All About Animals: Primary Teachers: Hear Ye, Hear Ye
How does this fit into the curriculum? Pupils should be taught to sustain their concentration (EN1 2a).
Teachers’ Note: This is a listening exercise. Read the passage to the class and ask them to write down the answers to the questions at the end. Alternatively, write the questions on the board so they can discuss the answers verbally with a partner.
Lesson Plan: Hear Ye, Hear Ye
Sarah and the Goose
It was a beautiful spring morning. The sun shone brightly and there were only a few fluffy white clouds in the sky. Sarah smiled to herself and looked up to the lovely blue sky. Only a few days ago it was raining and cold; and now, here she was, doing what she loved best – climbing trees!
Sarah liked to look down on the world and watch what was going on. One day she saw fox cubs playing; another day a woodpecker landed very close to her. Sarah knew that if she sat very still and very quietly she would see something amazing. And she did!
The goose sitting on her nest didn’t know Sarah was there. But Sarah saw her.
Sarah watched her tweak the straw and twigs beneath her until she was happy. Then the goose sat still. But not for long. She soon turned all the eggs over, one by one. Sarah counted. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Five eggs!
She hoped that the goose would leave the nest just for a minute so she could get a better look at the eggs, but the goose didn’t leave her eggs, not even for a minute.
Eventually, Sarah’s tummy started to rumble and she noticed it was getting dark. Ever so quietly, she slid down from the tree and crept away.
The next day she came back and watched again. And she came the day after that, too. And the day after that. Every day she saw the goose fluff up her nest, turn the eggs, then settle back down to wait patiently.
And then one day, she was gone.
The nest had been trampled and the eggs smashed. Sarah gasped. And then she cried.
“Someone’s smashed the nest,” she wailed to her mum as she ran into the kitchen. “The goose has gone and I don’t know where she is.”
Sarah’s mum calmed her down and made Sarah tell her the story right from the start. And when she came to the bit where the nest was trampled, she smiled and pulled on her boots. “Let’s go and see if we can find them,” she said.
Sarah’s mum led the way, past the tree where Sarah sat, past the nest and down towards the lake. They walked quietly and didn’t speak.
As they approached the lake, they heard a rustle in the long grass and there was the mother goose and the father goose and one, two, three, four, five goslings, covered in downy fur and staying close to their parents for safety.
Sarah gasped, then smiled and laughed out loud. Holding hands with her mum, they walked home together.
Questions
- Why did Sarah like to sit up the tree?
- What had she seen from the tree?
- What was the goose doing?
- How many eggs were there in the nest?
- How did Sarah feel when she saw the nest had been damaged? How would you have felt?
- What did she think had happened to the eggs?
- How do you think Sarah’s mum knew where to look for the geese?
- What are baby geese called?
- Why is it important that we leave geese and other wild animals alone, like Sarah did?
- How do you think the mother goose would have felt if someone had taken her eggs away?