Amazing Animal Abilities — Teaching Guide

Teaching guide Classy Tutoring

How to use this guide

Answers are given in full so you never have to work them out mid-lesson. Timings are a guide — if the grammar discussion is going well, take the minutes from the writing block.

Before the lesson

Write the two Past Simple columns on the board in advance: Regular and Irregular, with space underneath for the question/negative form.
Have the passage read once yourself so you know where the hard words are.
Write the five comprehension questions on the board, or have the handout ready.
Board space reserved for: the verb tables (top), signal words (bottom left), learner sentences (bottom right).

Reading (10 min)

Read the passage aloud once while learners follow on the handout. Read at a natural pace — do not stop for every unknown word or the passage stops sounding like real language.

Then let them read it silently and underline every Past Simple verb. They will find around fifteen. That is fine — the point is to notice the pattern, not to count.

Three words are worth pre-teaching because the passage does not explain them: octopus (a sea animal with eight arms), mirror (a reflective surface that shows your own reflection), recognise (to know someone or something you have seen before).

Let these go — learners will work them out from context: tank, escape, style.

Do not tell learners which tense this is yet. Ask only: which verbs describe things that happened and finished? Note their answers on the board, unedited.

Comprehension (5 min)

Learners answer in pairs. Then take one question per pair, from five different pairs.

What did the octopus do?
Answer: It escaped from a tank, crawled across the floor, and opened another tank to free a friend — ["One octopus escaped from its tank, crawled across the floor, and opened another tank to free a friend"].
Accept also: It got out, crossed the floor and opened another tank.
How did scientists test if elephants recognise themselves?
Answer: They painted a mark on each elephant's head — ["They tested this by painting a mark on each elephant's head"].
Accept also: They put a mark on the elephant's head and watched what it did next.
What did the elephants do when they saw themselves?
Answer: They touched the mark — they knew it was them — ["When the elephants saw themselves, they touched the mark — they knew it was them"].
Accept also: They touched the mark, so they recognised themselves.
What did scientists teach pigeons to do?
Answer: They taught them to tell the difference between paintings by Picasso and Monet — ["scientists taught pigeons to tell the difference between paintings by Picasso and Monet"].
Accept also: They learned to recognise two different painting styles.
What was the date of the pigeon study?
Answer: 1995 — ["In a 1995 study"].
Accept also: Nineteen ninety-five.

Speaking (15 min)

Pairs work through the four questions. Circulate with a pencil and note one good Past Simple sentence per pair — you will read them out at the end. Do not interrupt to correct; note and move on. For quiet learners, ask for one small contribution only before stepping away.

1. What animal do you think is the smartest? Why? Have you ever seen an animal do something surprising?

Listening for: an opinion backed by a reason, and at least one Past Simple sentence about a real observation. Follow up with "What did it do that surprised you?"

2. The octopus freed a friend. Do you think animals have feelings like friendship? Or do they just act on instinct?

Listening for: engagement with the idea, not the grammar. Accept whatever position they take. Follow up with "Can you give an example from something you have seen or heard?"

3. If you could have a superpower from an animal, which would you choose? Why?

Listening for: conditional structures (I would choose...) — this is above B1 but let it emerge naturally. Follow up with "What would you do with it?"

4. Some people think we shouldn't test animals for intelligence — they say it's comparing them to humans unfairly. What do you think?

Listening for: an opinion with a reason. This is the hardest question — save it for pairs that are moving quickly. Follow up with "What would be a fair way to test an animal's intelligence, if any?"

Grammar (20 min)

Do not open with the rule. Elicit it.

Step 1 — find the past verbs. Ask learners to read the passage again and find every verb that talks about something that happened in the past. Write them on the board as they call them out, in two groups: ones that end in -ed and ones that do not. They will produce: discovered, watched, crawled, opened, found, tested, painted, saw, touched, knew, taught, learned, got and more.

Step 2 — name the two groups. Label the first group Regular and the second Irregular. Ask: what do the regular ones have in common? (They all end in -ed.) Ask: what about the irregular ones? (They change their shape — there is no single rule.)

Step 3 — board the tables.

	Regular	Irregular
Base	discover	find
Past Simple	discovered	found
Base	watch	know
Past Simple	watched	knew
Base	test	see
Past Simple	tested	saw
Base	learn	teach
Past Simple	learned	taught
Base	recognise	get
Past Simple	recognised	got

Spelling notes on the board: study → studied (y → ied), stop → stopped (double the consonant), recognise → recognised (just add -d).

Step 4 — question and negative. Ask: how do we ask a question in Past Simple? Elicit Did + base form. Write:

Statement	Question	Negative
They escaped.	Did they escape?	They didn't escape.
She knew the answer.	Did she know?	She didn't know.
It happened yesterday.	When did it happen?	It didn't happen.

Underline the base form after did/didn't each time. Add the tip: After 'did', use the base form!

Step 5 — Exercise 1, in books, then checked. See the Answer key for the reason for each one; the reason is the lesson.

Step 6 — Exercise 2, the mini-story, individually then checked. See the Answer key for the full list of forms.

Read the full correct story aloud once so learners can check their own work.

Writing (10 min)

Success criteria — read these out before they start:

6 to 8 sentences
every sentence uses Past Simple (no Present Simple slipping in)
it is about a real animal experience — a pet, a zoo visit, a video they watched

Model answer to read aloud:

Last year, I went to the zoo with my family. We saw a chimpanzee that was dancing in front of the visitors. It held a piece of fruit and looked at us. The keeper told us that the chimpanzee had learned to clap for the crowd. After that, we watched the penguins swimming in the water. One penguin was very fast — it caught a fish in one second.

Mark only the sentences that use Past Simple correctly. Do not correct anything else on the page.

Answer key

Exercise 1

caught — last night places it in the past; catch is irregular (caught, not catchéd).
jumped — out of the water describes a finished action; jump is regular.
Did ... see — question form; after Did we use the base form see, not saw.
didn't speak — negative; after didn't we use the base form speak.
did ... escape — question starting with How; did + base form escape.
never knew (or didn't ever know) — never with a past state uses Past Simple of know; alternatively didn't ever know uses didn't + base.

Exercise 2

woke — wake is irregular (wake → woke → woken).
went — irregular past of go.
saw — irregular past of see.
fed — feed is irregular (feed → fed → fed).
didn't want — negative; didn't + base want.
swam — irregular past of swim.
said — irregular past of say.
was — irregular past of be (singular).
felt — irregular past of feel.
watched — regular past of watch.
was — again, past of be.

Read the full correct story aloud once so learners can check their own work.

Anticipated problems

They say: Last night, my cat catched a mouse.

You say: "Good past sentence, but catch is one of those verbs that changes its shape — it doesn't take -ed. The past of catch is caught. So: my cat caught a mouse."

They say: Did the dolphin jumped?

You say: "Look at the did. After did, the verb goes back to its base form. So not jumped — jump. Did the dolphin jump?"

They say: She didn't knew the answer.

You say: "After didn't, the verb is also in the base form. Knew is already past — so we don't need it again. She didn't know the answer."

They say: The zookeeper said it was new and still feeling shy. (mixing tenses)

You say: "Check each verb against the time. The whole story is in the past, so feeling should be felt. The zookeeper said it was new and still felt shy."

They say: Where did the octopus escaped?

You say: "Did is already carrying the past — escaped doesn't need to do it again. Base form after did: Where did the octopus escape?"

They say: I never knew that dogs can smell cancer. (present after past marker)

You say: "Good — knew is correctly past. The second part about dogs smelling cancer is a general fact, so Present Simple there is actually fine. But if you want it all in the past: I never knew that dogs could smell cancer."

Wrap-up and homework

Close in two minutes: ask one learner to give one regular Past Simple verb from the lesson, and one to give one irregular. Ask another to state the rule about did + base form in their own words.

Set the homework: research or remember one amazing animal fact. Write four Past Simple questions about it and answer them. Bring it to the next lesson — you will use some of the questions as a warm-up.