Super animals ESL puzzle
A free printable animals ESL puzzle for the English classroom. There are quite a few of these kinds of puzzles out there but nothing of this size. Once you have printed and cut out all the cards there are 97 animal dominoes or pieces to join together.
Bear in mind that this activity requires quite a bit of time depending on your student’s vocabulary. You will also need a large floor space to lay all the cards out and match the 97 animals.
This is a great exercise for free classes at the end of the semester and school camps where you need to come up with cheap and easy activities.
The animals featured here are –
goat, giraffe, whale, rhino, penguin, jellyfish, elephant, tiger, salmon, bear, raccoon, Hamster, cat, wolf, horse, panda, dolphin, lion, cow, otter, sheep, dog, pigeon, Guinea pig, Koala, turtle, killer whale, rabbit, llama, kangaroo, jaguar, fox, hippo, platypus, toucan, rat, orangutan, owl, deer, leopard, arctic fox, squirrel, lemur, reindeer, cougar, red panda, polar bear, camel, seahorse, flamingo, skunk, sloth, swan, starfish, zebra, walrus, duck, gorilla, yak, crocodile, stingray, pufferfish, eagle, bison, sugar glider, crab, spider, ladybug, turkey, snail, shark, shrimp, chicken, praying mantis, snake, ostrich, scorpion panther, peacock, seal, beetle, porcupine, emu, anteater, bee, hummingbird, mouse, kiwi, frog, ant, Blue Tang fish, chameleon, clownfish, monkey, octopus, and pig.
How to conduct the super animals ESL puzzle
The first step is to print out all 7 of the worksheets. The activity won’t work if you only print some of the sheets as the pieces all fit together in one concentric circle.
Once printed you will need to cut the pieces out so that there is one picture on the left and one word on the right of each piece. This painstaking task can be passed on to your students if you are feeling lazy. It gives them a chance to look at the vocabulary first, just make sure they cut correctly! Any mistakes can be easily fixed with some sticky tape.
Once the pieces are cut out it is best to place the set of 97 cards in an envelope. Next, divide your class into groups of 3 or 4, assign them a designated floor space, give each group a set and let them at it!
If there is a lot of new words for your class you can give them clues on the board or better yet, let each team use a dictionary.
A few pictures do look a bit similar when printed in black and white, so some letter clues have been added to some of the cards to help.
Other uses for the cards
If you only want to use some of the animals and word cards you can do so but in a different way. Cut out the animals and matching words that you require individually so that 1 card only has 1 word, or 1 animal picture. Once you have done this you can simply use them as a pelmanism/matching activity.
Another use is to turn the cards upside down, place all the pictures in one group and the words in another. Next get students to turn over 1 card from each group. If they match they keep the cards and get a point. If they don’t match ie the word and picture are not the same they must turn them upside down again in the same place. This is a fun memory game that always seems to work well!
If the pictures and words are cut out individually, you can also get your class to arrange the pictures or words in alphabetical order.
