District of Columbia Phelps ACE High School Lesson Plan Outline
Lesson Length = 88 minutes
Qi Ji
Course: Chinese III Date(s): 2 nd , Feb
Lesson Topic
Lesson
Objectives:
Warm Up
Activity
(5-10 min or more)
Course
Activities
Usually:
1. Teacher
Presentation
2. Group Activity
3. Individual Activity
Chinese Zodiac Animals
By the end of today’s lesson, students will be able to … (SWBAT)…
 Know the legend and story about Chinese Zodiac Animals
 Know the pronounciations of each animal and the correct way to write all of them
 Describe the appearances a of the animals
 Retell the legend of how twelve Chinese Zodiac Animals came
 Make a Chinese zodiac lantern
 Make a zodiac wheel to show people’s personality traits born in different zodiac years.
Ask the students to write down all the names of animals they have known either in Chineses characters or pinyin. Then check their answers with the sand bag game.
1. Leading in.
Show a cartoon chant with music about the twelve zodiac animals.
And A video clip as well as some pictures about the Chinese New
Year of the Dragon, give the students very impressive and direct idea about how the images of Chinese Zodiac Animals are combined with the new year and people’s lives.
2. Give the students a sheet of paper about the names ,both in
Chinese and in English ,images and pinyin, Ask the students to cut twelve animals out. Play the matching game.
3. Say the names of all the twelve animals in order. Each student write one of the names both in Chinese character and pinyin, put the piece of paper into the box drawn on the floor, Play the game of hopscotch: when ever hop in a box with one’s single leg, speak out the name of the animal in that box, and then hop into the next. In the last box, kick the rubber piece into the box to win corresponding scores.
4. Make a comparision between different zodiac animals in Chinese.
Say the names of all the zodiac animals, then compare each pair of animals listed in the handout and point out their similarities and diffferences.
Eg. 马和牛：马和牛都有四只脚，四条腿，都吃草，颜色不同。
Horse and ox: Horses and oxen both have four feet, four legs, eat grass, but different colors.

How will you know students met the objectives?
5. Guessing game:
One of the students describe some features of the twelve zodiac animals and the other students guess what animal it is.
Eg: S1 ：我爱吃香蕉 （ The others ：你是猴子）
S1 ： I like to eat bananas. （ The others ： You are a monkey.
）
S1 ：猫爱追我 （ The others. 你是老鼠。）
S1 ： Cats love to chase me. （ The others ： You are a mouse.
）
6. Talking about the personality traits of people born in different zodiac years.
1) Make a Zodiac Year wheel to show people’s traits.
2) Read through a story about the 12 zodiac animals, finish the matching of Chinese and English words, then complete the senteces with all these key words.
3) Game: Ask about a person’s zodiac, and then try to guess the other people’s age. (The person could be the students, their friends, their parents or their relatives.)
The students should be able to retell the legend of Chinese Zodiac
Animals ; pronounce each animal correctly and write them correctly during the related topics; describe the appearances of the animals properly and fluently; make a Chinese zodiac lantern ; make a zodiac wheel successfully to show people’s personality traits born in different zodiac years.
Retell the story about how twelve zodiac animals came. Homework
Assignment