Following Space Exploration Day, here is a fun activity from ‘Activity Box’, part of the Cambridge Copy Collection. Through it, students can learn how to describe appearances by describing aliens. Adjectives and related phrases are important; if you can describe something, you can have a conversation about it.
| Target audience | Beginner, elementary and pre-intermediate levels. This activity will probably appeal most to less sophisticated pupils in the 10-12 age range. Beginner classes may need the instructions in L1. |
| How long? | 10 minutes for the initial activity; 30-50 minutes if the writing and drawing extensions are done. |
| How many? | Minimum of 6 students. |
| What’s it for? | Asking and answering about appearance. |
| Language needed? | Alien: how many. . .?; What are they like?; number; colour; size; shape : eyes, nose, mouth , teeth, ears, arms, legs. |
Preparation for the activity
Each student will need one of the Aliens pictures.
Conducting the activity
- Explain that students are going to find out more about an alien and what it looks like. Practise the question forms students will need to ask about arms and legs and facial features.
- When you are happy with the question forms, give out an Aliens picture to each student. Stress that students must not look at each other’s picture.
- Explain that students each have only one piece of information on their paper. The only way to find out all the information is to get up and ask the other students in the class about the alien. They can only ask each student one question. If they get an answer to their question, they should write the information down in the right space. When they have all the information, they should sit down. The activity does not take long as students can answer more questions as they receive more information.
- When students are all back at their desks, ask for feedback and write the answers on the board so that you can check spelling.
Aliens extension activity
- The activity lends itself well to extension work. Once students have the descriptive details, they can draw the alien and then expand the brief details into a paragraph about what it looks like. The alien can also be drawn, using the information on the Aliens pictures.
- Depending on students’ level, the descriptions can be extended with further information about what the alien eats, the sound it makes and where it lives etc.
Download the complete Aliens activity and print for students to use in class.
When you and your students have crashed back down to Earth, why not keep the party going with another activity from the Cambridge Copy Collection, ‘The Balloon Game’?
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