desert island. speaking activity for english learners

Desert Island

A1 A2 A3

B1 B2 B3

C1 C2 C3

D1 D2 D3

E1 E2 E3

F1 F2 F3

You and your partner need to choose 5 different squares and write them down.

You and your partner were on a sailboat. On your third day at sea, your sailboat began to sink. Fortunately, there is an island in the distance.

As your boat was sinking, you and your partner jumped into the water and swam to the deserted island. You are safe!

This island that you swam to has no people on it. However, there is fish and other types of seafood, fruit, vegetables

and unlimited fresh water.

The following items were on board your sailboat before it

sank.

Compass

Knife

Diary with pen

Rope

Matches

Axe

Tent

Gun with bullets

Medicine

Whiskey

Camera with batteries

Flashlight with batteries

Blanket

Radio with batteries

Guitar

Magnifying glass

Boomerang

Toilet paper

Unfortunately, only 5 items that were on the sailboat washed up on the shore of the desert island.

Remember you and your partner chose 5 squares earlier? These 5 squares represent the items you

will have on your island.

A

B

C

D

E

F

1 2 3

We will now go through the 18 items again. This time, write down the name of the 5 items

you have on your island.

A1 - Compass

A2 - Knife

A3 - Diary with pen

B1 - Rope

B2 - Matches

B3 - Axe

C1 - Tent

C2 - Gun with bullets

C3 - Medicine

D1 - Whiskey

D2 - Camera with batteries

D3 - Flashlight with batteries

E1 - Blanket

E2 - Radio with batteries

E3 - Guitar

F1 - Magnifying glass

F2 - Boomerang

F3 - Toilet paper

Now you and your partner know what 5 items you have on your

island to help you survive.

For example:

Answer the following questions. Remember, you will have to share

your answers with the class.

1. What 5 items do you have.

2. Describe how you will use all 5 items to help you survive.

3. Which item is the least useful? Why?

4. Which item is the most useful? Why?

5. If you could choose ANY of the 18 items to have, which 5 would you and your partner choose? Why?

• Hi everyone:• I have taken the idea from my previous worksheet - http://

www.eslprintables.com/printable.asp?id=58362#thetop• The instructions are as follows:• First, put the students in pairs. You can of course put them in larger groups, but I find, the

bigger the group, the more room there is for one person in the group to do most of the work. • On the 2nd slide of the PPT, the pairs are to chose 5 of the squares (Ex A1, A2, C1,C2, E1).

Make sure that each pair has chosen their 5 squares before continuing further.• Then continue with the PPT. Slides 3-24 explain to the students why they are on a deserted

island, what is on the island, as well as the 18 items that were on board their sinking sailboat.• Slide 25 explains to the students that of all the 18 items on their sinking boat, only 5 items

washed up on shore on their island. And slide 26 explains to them that the 5 squares they chose earlier will be the five items that they will have to use on their island.

• The students kind of understand at this point, but when slide 27 comes up, they fully understand what is going on. This is the point where the excitement level rises in classroom, and they really get into this lesson plan. I would give them about 3 minutes to see what 5 items they get, as well as they like to discuss with their other friends what their ‘funny’ choices are.

• Then I tell them we will go through slide 28-45 and they should make sure that they have the correct spelling of their 5 items.

• The last slide #47 I go through with the class as a group and then leave it up on the screen for them to work with. You could also copy and paste the last page onto a word document and print it out if you wanted to give it to them for homework, etc.

• Anyhow, I hope that you find this interesting and that your students enjoy it. It really was an exciting lesson in my class, and I had all the students participating, speaking English and at the same time having FUN!

• Cheers, Fletsch