Oxford Dolphin Readers
Level One
On Safari
Di Taylor
Illustrated by Mark Ruffle
DESCRIPTION
A story about Colin who goes on safari with Mum and Dad.
Real animal photos combine with colourful illustrations toshow
us all of the animals that Colin sees: zebras, kangaroos, monkeys
and more.
CROSS CURRICULAR
Science (animals, habitats and food).
VALUES
Respect for the natural world.
1
Level One
LANGUAGE
Vocabulary: Colin, Mum, Dad, car, bird, kangaroo, zebra,
monkey, elephant, lion, water, banana, grass, hungry, happy.
Structures: monkeys eat bananas, elephants drink water, zebras
like grass, monkeys play games, kangaroos can jump, watch.
Lesson Plan
BEFORE
1 Draw a picture of a wild animal (tiger, lion) or a fictitious animal (dragon, monster) on the
board (or stick up a picture). Draw six or seven ‘stick men’ next to the animal and explain that
they are pupils from the class. Point to different pupils around the class and then a stick man
and say ‘Look! It’s (Carlos)!’, etc. Explain that to save the pupils from being eaten by the animal
they have to guess the letters of a word (like Hangman). First draw six lines to represent the
six letters: _ _ _ _ _ _. Each time a pupil says a letter that is not in the word, a stickman gets
‘eaten’. The word is S-A-F-A-R-I
2 Brainstorm the kind of animals you might see in a safari park. Help with questions like ‘Do
cats live in safari parks?’, ‘What about giraffes?’, etc. Make sure the above vocabulary is included.
3 Write on the board: (A) Safari – zebras – kangaroos – monkeys – elephants – lions - Colin.
Pupils copy the same into their notebooks. Make sure they understand the vocabulary. Explain
that Colin is a boy. Then write on the board: (B) Jump – hungry – park – bananas – black and
white – happy – water. Pupils copy again. Next, ask pupils to find connections between the
words in list (A) and the words in list (B). Accept different answers.
DURING
1 Pupils write their name, age and class number on the first page of the book.
2 Pupils ‘scan’ the text and try to find how lists (A) and (B) above fit together. (Scanning means
to look for particular pieces of information without actually reading the whole text, as we do
with a TV guide for example).
3 Look at the front cover. Point at different things and ask ‘What is it?’ (It’s a car, a bird, a safari park).
Ask ‘Who are they?’ (Mum, Dad, Colin). Look at page one to check.
4 Look at page two. Ask questions. ‘Where are they?’ (In a safari park), ‘What are they going to see?’
(animals). Look at the pictures on pages three to seven to see what animals they are going to
see. On page three say ‘Look! Zebras. They are eating grass’ (mime an eating action) On page
four say ‘Look ! Kangaroos! They are jumping’ (jump, or mime jumping with two fingers of one
hand on the palm of the other). On page five say ‘Look! Monkeys! They are eating bananas’
(mime peeling and eating a banana). On page six say ‘Look! Elephants! They are drinking
water’ (use one arm to mime an elephant drinking water). On page seven say ‘Look! Lions.
They are eating meat’. (mime)
5 Read the story. While you read encourage pupils to mime the scenes as you did. When you
finish page eight ask around the class ‘What’s your favourite animal?’ If you have time do a
survey to find out which animals are the most popular. Drill the question and then get pupils
to ask each other. Compile a list of the classes favourite animals.
AFTER
1 Pupils read the story again for homework and do pages nine, ten and eleven. Check in class.
Check page eleven by looking back over the pages, e.g. Say ‘Zebras ... Look at page three’.
2 Brainstorm all sorts of animals (safari, jungle, farm, pets ...) and ask pupils if they know what
they eat. Ask questions like ‘What does a cow eat?’, ‘What does a tiger eat?’,
etc. Then ask ‘What can they do?’ (A horse can run, a frog can
jump, etc.) Then get pupils to do page twelve.
3 Pupils do pages thirteen and fourteen for homework.
Fast finishers can do these pages in class.
4 In class do the word search on page fifteen.
Play pictionary using the words on pages sixteen
and seventeen. First play as a class and then in small
groups. Demonstrate. Choose an animal and start
drawing it bit by bit on the board. Ask ‘What animal is it?’
and allow time before each stage for pupils to guess.
EXTRA PROJECT IDEA
Make an animal collage: Ask pupils to bring in lots of pictures of wild animals (from
magazines, newspapers, drawings, etc.) Use a big piece of card to stick the animals in a safari
scene. Ask pupils to draw trees and plants or use more cut out pictures.
Make a chart showing animals and what they eat: Use cut out pictures or drawings
of animals. Stick these on one side of a large sheet of paper, and pictures of different things they
eat on the other. Ask pupils to draw arrows between the different animals and their food.
Stronger pupils can label this or write lists of animals and their foods in their notebooks.