Урок "Natural disasters"

Topic: Natural disasters.

Objectives:   - to practise reading, listening, writing and speaking skills;

                      - to practise discussing different natural disasters;

                      - to practise  making presentations;

                      - to use should/shouldn’t;

                      - to use Second Conditionals;

                      - to revise areas of vocabulary connected with natural disasters.

 

Main Procedure

I. Greeting.

II. Presenting the topic of the lesson.

     T: Good morning, dear children! I’m very happy to see that you’re well and healthy today. It means that you’re ready to learn and work hard. And before starting our lesson today I’d like you to look at these pictures on the blackboard. What can you see in them?

    (Ss’ possible answers: We can see different natural disasters.) 

     T: Yes, you’re right. So, I’m sure that you’ll answer me without long thinking what the topic of our today’s lesson is.

      P1: Maybe, natural disasters.

T:  Yes, today we’re going to speak about natural disasters and during thelesson  we’ll have to answer the following questions:

1. What are natural disasters?

2. Why and where do they happen?

3. How do they affect people and environment?

4. Can people predict them?

5. Why has the number of natural disasters increased for the last twenty years?

6. Can people do anything to protect themselves?

III. Work in a chain.Presenting vocabulary. Vocabulary-testing techniques.

    T: So, let’s start and I want you to look at the pictures on the blackboard again and name these disasters.

(Ss’ possible answers: an earthquake, an avalanche,  a forest fire, a volcanic eruption, a flood, a tsunami, a tornado, etc.)

  T: Yes, that’sabsolutely right.And now let’s find out what each of these disasters means. You’ll work now in a chain, it  means that one of you is saying the definition of any of these disasters and another’s calling its name.

For example:

P1: What is the long period of time with no rain?

P2: A drought. What is a large mass of  ice, snow and rock falling down a mountain?

P3: An avalanche. What  is … ? etc.

The disasters to define:

(A drought, a flood, an avalanche, a tornado, an earthquake, a forest fire, a volcano eruption).

The definitions of disasters:

1. A long period of time with no rain.

2. A large amount of water covering a place which is usually dry.

3. A large mass of ice, snow and rock falling down a mountain.

4. A very strong spinning wind that can move big objects and blow down buildings.

5. A sudden violent movement of the Earth’s surface.

6. An uncontrolled fire burning in wild land areas.

7.  A point in which a volcano is active and releases its power.

IV. Work in groups.  Complete the sentences with the most suitable words.

T: OK, you’ve coped with this task well. In your  next task you we’ll read eight sentences about  different disasters, but their names aren’t written in these sentences. You have to complete these sentences with the appropriate names of disasters, which are described in these sentences. You’ll split now into three groups of four and each group will get cards with  the task.

1. … have been burning for three weeks in Indonesia and have destroyed thousands of hectares of virgin forests. (Fires)

2. The harvest in Afghanistan has failed four years running due to a terrible … which has affected most of the country. (drought)

3. Bangladesh is regularly hit by … caused  by heavy rain  during monsoon period. (flood)

4. The small island Montserrat in the Caribbean was almost wiped out by a … which erupted a few years ago. (volcano)

5. Three skiers were killed yesterday by an … in a Swiss mountain resort. (avalanche)

6. A district in the capital of El Salvador was wiped out by a … due to heavy rain and the cutting of trees. (landslide)

7. A major … is expected in California in the next few years and special building regulations have been introduced to minimize the loss of human life. (earthquake)

8. A … is due to hit the coast of Florida this evening, and residents are being evacuated from coastal areas. (hurricane)

V. Writing. Group up the words in the box  according to the columns below.

 T: Well, now I’d like to ask the following question: do all these disasters have the same origin and way of  happeningon Earth?

(Ss’ possible answers:

P1: No, because some disasters are the result of weather or sharp changes in weather.

P2: Others are connected with water, they start over the seas and oceans.

P3: And there are also disasters that are connected with land movement, snow or rock movement.

 T: That’s definitely so. and this time your next task is to group up all disasters according to their origin and way of happening.

Blizzards, droughts, tsunamis, avalanches, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, hailstorms, whirlpools, heat waves, landslides,  fires, ice storms, volcanic eruptions.

Land movement disasters Water disasters Weather disasters Avalanches, … Tsunamis, … Blizzards, …

 

VI. Speaking. Work in pairs.

   T: Great job.  You’ve just seen that all of these disasters have different origins and ways of occurring on Earth. Now let’s try to answer these questions working in pairs.

1. Why do volcanoes happen?

2. Why do earthquakes occur?

3. Can people predict volcano eruptions?

4. Is hurricane and tornado the same?

5. What problems can too much or too little rain cause?

6. What is the most natural disaster in your opinion?

VII. Presentations  of  the students’ reports about the most global natural disasters.

T:  In the history of mankind there were so many global destructive disasters.  Of course, to mention all of them takes a lot of time, so, we won’t do this during this lesson. But  today we’ll speak about the most tragic and terrible disasters that have happened to people on Earth since the beginning of the 21^st century. As far as I know, some of you prepared presentations about them for this lesson.

( Students  present their reports about Hurricane  Catarina  in Southern Brazil in 2004,  the earthquake in Japan in 2011, the earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004,  the 2008 flood in  Western Ukraine,  wildfires in Australia in 2019-2020 and  Siberia’s 2021 fires in Russia)

VIII. Listening.  Work in groups.

T: You’ve just watched  and listened to your mates’ presentations. In each of them you could hear the expressions like “ the number of victims” or “the damages are huge”. So, from here as a conclusion we can say that almost all  disasters are very dangerous and in most cases are deadly for people who find themselves in the epicenter of these catastrophes.But, to the surprise, some people manage to survive in such unthinkable and unpredictable conditions. They usually say that they are lucky or God helps them. Who knows whether this really isGod’s helpor  theirluck or, simply the knowledge of certain rules of behavior in extreme situations. What do you think of it? Forewarned is forearmed – that is my belief.  Now I offer you to listen to the instructions of behaviourduring  a flood and  lightning with thunderstorm, the disasters that happen very often on the territory of Ukraine. To do this task you’ll split into two groups. Group 1 will listen to the rules of behaviour during a flood and write down them, Group 2 will listen tothe  rules of behavior during a lightning with thunderstorms. In the end, each group will share their ideas about what we should do orshouldn’t do during these disasters. Let’s start.

Group 1

During  a flood people should

 

• quickly collect  all necessary documents, medicine and  some food;
• go upstairs to the upper storeys , attics, roofs or the tops of trees;
• if you are in water, take off heavy clothes and shoes, look for objects that can help you.

During  a flood people  shouldn’t 

• panic;
• overload boats, rafts, cutters;
• leave without helping children and disabled people.

Group  2

During a lightning with thunderstorm people should

• lie on the ground;
• switch off televisions, radios and electric appliances;
• if you are in an open place during  a thunderstorm  or lightning,   hide in a low place.

During a lightning with thunderstorm people shouldn’t

- run;

- panic;

- hide under a tree;

- stand on the top of hills;

- speak on a mobile phone;

     - sit in front of an open window;

     - hold metal objects or telephones.

IX. The tree of decisions. Grammar. Use of Second Conditionals.

T: According to the latest surveys the number of natural disasters has significantly increased for the last 20 years. From here a question evokes: are all these natural disasters theactions of God or, maybe, some of them are the results of  human harmful activities?  If it is really so, let’s think over what things that people do can cause natural disasters.

(Ss’ possible answers:

P1: Different kinds of pollution - air pollution (the greenhouse effect, global warming, acid rains), water pollution, soil pollution.

P2: Deforestation.

P3: Overpopulation.

P4: Mismanagement of natural resources, etc.

T: Let’s think and make solutions how to save the planet we live on.  Here you can see two columns Suggestion and Results.  Let’s say what natural disasters  would be less or even wouldn’t be at all if people didn’t water air or pollution, cut down forests, put harmful gases into the air, etc. Use Second Conditionals to make you solutions.

Example: If people didn’t cut down forests, there would not be deforestation and there would be less floods.

Suggestions	Results
put chemical wastes into rivers, lakes, seas and oceans pollute the air with harmful gases cut down  forests live mostly in big cities love and take care of nature leave fires in forests	not water pollution not be greenhouse effect not be deforestation and floods as a result be less wildlife fires be less natural disasters

 

T: OK.  I think you’ll agree with me if I say that if we, people loved and took care of our planet, there really would be less natural disasters and there would be less deaths and damages. So, remember these words and let’s handle our planet with care!

X. Summarizing.

T: Dear children, thanks a lot for your work at this lesson.   Almost all of you were active and I’ll give you excellent marks. Your homework is to make a report “What people should do to lessen the number of natural disasters”.