PUPPY AND I

P. Lakshmi

CBSE, English, Grade – III, Unit - 7

Caring for pet animals

For the poem "Puppy and I", I used a variety of learning resources such as activity sheets, flashcards with pictures, animal charts, masks of man, horse and puppy, audio of sounds of animals and of course the inevitable blackboard and textbook. I was able to fulfil various objectives of the poem such as:
• Appreciating the poem with rhythmic sense
• Reading and enjoying the poem
• Readiness for writing
• Showing love, care and affection towards animals
• Identifying the rhyming words from the poem and developing vocabulary

ENGAGE
Activity 1: Sounds of Animals – (Audio) - Enabling listening skills

I asked students to make the sound of their favourite animal. Most of them made dog, elephant  and cat sounds. I played the recorded sounds of animals and asked them to listen to the sounds carefully and identify the animals. This was an easy task for them. Then I made them repeat the animal sounds.
Example:
A dog – Barks
A cat – Mews
An elephant – Trumpets
A horse – Neighs
These sounds of animals were clearly read out by me. The students were also made to repeat the sounds. I made them complete the activity in the textbook. Most of the students were able to match the sounds correctly as they were familiar with the sounds by then. Some names were unfamiliar so I asked them in Tamil and then gave them the English equivalent for it which helped the students to remember it.
Activity 2: Identification of Domestic and Wild Animals
I displayed the poster/chart which included both wild and domestic animals. Then I asked the students to classify the animals into those two categories.
Since students had already studied this in their previous class, they were able to categorize it. I noticed that they were able to tell the names of familiar animals both in English and Tamil. But for some animals like Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, Yak, Wolf and Sheep, they knew only the vernacular version. I told the English names of those animals. After that, they were asked to do it individually. Some found it difficult so I asked them some questions to make them understand the difference. Posing questions like ‘Will you find this animal in residence? Have you seen this animal in anyone’s home?’ Can we have thisanimal in our home?’ helped them distinguish between wild and domestic animals.

Activity 3: Discussion on Pet Animals
I asked the students to list out the different kinds of animals they might have at home. They came out with the names of few animals such as Goat, Dog, Cat, Cow, Buffalo…etc. Here I gave them an opportunity to talk about their love for their pets. In the beginning students talked in Tamil about their pet animals. To encourage them to speak in English, they were asked to share one thing, they liked about their pet animal in English. We also discussed on the emotional bonding between animals and their young ones. Then I asked them to say one or two more sentences in English. To start with I said “I love my cow. It gives me milk”. I asked my students to repeat the same sentence. When they struggled I helped them with English words.
Activity 4: Game on Animals- Learning with fun This is a small game which I played in my class for pleasure. I divided the class into 4 groups. Igave one letter of the alphabet to each group. The students had to list out animal names starting with the given letter. Each group got turns to play the game and the game continued. I wrote the names of the animals on the blackboard. This game helped the students to learn names of many more animals.
Example:
C- cow, cat, camel, cheetah
G- goat, gorilla, giraffe
L- lion, leopard, lemur

The same animal was not repeated again by
any other group. The group which failed to name
an animal got eliminated and the group which
told the maximum names of animals was declared
the winner.
EXPLORE
Activity 1: Role Play
The poem has many repetitive sentences so I thought role play will be a good medium for the students to remember while enacting the characters. The students were made to wear the mask of man, horse and puppy as described in the poem. Students acted out the poem with gestures. I asked them to say the poem in the following dialogue format. The dialogue was as follows:

After giving this role play activity, I found that the students became familiar with the characters of the poem and were also able to read the lines of the poem with ease.

Note To Teachers:
Role play will help the children remember the situations. When students play the roles of certain characters in certain situations, they begin to see things from others' point of view.
Activity 2: Making the sounds of animals Each student was given a mask of an animal and they were made to produce the sound of that particular animal. As they had already listened to various animal sounds, they were able to easily recollect the sounds and reproduce them. For this activity I used animal masks which were given in Thisaimaani earlier. All the students did this activity with fun and there was lot of excitement in the class.

EXPLAIN
Activity 1: Reading the poem aloud 

I read the poem rhythmically. I asked the students to follow the reading carefully. I read the poem with proper pronunciation; intonation and also used gestures wherever possible. Students read after me. I read the poem several times until it became familiar to the children.
Activity 2: Learning new vocabulary
I explained the new words of the poem using the flash cards containing both the words and the picture. I encouraged the children to guess the meanings of words even before I explained it. The words were: Village, Hills, Bread, Hay, Roll and Play My observation was that since the flash cards contained both the picture and the word, it was easy for the students to understand the meaning of the word and explain it. Each and every student was given a chance to read the words aloud. Peer learning happened.
I did not give the Tamil translation in the flash cards. I wanted the students to understand the words only in English. Therefore I decided not to translate any word in Tamil. I wrote these words on the blackboard so that the students would look and read them aloud. Some of the words had to be explained.
Example:
• Children love to play.
• A village is a peaceful place.
Activity 3: Identification of Rhyming Words I asked the students to identify words that end with same letter(s). They listed out bay, day, way, mill, bill, fill, rowing, growing and knowing. After listing out those words. I asked students to say these words. Students then grouped the words according to the ending rhythm.
Example:
Hay – bay, day, way
Hill – mill, bill, fill
Going - rowing, growing, knowing

ELABORATE
Activity 1: Drawing a Pet Animal- Creativity I asked them to take a sheet of paper and made them draw and colour their favourite pet animal and name it. Most of the students drew only dog as their pet animal. Then I asked them to say a few words about it and helped them speak. I told them to think of other animals for the next class.
Activity 2: Speaking about pets

I asked few questions to enable their speaking skills. I posed the following questions:
• How do you look after your pet?
• In what ways can we protect animals?
• How do you feed your pet?
The answers derived from the students made them realise what they should/ should not do to the animals. Some of the answers were…
• We should feed the pet animals properly.
• We should not harm the animals.
• We should protect the animals.
• We should not kill them.
Evaluation has been done in all the stages