Optional introduction
Provide a short description on the UN International Volunteer Day: it has been held on 5 December since 1985 to celebrate volunteerism and promote volunteers’ work. More information: http://www.un.org/en/events/volunteerday/index.shtml
Key lexis
Students get the task sheet with the definitions of the new words. In pairs, they discuss which definition goes to which word. We check the solutions with the whole group.
|
1. to be close to somebody and touch or hug him/her |
a) significance |
| 2. importance | b) orphan |
| 3. present, available | c) volunteer |
| 4. something that happens | d) stress-relief |
| 5. a child/animal whose parents are dead | e) have cuddles |
| 6. a person who does something for free because he/she wants to do it | f) on hand |
| 7. something which helps you let go of stress | g) up and close |
| 8. to be very near | h) occurrence |
Key: 1-e / 2-a / 3-f / 4-h / 5-b / 6-c / 7-d / 8-g
Little kangaroos
Students read the text and fill the gaps with the new words. (Note that sometimes they have to use different forms of the words than the forms in the table!) Then they watch the video on the website of News in Levels and check their answers. If there is no Internet access in your classroom, check the solutions together with the whole group.
These cute baby kangaroos have unfortunately lost their mothers to traffic accidents, a sadly common ………………. in Australia. But luckily, ………………. like Sam and Owen are ………………. to look after them.
“She came with me to the university. Just about everyone in my class has ………………. with her. Especially during exam time, she’s a bit of a ……………….. Just hand her around and she has cuddles!”
Their work doesn’t just involve looking after the ……………….. It has a wider ………………..
“We go to schools and we go to markets and fairs and have all the animals there, so people who may generally not come in contact with these animals – we give them that opportunity to and that way, they can see, they can touch and they can get ………………. with these animals and they build their connection with the animals, with the environment and they’re able to see the significance of their actions.
Key: occurrence / volunteers / on hand / had cuddles / stress-relief / orphans / significance / get up and close
Brainstorming
In groups of 3, students think of as many opportunities to do some voluntary work as they can. After about 5 minutes, we collect all their ideas and write them on the board.
Job advertisement posters
Each group chooses one cause they could be volunteering for and create a poster to advertise that volunteer job. They should include the description of the organisation and the tasks of the volunteer, the qualities needed for the job and the hours worked per week – and anything else they might find important.
Exhibition
Students put their posters on the wall, then they walk around and check out the posters of the other groups. After that, they sit down and choose an organisation/a cause they would want to volunteer for out of the other groups’ ideas.
This unit was created by Andrea Vinkler and Eszter Lengyelfi, teacher trainees from Hungary.
