ESL WORKSHEET - Toys

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

THE HISTORY OF TOYS

LinguaHouse
Oct. 17, 2023

Level: Pre-Intermediate (A2-B1)
Type of English: English for Teenagers
Tags: Possessions; Describing a Product/Service; Playing Games; Forming Questions; 10-12 Years Old; Vocabulary Lesson; Speaking
Publication date: 10/17/2023

This lesson makes the students think about the toys they played or still play with. They learn names of toys, and also practice using past simple and the structure ‘used to’ in context of their early childhood. They watch two videos: one about toys in the ancient world, and one showing children playing with out-of-date toys today. They listen for details, and then use the video as a source of useful everyday language and a model of pronunciation. The language focus revises the use of questions, which the students practice in speaking activities (by I. Rybak).

• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audios (Am/Br English).

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

Girl: What was your favorite childhood toy?
Boy: It was a teddy bear.
Girl: Who gave it to you?
Boy: My aunt gave it to me when she visited us.
Girl: What did it look like?
Boy: It was big and yellow. It had black eyes and a black nose.
Girl: When did you stop playing with it?
Boy: When I was seven years old.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT - “Who Invented Toys?”

Have you ever stopped and wondered who invented toys? Let’s find out on today’s episode of Colossal Questions.
Kids have played games since as far back as we can trace, but the earliest toys were a little different than the ones you’ve got today. Through most of time, kids have made toys of anything they can find, like sticks, rocks, clay, whatever, but man-made toys have been found in ancient civilizations all around the earth.
In India, experts have excavated toys that are more than 4,500 years old. Clay animal figurines on wheels, and small carts, bird-shaped whistles, toy monkeys that can slide over string. Many of the world’s most classic toys came from ancient China. The kite was invented there and was popular at least 3,000 years ago. The Chinese also invented another old-time toy – the yo-yo. These ancient yo-yos were made of wood, metal, or painted terracotta clay. Ancient Egyptian children even had dolls with wigs and movable limbs. In ancient Greece, kids also played with dolls, yo-yos, balls, wooden swords, bows, and little figurines. And get this! When Greek kids became adults, it was tradition to burn all their favorite childhood toys in sacrifice to the Greek gods.
So, who invented toys? It’s impossible to say for sure, but we do know that a small set of toys have been around just as long as humans. So, the next time your yo-yo string gets knotted up and ruined, just remember, it’s a toy as old as time.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT – “Modern Kids Confused By Toys From The Past”

It’s sad because you can’t play any apps. It’s just a phone that you can call on. and you can’t do FaceTime either.
(Cup and ball) What’s this? I don’t know what this is. Into the cup. Oh, yeah. You’re catching the thing. No, I can’t. Are you having fun? Yeah. No, bored. A lot bored. Just going like this.
(Space shuttle) It’s a space shuttle. Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Oh, it’s cute. I had one of these once, and I took it apart. Did you put it back together then?
(Stereoscope) Oh, I’m holding it upside down. Do I look through? It looks like kind of one of those things when you, like, put it inside of things, and then look through, and you can, like, see something. Ooh. I guess it does tell a story, not really like Netflix. It would be better if there was sound. I think YouTube is cool, but this is cooler. Well, it’s not really what I was hoping for.
(Toy telephone) It’s a telephone. This is so confusing. How do you dial a number with that? I’ll call my mom. Hello. I don’t really know what to say because she’s not actually on the phone. Hello. I’m expecting a message from the devil, but there isn’t one.
(Clockwork robot) Look up to the skies and see. Wow. That was unexpected. I’ve always wanted to see one of these. That’s cool, really, really cool. That’s cool. This is a toy robot. I like these things. They’re cool, aren’t they?
(A satsuma) An orange. They are just round, and a fruit, which is orange. They are fun to play with because, they’re like, throw down up and down. Oh God. Come down on Christmas morning, and I just open, and I see this just present. It’s just like a circular thing, and I just open this, and it as an orange, like, amazing.

 
Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/english-for-teenagers/the-history-of-toys. Accessed on October 17, 2023. © 2008–2023 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.