Introducing ice hockey

Learn some basic facts about Canada’s favourite sport

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Lesson plan overview

Task	To learn some basic facts about Canada’s favourite sport
CLB level	CLB Stage I (CLB 1-3)
Delivery method	Online
Class size	10-15 students (vary the number of activities according to your class size)
Estimated time	1.5 to 3 hours (depending on whether you complete all parts of the lesson)
CLB Skills and Competencies	*Speaking:* Interacting with others Sharing information *Listening:* Interacting with others Comprehending information *Reading:* Comprehending information
Language focus	Learn the vocabulary needed to understand this topic. Complete the optional “Part B: Building Sentences” activities below to help your students move from understanding vocabulary to using that vocabulary to produce simple sentences. Use the appropriate grammar structures and vocabulary to respond personally to the reflection questions. (Encourage students to respond in full sentences.)
Cultural focus	Be able to make or understand some small talk about hockey.
Specific task learning objectives	Students will learn some basic facts about the game of ice hockey. Students will understand use hockey vocabulary related to hockey equipment and team members as well some hockey verbs. Students will use basic sentences to describe their own favourite sports.
ESL Directions original video (🎥) and audio (🔊) activities?	This lesson includes video (🎥) and audio (🔊) activities.
Resource attribution	ESL Directions original resources are marked below with an asterisk (*). Feel free to use these, but please give credit to ESL Directions.

Part A: Vocabulary acquisition and practice
This is a self-contained, complete lesson plan (about 1.5 hours) focused on vocabulary.

Part B: Building sentences
Part B takes your students further by giving them some tools to build simple sentences (using the vocabulary they learned in Part A).

Use Part B (about 1.5 hours) if you want to focus on:

Sentence production.

Specific lesson-related grammar points. Note: Every lesson also includes similar practice exercises for subjects, verbs, and objects — the basic building blocks of most English sentences.

Part C: Reflection Questions
These topic-related discussion questions work at the end of either part A or B.

Lesson plan

Part A: Vocabulary acquisition and practice

Warm-up: Introducing the topic and defining our terms

Today, we will be learning about the game of ice hockey.
What is ice hockey?
Does anyone know any words related to hockey?

Skill-building activities

Vocabulary flashcards*
Listen to the vocabulary and definitions again* (Think about how to say each word or phrase and what they mean.) 🔊
Introducing ice hockey* (Let’s hear the vocabulary again in this video.) 🎥

Skill-using activities

Hockey equipment:

Label the hockey player 1* (Bonus question: What is the name of this hockey player?)
Label the player 2*

The names of the players:

Assessment/review tasks

Vocabulary quiz*
Spin the wheel* (Explain the words and phrases in your own words.)

Part B: Building sentences

Find a list of all of the grammar-based activities on this website.

Introducing the topic

In this part of the lesson, we’re going to work on creating short sentences from the vocabulary we learned in Part A.

To help us, we’ll focus on:

Parts of speech (especially nouns, verbs, and indefinite articles).
Subjects, verbs, and objects and how these often work together in English sentences.

Skill-building and skill-using activities

Parts of speech: Nouns, verbs, and indefinite articles

What is a “part of speech”? Can you name any examples?

Today, we’ll look at three important parts of speech we need to make sentences:

What is a noun?
What is a verb?
What is an indefinite article?

Let’s practice!

Quick guide: Nouns, verb, and indefinite articles*
Identify the part of speech for each vocabulary word*
Parts of speech speed sort*
Three parts of speech explainer* (A more detailed explanation of nouns, verbs, and indefinite articles. Teach in class or send home with students.)

Word order in English sentences

Today, we’ll look at three important parts of English sentences:

What is a subject?
What is a verb?
What is an object?

Let’s practice!

Quick definitions: Subjects, verbs, and objects*
Unjumble the sentences* (See if you can find the subjects, verbs, and objects. Follow that order in creating your sentences.)
Create sentences in subject/verb/object order* (See if you find the subjects, verbs, and objects. Follow that order in creating your sentences.)
Subject/verb/object explainer* (A more detailed explanation of a common English sentence structure. Teach in class or send home with your students.)

Assessment/review tasks

Hockey game day*🎥 (Watch a story using the lesson vocabulary and grammar points.)

Hockey game day: Reading passage and comprehension questions* 🔊 (Read the story, and identify this lesson’s grammar points.)

Part C: Reflection questions

Do you like hockey? Do you ever watch hockey games?
Do you like sports?
What is the name of your closest NHL hockey team? Do you know the names of any of the players? Can you tell us something about them?
Do you have any questions about the game?
What are the main sports in your home country?
Are these sports important to your home country’s culture?
Do you still follow these sports?

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CANADA YOUTUBE PLAYLIST
Click the small arrow at the top right of this video to play the videos or go to the YouTube Canada Playlist.

CANADA WORDWALL ACTIVITIES
Wordwall is a very useful interactive lesson-creation site. If you sign up for a free Wordwall account, you will be able to see our “Canada” folder, which includes ESL Directions activities that you can add to your lessons.