TEACHER’S NOTES

ACTIVITIES, GAMES & WO RKS HE E TS Describing People

Activity Type Introduction

Vocabulary, Reading This describing people lesson helps to teach students how to
and Writing Exercises: describe people's appearance and clothing.
writing sentences, gap-
fill, writing and drawing Procedure
descriptions
Give each student a copy of the lesson.
Speaking Activities:
describing, guessing, First, students learn to use the verb to be to describe height,
freer practice (pair work) body build and age. Go through the examples with the class and
brainstorm other adjectives for height, body build and age.

Focus Students then write sentences describing the people in the pictures
using the verb to be and adjectives, e.g. 'The girl is young and
Describing people slim.'
Verb to be to describe Next, students learn to use have and has to describe hair colour,
height, body build and hair length and facial features. Go through the examples and
age then draw some faces on the board and elicit more sentences and
vocabulary.
Have and has to describe
hair colour, hair length In pairs, students then take turns describing a person's facial
and facial features features to their partner, who guesses who it is.

Wear to talk about After that, students learn to describe what someone is wearing.
clothes Go through the various forms of the verb wear and brainstorm
other items of clothing that aren't on the list.

Aim Students then write about what they are wearing now and what
they wore yesterday.
To learn and practice
how to describe people's Afterwards, students describe pictures of two people in pairs and
appearance and clothing. complete gap-fill exercises to consolidate the language from the
lesson.

Preparation Exercise G and H - Answer key

Make one copy of the G. 1. is 2. is 3. has 4. has 5. is

lesson for each student.
H. 1. first-year 2. China 3. am 4. am 5. have 6. have
7. wearing 8. wear 9. wore 10. is 11. has 12. has
Level
Next, students write a description of themselves and then a
Pre-intermediate (A2) description of a classmate without naming who it is.

Students then take turns reading their descriptions to the class,

Time who guess who it is.

60 minutes Afterwards, students take part in a drawing activity where they

read descriptions and draw pictures of three thieves.

Students then compare their drawings.

Finally, invite some students to draw their pictures on the board

and go through the descriptions with the class.

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 DESCRIBING PEOPLE'S APPEARANCE

ACTIVITIES, GAMES & WO RKS HE E TS Describing People

Height, body build and age

When describing people, we use the verb to be to describe height, body build and age.
Examples: I am tall and slim.

He is overweight.

Ann is thin.

You are old and short.

They are young.

A. Write sentences describing the pairs of people in the pictures using the verb to be
and the adjectives: tall, short, slim, old, young.

........................................... ...........................................

........................................... ...........................................

........................................... ...........................................

........................................... ...........................................

Facial features

We use have and has to describe hair colour, hair length and facial features.

Facial features are eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, lips, ears, chin, etc.

Example: She has long brown hair.

She has big blue eyes.

She has a small nose.

She has a wide mouth and big red lips.

B. In pairs, take turns describing each person's facial features below to your partner,
who guesses who it is.

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 DESCRIBING PEOPLE'S APPEARANCE

ACTIVITIES, GAMES & WO RKS HE E TS Describing People

Clothes

We use the verb wear to talk about the clothes someone has on.

Present simple form Past simple form Present continuous form

'wear' 'wore' 'wearing'
Example: She wears a Example: I wore a T-shirt Example: He is wearing a
uniform to school. and jeans yesterday. shirt and tie.

C. What other items of clothing can you add to this list? Write your answers in the
spaces below.

T – shirt dress sweater shirt ................ ................

jeans skirt suit boots ................ ................

trainers socks trousers shoes ................ ................

D. What are you wearing now?

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

E. What did you wear yesterday?

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

F. In pairs, describe what these two people look like and what they are wearing.

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 DESCRIBING PEOPLE'S APPEARANCE

ACTIVITIES, GAMES & WO RKS HE E TS Describing People

G. Complete the description with the correct verbs.

My friend John (1) ................ tall. He exercises a lot and (2) ................ very strong.

He (3) ................ blue eyes and brown hair. He (4) ................ big ears and a small nose.

Today, he (5) ................ wearing a blue shirt and jeans.

H. Use the words in the box to complete the description.

am x 2 is have x 2 has x 2 wear wore wearing China first-year

My name is Mei. I am a (1) .................... student. I come from (2) .................... I

(3) ................... not tall, and I (4) ................... not overweight either. I (5) ...................

long hair and a pony tail. Like most Chinese, I (6) .................... brown eyes. Today, I am

(7) .................... my student uniform. Yesterday, I didn't have class, so I didn't

(8) .................... my uniform. I (9) .................... jeans and a yellow T-shirt. I went to a

movie with my friend Noi. She (10) ................... tall and (11) ................... short hair. She

(12) ................... a big nose, but I think she is pretty.

I. Write a short paragraph describing yourself.

My name is ..................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

J. Write a description of someone in the classroom. Don't write their name or tell
anyone who you are describing.

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

K. Now, read your description to the class and see if they can guess who it is.

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 DESCRIBING PEOPLE'S APPEARANCE

ACTIVITIES, GAMES & WO RKS HE E TS Describing People

L. Some thieves have been stealing things from your classroom. A student saw them
steal some pencils. Here is what the student told the police. Read the descriptions
and draw pictures of the thieves.

Thief 1 Thief 2 Thief 3

1. The first thief is tall and thin. He has a long face.

2. The second thief is short and overweight. He has a round face.
3. The other thief is short and thin. He has an oval face (egg shaped).
4. The thief with a round face has a big nose.
5. The thief with a long face has small eyes and a long nose.
6. The overweight thief has big ears and short hair.
7. The thief with an oval face has big eyes and a small mouth.
8. The thief with a big nose has big eyes and a big mouth.
9. The other thief has a long mouth and a long hair.
10. The thief with a small mouth has a small nose and small ears
11. One man has ears that look like the number 8.
12. The man with a small nose is bald.
13. All of the thieves wore T-shirts and jeans.

Now, compare your drawings with your classmates. Are they the same?

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