video, Anna teaches three sounds of the letter A. Play that part of the video (at about the
3-minute mark). Have students repeat after Anna.
• Say the A sounds and words: /a/ ape, /æ/ apple, /a/ Anna. Students repeat.

Ask: “What sound do you hear at the beginning of this word? apple”
Answer: /æ/ apple
Ask: “What sound do you hear at the beginning of this word? ape”
Answer: /e/ ape
Ask: “What sound do you hear at the beginning of this word? Anna”
Answer: /ɑ/ Anna

• Point to the chart on the board. Hold up the cards you made or point to the other words you
wrote on the board (able, ant, animal, as, at, aha, and, ask, am, ate, age).

Sample table for the board:

/e/ ape /æ/ apple /ɑ/ Anna

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Variation

• Explain that the /ɑ/ sound, like “Anna”, is not common for words beginning with the letter A.
You can show how it occurs in other positions, such as papa, mama, father. You can also
explain that the /ɑ/ sound more commonly occurs with the letter O (top, pot, lot).

4. Find the Letter (A, I, M)

Set up/materials

In the video near the middle, three young people say their names. Play that part of the video.

How to

• Write the letters A, I and M on the board. Say each letter and have students repeat.
• Have students trace each letter in the air as you show how to write it.
• Ask: “Whose names in the video have the letter A?”

Write the names on the board.

Have students come up and circle the letter Aa in the names.

• Ask: “Do we have any classmates with the letter Aa in their name?”
• Have those students write their names on the board.
• Have other students copy those names and circle the letter A in each name.
• Do this activity with the letters Ii and Mm.

Variations

• Do this activity with the lesson’s key words or words the students know.
• Test for capitalization skills. Ask: “Why are some letters uppercase?”
• Point out objects in classroom with names that include one of the A sounds. For example, “I see
a table. It has the same A sound as ‘ape.’ What else do you see with an A sound?” Write the
words on the board in a table like the one below.

A I M

• Have students practice writing the three letters with the activity sheet.

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5. How Many? (numbers 1,2,3)

Set up/materials

Play the video until the teacher asks, “How many friends do you see?” Stop the video.

How to

• Show the friends on the screen and say, “Count with me: one, two, three. I see three friends.”
• Write the numbers on the board in numeral form: 1, 2, 3.
• Point to the numbers on the screen or on the board as you say the words.
• Count objects in the classroom

For example, ask “How many books are on this table?”

Find other groups of three things in the classroom you can ask the students to count, such as
windows, tables, pencils, or chairs.

• Use the activity sheet, “Count the Birds!”

• Have students stand up. Put students in groups of one, two, and three.

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• Pick a group. Ask: “How many students are in this group?” They can answer with only a
number. More advanced students can answer with a complete sentence: “This group has 1/2/3
students.”

Variations

• Practice counting backwards: 3, 2, 1

• Gather objects and put them on a desk in front of the classroom.
• Have one child select one or more objects and put them on another desk.
• Teacher asks: “How many (object name) are on this table?” (students may ask the question if
they are able)
• Students give number or whole-sentence answer: “There are ___ (objects) on the table.”

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6. Read and Write

Set up/materials

• Give students a copy of the Read and Write activity sheet.

How to

• Point to the first question, Who are you? and say, “This says, Who are you?”
• Say, “In the box next to this question, draw a picture of yourself.”
• Continue, “Let’s write our answer to the question.” Show how to trace over the dotted lines to
write the answer: I am . . . Students write their name.
• Guide students to complete the next three sentences.
• For the final box on the sheet, tell students to draw a picture of something they can ask about;
or, for more advanced learners, write a question and answer.

Variations

• Write the question What’s your name? on the board and have students copy it.
• Ask students to form pairs and take turns asking and answering questions by reading the
completed words and phrases of the Read and Write activity sheet. Choose two or three pairs to
demonstrate their reading for the rest of the group.

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7. Listen and Speak

Set up/materials

Give students the Listen and Speak activity sheet.

How to

• Point out the lines below the five pictures and one box.
• Ask students to draw a picture of someone or something in the empty box.
• Tell them to write a name below each picture. They can write the name in their own language.
• Have students work with one or two other students. They should take turns asking and
answering as follows:

Student A: “Who is she?”

Student B: “She is Angela Owl.”

• After giving some time for this practice, choose two or three pairs to demonstrate their listening
and speaking for the rest of the group.

Variations

• This short activity teaches phonics using the words who and hoo.

The teacher asks: "What does an owl say?" The students answer. “Hoo Hoo!”
Write who and hoo on the board.
Ask the students to repeat them after you: “Who!” “Hoo!”
Ask: “What is the same about these two words?”
Ask: “What is different?”
Let the students answer.

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LEARN MORE
1. Nature Picture and Walk

This nature activity can take place over many days.

Set up/materials

Gather art supplies -- paper, pens/pencils, crayons/markers, scissors, glue, cardboard; pictures of
nature from magazines, food packaging, old books; items from nature such as leaves, sticks, and
flowers.

How to

• Students draw trees, wildlife, and plants.

• Students can label the pictures or add sentences.
• Students say names of pictures and place them around the classroom.
• In English or native language, talk about walking in nature and the video. Ask: “Why does
Anna go for a walk?” “What do you see when you walk in nature?”
• If you can, take class on a nature walk outside.
• Next, students can take a nature walk in their classroom.
• Students can act as a guide, describing the pictures as they walk through.

Variations

• Students can play the roles of trees, plants, and wildlife and say, “I am a ________” and say the
name of their role.
• Invite other classes to visit the nature walk and have students describe things they see.
• Use this walk-in-a-classroom idea for other topics such a Places in a Town or Things in a Store.

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2. Owls Are Amazing

Share some fun facts about these amazing birds.

• Owls can turn their necks 270 degrees.

• Owls hunt other owls. Great Horned Owls are the top predator of the smaller Barred Owl.
• Owls are very good hunters.
• The smallest owl in the world is the Elf Owl. It is between 12-15 centimeters tall and weighs
about 42 grams.
• Barn Owls eat their prey whole—skin, bones, and all. And they eat up to 1,000 mice each year.

These facts come from The Audubon Society. See their website for pictures and videos of owls.
You can even hear owl sounds. https://www.audubon.org/news/13-fun-facts-about-owls

Click on this link to see beautiful photos of owls. https://www.audubon.org/magazine/january-

february-2015/whos-who

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CHECK UNDERSTANDING
1. Quiz

Give students the printed quiz at the end of this lesson guide, have them use the online quiz, or
simply write the questions on the board. If you want to test only their listening skills, say the
questions but don’t write them.

Questions:

1. How many owls do you see?

2. Write the first letter: ___pple
3. What starts with A?
4. Who is she?
5. Who are you?

Answer key:

1. 2
2. A
3. Apple
4. Anna
5. Students write their own name.

2. Does It Rhyme?

• Write a list of words on the board, some from the lesson and some not. For example: am, you,
bird, I, like, blue, three, do
• Give an example of a word that rhymes with do, such as blue. Ask what other word rhymes
with do.
• Variation: Do NOT write the words for the students. They must listen only. This tests their
phonological awareness.

3. Which Word Am I Saying?

• Say the word who and a similar word like you.

• Do not write the words.
• Ask, “Which word am I saying?” Add other words such as: owl, walk, your, how

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