Do You Have Any Pets?

Gestures and activities to use with the “Do You Have Any Pets?” song

The actions are very simple for this song:

• for the chorus, march along on the spot as you sing (it is a marching-style song)
• for the verses:
  – Option 1: hold up your hands (fists closed) and count off the numbers with your fingers as you sing (whilst still marching).
  – Option 2: print off the pets flashcards and stick around the classroom walls (in the order of the song).  As you sing, point to each animal (whilst still marching).

Using the “Do You Have Any Pets?” song in class

This song has a great tempo – great for marching.  It also covers three different objectives: Numbers 1-10 (review), pet vocabulary and using the verb “have” for possession / ownership.  The steps below will allow your students to practice all three objectives.

1. Review numbers 1-10: You should have taught the Numbers 1-10 lesson at some point before this lesson. Your students will be familiar with the numbers and this is a good time to review and have some numbers fun.

   Before class, write each of the numbers 1-10 on cards in marker pen (so you’ll have a card with “1” written on it, another with “2”, and so on up to “10”).  Prepare enough sets so that each group of 3 or 4 students has a set of number cards.

   • Start by getting everyone to stand up and count in time with you the numbers 1-10, holding up fingers for each number.  Start slowly and get faster and faster.  You can even try some count downs from 10-1.
   • Next, Play “clusters”.  Say, “Get into groups of 3!”. Everyone must grab someone and try and make a group of 3 people.  Do this with lots of different numbers, although this will depend on the number of students in your class.
   • Next, put your students into teams of 3 or 4.  Give each group a set of number cards (explained above) and get each group to race putting them in the correct order.
   • With the number cards on the desk/floor, tell your students to move them around so that they are shuffled well (but still face up).  Give everyone 10 seconds to remember where the cards are.  Now say “Turn over the cards”.  When everyone is ready say, “Ok, touch number 6”.  Everyone must touch the card they think is number 6.  Then allow them to turn the card over and check.  Continue with all the other cards.
   • Now collect up all of the number cards by having students race up and bring you different numbers.
   • Finally, have everyone stand up and sing “The Numbers Song” doing all of the actions.
2. Teach the vocabulary for pets / animals. Before class, print off the flashcards for the animals in the song from our flashcards pages (dog, cat, hamster, rabbit, goldfish, mouse, turtle, parrot, horse, elephant).

   Your students will probably already know some of the animal vocab (e.g. cat and dog), so rather than just holding up each picture you can play “Flashcard Reveal”: take the first flashcard and place it behind the pack of the other cards, so it is hidden from view.  Slowly push the flashcard up so that the picture is revealed, bit by bit, to the class.  Encourage everyone to shout out what they think it is until someone gets the right answer.  It is ok if students shout out the word in their language if they don’t know it – but make sure you teach the English word.  Chorus each word three times and stick onto the board.

   Once all of the cards are on the board, chorus them one more time.  Then point to one picture and elicit the word, then write it clearly under the card.

   NOTE: be sure to teach the plural for “mouse” –> “mice”.

3. Play the “Write vocab on the board race” game. Put the class into teams, so you have 2 to 4 teams in total.  Each team selects one person.  Teacher shouts out the word for one of the animals on the board and one student from each team must rush up to the board, take a marker or chalk, and write the word (anywhere on the board is ok).  The first person to write the word, spelt correctly, wins a point for his/her team.  Continue playing until everyone has had a go and all the vocab has been practiced.
4. Teach the structures “Do you have (any) ~” and “I have ~”. If you have any photos of your pets (even from years ago) it would be fun to bring them to class – show the photos to the class and as you do use the structure “I have” to say what pets you have (e.g. “I have a pet dog”).  If not, no problem, we’ll just use the flashcards instead.

   Point to a card and then point to yourself.  Say, “I have a pet (dog).  His/ Her name is ~”.  Draw a picture on the board of a house, a stick person (you) and the pet (a dog).  Point to the stick person and say “This is me”.  Then point to the house and the animal and say “This is my house”, “This is my pet dog, Momo” (for example).  Maybe add a few of animals to the picture (e.g. a hamster, a parrot) to get the idea across.  The point of this is to make clear that pets are animals we have at home (and not in the zoo, etc.).

   Each time you add an animal to your picture, ask some students “Do you have pet (dog)?” and elicit “Yes, I do / No, I don’t”.  If a student says yes, ask what their pet’s name is.  Depending on the level of your students, ask some other questions about their pets, such as if they are large or small, colors, favorite food, etc.

   Finally, pick out some students at random, choose an animal from the cards on the board, and ask them if they have that pet (e.g. “Do you have a pet mouse”).  The elephant is there for fun … don’t be surprised if students say they have one – but look at them disbelievingly!

5. Play “Animal Actions”. In this game students will practice the key structures and vocab.
   • If you have a large group (more than 10 students): invite 10 students to come to the font of the class and stand in a line facing the rest of the class.  Give each of them one of the flashcards but don’t let anyone see what the picture is.  They can each look at their own picture but mustn’t show it to anyone else.  The teacher starts by saying to the first student “Do you have any pets?”.  Encourage the student to say “Yes, I do” and then to do the action of the animal on his/her card (e.g. a cat meowing, and licking its paw, etc.).  Then say “Do you have a cat?”.  If correct the student holds up the picture so everyone can see and says “Yes, I do”.  Then invite members of the audience to ask the other students and guess what animal they have, using the correct structures.  It is great fun to see the animal impersonations and to guess what it is!
   • If you have a small group (less than 10 students).  Give everyone one of the flashcards but don’t let anyone see what the picture is.  They can each look at their own picture but mustn’t show it to anyone else.  The teacher starts by saying to the first student “Do you have any pets?”.  Encourage the student to say “Yes, I do” and then to do the action of the animal on his/her card (e.g. a cat meowing, and licking its paw, etc.).  Then say “Do you have a cat?”.  If correct the student holds up the picture so everyone can see and says “Yes, I do”.  Then invite other students to ask and guess what animal they have, using the correct structures.  It is great fun to see the animal impersonations and to guess what it is!
6. Sing the “Do you have any Pets?” song.  Get everyone to stand up.  Make sure the flashcards are on the board in the order of the song, or alternatively, use the song poster.  As the song is playing, have everyone march on the spot in time with the music and do the actions described above in “Gestures and activities to use with the “Do You Have Any Pets?” song”.  Play the song 2 or 3 times until everyone has got the hang of it.
7. Do the “Your Pets Class Survey“.  Give out the survey worksheets to each student.  Model how to do the first line – by writing in their own names filling in their answers.  Then get everyone to mingle and ask as many students as they can about their pets.  For students who don’t have pets, we have added the “Which new pet would you like?” section, so they have something to answer … everyone can answer this even if they already have pets.

   When everyone has finished, tally up on the board the number of pets everyone has to find out which is the most popular pet.  Also, find out which new pet most people would like.

8. Set Homework: For homework, give out the “My Pet” or “My Dream Pet” worksheets.  A good idea is to give our the “My Pet” worksheets to students who have pets and the “My Dream Pet” worksheets to students who don’t have any pets.  It is worth giving a model answer to this writing task, giving information such as the pet’s name, age, size, colors, favorite foods, etc.