Teaching notes and ideas – short version
Name of
resource:
EAL Nexus
A mystery in Ancient Egypt storytelling activity
Age group(s)
Subject(s)
8 to 11
History, English
Topic
Language Level
Egyptians, relative pronouns
Intermediate/Advanced
Description of resource


Storytelling cards with instructions
Pictures prompt sheet
Preparation needed
You will need:
 one set of Storytelling cards with instructions for each group of four learners
 a pictures sheet for each pair of learners, as required.
You will need to:
 print pictures sheets
 print, laminate and cut up storytelling cards and print instruction.
Curriculum objectives
 To learn about/revise Ancient Egyptian jobs, buildings and monuments
Language/Literacy objectives
Functions
Structures
Identifying
 What/Who is this?
 This/It/(S)he is …
Recounting
Using relative pronouns:
 He went to the palace, where he …
 … found the Pharoah, who was …
 … had a bag, which …
This project and its actions were made possible due to co-financing by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals
© British Council 2015
EAL Nexus
Vocabulary
detective, temple, priest, priestess, builder, farmer, altar box , sphinx, pharaoh,
prince, jewel, casket
This resource could be used:
 with the whole class
 with a small group
Ideas for using the resource
What to do
 Elicit the vocabulary by showing the relevant pictures and asking ‘What is
this?’
You could play ‘I went to market’ to embed the words.
 Elicit the relative clause structure
Show picture three and write ‘This is the Pharaoh’. Then ask ‘Which word is the
noun?’ (Pharaoh) ‘How can we add more information about the noun without
starting a new sentence?’ Elicit ‘who’ for a person. Repeat with a thing (which)
and finally a place (where).
E.g. This is the pharaoh who ruled in Ancient Egypt.
Speaking practice – Play the game ‘who, which, where’.
This is a teacher-led, whole class activity which practises relative clauses.
Write the three words on the whiteboard like this:
1. who
2. which
3. where
Say a noun, either a person, an object, or a place. You could use the nouns from
the pictures sheet. Learners could then say a complex sentence using a relative
pronoun to their talk partner.
 A mystery in Ancient Egypt storytelling activity – ‘Who stole the necklace?’
Demonstrate this activity to the whole class first by playing the start of the game
with two or three learners.
There is a set of learners’ instructions with the activity:
Instructions
 Aim: Help Topher find the Pharaoh’s stolen necklace.
This project and its actions were made possible due to co-financing by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals
© British Council 2015
EAL Nexus
 Play in groups of four or three.
 Share a set of cards equally between the players. Players keep cards
face up.
 Take turns to lay down the cards. The player with card number one
goes first and lays it down. They must read out loud what is on the
card.
 The player with card number two does the same and then adds the
correct relative pronoun: ‘where’, ‘which’ or ‘who’.
 The player with card number three goes next.
 Not all the cards need a relative pronoun.
 Discover together who stole the necklace!
Follow on
 Play the game again, but this time each player reads the story from the start
every go. It takes longer but it really re-enforces the relative pronouns.
 Alternatively, the whole group could re-read the story together, inserting the
correct relative pronouns.
Possible extension activities
♦ Use the second set of cards, which have no words on them, as prompts for
writing the recount.
♦ Learners could write a newspaper or police report of the incident.
♦ More relative pronouns could be taught (whom, whose, that, etc.).
♦ This is a highly scaffolded activity. To ensure that the learners are able to apply
relative clauses in independent writing, recap them before the next piece of
independent writing.
This project and its actions were made possible due to co-financing by the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals
© British Council 2015