Click here for full screen ⬇️
Unit 3, Animals, is one of the most engaging speaking units in the K–12 ESL curriculum. Designed for A1–A2 English learners ages 6–18, this unit provides ready-to-teach ESL speaking lessons centered on mammals, reptiles, birds, and fish.
Students love talking about animals—and because everyone has seen animals in daily life, this unit unlocks strong oral participation, even from shy or newcomer students.
This unit is ideal for teachers searching for:
ESL speaking lessons about animals
ESL conversation activities for kids & teens
Beginner speaking worksheets
K–12 ESL speaking curriculum
Oral communication lessons with high engagement
Fun speaking topics for ELL newcomers
With multiple speaking questions, guided dialogues, and oral fluency tasks in every lesson, this unit helps students build real, usable conversation skills.
Students learn to talk about:
What animals look like
How animals live
What makes each animal group unique
Strange or unusual animals
Animal abilities and survival skills
Animal habitats (desert, ocean, forest, mountains)
The entire unit is structured as a conversation-driven learning experience:
Chat-a-Bit speaking warm-up
Short readings to introduce speaking vocabulary
Vocabulary discussion for speaking accuracy
3–4 speaking questions after every passage
Four dialogues per lesson for fluency practice
“Would you rather…?” speaking challenges
End-of-lesson oral reflection tasks
Through this process, students gain the confidence to talk about animals using full sentences and natural language.
Students practice:
Asking and answering WH-questions
Describing animals using real details
Expressing opinions (“I think…,” “I would choose…”)
Comparing animals (“faster,” “bigger,” “scarier”)
Explaining reasons (“because…”)
Participating in peer conversations
Speaking in longer, more descriptive sentences
Students improve listening comprehension through:
Short dialogues
Partner speaking
Listening for detail and responding naturally
Students learn and actively use terms related to:
Mammals: fur, temperature, spine, surface, traits
Reptiles: scales, shade, sunbathe, ability, survive
Birds: cliff, habitat, drill, escape, unusual, talent
Fish: prey, enemy, ecosystem, survive, prefer, nature
This vocabulary is immediately used in oral communication tasks, not memorized in isolation.
“They can…” / “They have…” for describing abilities
Present simple for facts about animals
Adjectives for describing characteristics
Comparative questions (Which is faster? Which is scarier?)
Opinion language (“I prefer…,” “I would rather…”)
Conversations, partner tasks, and interactive dialogues appear in every lesson.
Students complete speaking tasks like:
Describing favorite animals
Talking about animal abilities
Choosing between animals
Explaining how animals survive
Discussing habitats and adaptations
Younger students: simpler sentence frames
Teens: extended responses and deeper questions
Newcomers: visual supports + predictable speaking routines
Students bring animal knowledge from their home cultures, making speaking richer and more inclusive.
Unit 3 builds naturally on Unit 2’s speaking work on communities and daily life. After learning to describe their neighborhood, students now learn to describe the natural world, building:
Academic language used in science lessons
Everyday speaking ability
Vocabulary useful for future units on nature and weather
This unit also prepares students for Unit 4, which continues with high-interest speaking lessons about food.
Speaking Objective: Students describe mammals using traits, habitats, and unique abilities.
Speaking Vocabulary: spine, surface, scales, echo, temperature, trait
Key Speaking Activities:
Chat-a-Bit warm-up on favorite animals
Short readings with oral discussion
Speaking questions about traits, habitats, strange mammals, water mammals, and flying mammals
4 dialogues for speaking fluency
“Would you rather…?” mammal choices
Speaking Benefit: Builds foundational language for describing animals clearly.
Speaking Objective: Students talk about reptiles, their habitats, and special skills.
Speaking Vocabulary: ability, sunbathe, survive, shade, entire, swallow
Key Speaking Activities:
Warm-up about deserts, jungles, and scary animals
Speaking questions after each reading
Oral vocabulary practice
Four dialogues about reptile traits, habitats, and unusual reptiles
“Would you rather…?” reptile-themed questions
Speaking Benefit: Encourages descriptive and comparative speaking.
Speaking Objective: Students describe birds, their homes, flying abilities, and survival skills.
Speaking Vocabulary: cliff, habitat, escape, unusual, drill, talent
Key Speaking Activities:
Warm-up about birds near home
Read-and-talk sections on bird traits, strange birds, flying birds, and super skills
4 structured speaking dialogues
“Would you rather…?” bird-based speaking challenge
Speaking Benefit: Reinforces detailed speaking about movement, appearance, and behavior.
Speaking Objective: Students talk about fish abilities, habitats, movement, and roles in nature.
Speaking Vocabulary: prey, enemy, nature, ecosystem, survive, prefer
Key Speaking Activities:
Chat-a-Bit warm-up on water and fish
Speaking questions for each reading
Vocabulary practice through oral use
Four dialogues: aquariums, strange fish, eating fish, imagining life in water
“Would you rather…?” water-themed speaking tasks
Speaking Benefit: Expands academic speaking connected to ecosystems and nature.
Use animal images or video clips as conversation starters.
Encourage students to compare animals from their home countries.
Have pairs repeat dialogues using different animals.
Post sentence frames on the board to support beginners.
Let advanced students explain animal facts in longer detail.
Oral description of an animal
Dialogue performance with a partner
Mini-speaking presentation (“My favorite animal”)
Conversational check with WH-questions
End-of-unit interview about mammals, reptiles, birds, and fish