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Lesson:
Time Frequency - "How often ...?"

General:
Time: 40 mins - 1 hour
Objectives: Using the present simple tense to say how often you do things
Structures: "How often do you ...?"
"never", "once", "twice", "(3) times", "every day", "a week", "a month",
"a year".
Target Vocab: day, date, week, month, year, calendar, ride a bike, swim, ski, play
piano, play (a sport), do ballet , get a haircut, read a book, eat (steak),
take a bath, play a board game, go bowling, go to the movie theater,
play TV (video) games

You will need to download:

Flashcards: ride a bike, swim, ski, play piano, play (a sport), do ballet , get a haircut,
read a book, eat (steak), take a bath, play a board game, go bowling, go to
the movie theater, play TV (video) games
Printables: • How often ...? (2) Week / Month / Year worksheet
• How often ...? (4) Week / Month / Year worksheet
• Warm Up & Wrap Up lesson sheet
These can be downloaded at http://www.eslkidstuff.com/esl-kids-lesson-plans.html

You will also need:

• calendars (1 per pair or group of students) (see point 1)
• a ball (see point 2)
• pictures of famous characters (1 for teacher and per pair) (see points 3 and 4)
• blank slips of paper (1 piece per student) (see point 6)
• blu-tack or tape (to stick the character picture to your board)
• board with markers / chalk

Notes:
This lesson will help your students to talk about their lives in terms of frequency. The lesson
will cover time related vocab and action verbs, so make sure your students have already
completed the dates (ordinal numbers), days of the week, months of the year and basic
actions vocab.

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Lesson Overview:
Warm Up and Maintenance:
1. See our "Warm Up & Wrap Up" lesson sheet.

New Learning and Practice:

1. Review vocab: "Calendar fun"
2. Play "Week / Month / Dates Buzz"
3. Introduce the structure "How often do you?"
4. Practice the structure "How often do you?"
5. Do the "How often ...? (2) Week / Month / Year" worksheet
6. Play "Three Truths and a Lie"

Wrap Up:
1. Set Homework: "How often ...? (4) Week / Month / Year" worksheet
2. See our "Warm Up & Wrap Up" lesson sheet.

Lesson Procedure:
Warm Up and Maintenance:
See our "Warm Up & Wrap Up" lesson sheet.

New Learning and Practice:

1. Review vocab: "Calendar fun"
Your students will be talking about how often they do things using the words "a week", "a
month" and "a year". They will have already covered these words in previous lessons so this
is a fun review activity.

You'll need a few calendars - depending on how many you can get your hands on, give out
one calendar to each pair or group.

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To elicit the key vocab, start off by writing on the board:

Today ...

• The day is _____________________. (e.g. Wednesday)

• The date is _______________________. (e.g. 12th)
• This month is ____________________. (e.g. March)
• It is the _______________ week of the month. (e.g. 2nd)
• The year is _________________. (e.g. 2015).

Put students in pairs/groups to talk about their answers (using their calendars).
After a couple of minutes, hold up a calendar and ask "What's this?". Elicit "Calendar".
Then say "Let's use the calendar to find the answers". Then, holding up the calendar show /
elicit the answers and complete the blanks on the board.

Next, write the following questions on the board and have your students work in their
groups with their calendars to find the answers:

• How many months are there in a year?

• How many days are there in August?
• Which month comes before May?
• Which day is November 17th?
• Which months have 30 days?
• Which months have 31 days?
• How many days are there in February?
• Which month comes after October?
• Which day and date is Christmas?
• Which day and date is your birthday?
• Which day and date is the first day of the year?
• Which day and date is it today?

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2. Play "Week / Month / Dates Buzz"

This is a fun game to practice saying the days of the week, months of the year and dates
(ordinal numbers) in sequence.

Get everybody standing in a circle. You need one ball. Start by passing the ball around the
circle with students counting numbers as pass the ball (1 .. 2 .. 3 .. 4 .. etc.).

Next, introduce the game "Buzz". When students pass the ball, every 5th number the
person holding the ball must say "Buzz" instead of the number, for example:

1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... BUZZ ... 6 ... 7 ... 8 ... 9 ... BUZZ ... 11 .. 12 ... 13 ... 14 ... BUZZ ... 16 ... etc.

Start the game - the ball is passed from student to student around the circle with each
person counting the numbers as they pass the ball ... and saying "Buzz" every 5th number. If
anyone makes a mistake the game has to start from 1 again. Try and get the pace going
really fast.

After a few rounds change to days of the week instead of numbers, again, saying the word
"Buzz" every 5th day:

Monday ... Tuesday ... Wednesday ... Thursday ... BUZZ ... Saturday ... Sunday ... Monday ...
Tuesday ... BUZZ ... Thursday ... etc.

After a few fun rounds change to months of the year and finally dates (ordinal numbers):

January ... February ... March ... April ... BUZZ ... June ... July ... August ... September ...
BUZZ ... November ... December ... January ... February ... BUZZ ... April ... etc.

1st ... 2nd ... 3rd ... 4th ... BUZZ ... 6th ... 7th ... 8th ... 9th ... BUZZ ... 11th ... etc.

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3. Introduce the structure "How often do you?"

Before class, find a picture of a famous character or person (cut out from a magazine or
print out from the Internet - I use Bart Simpson).

a) Hold up the picture and ask some students if they like this character. Then stick the
character onto the left-side of the board and write above it "How often do you ...?"
(see board layout image below).

b) Next, take some flashcards of everyday actions (make sure that your students are
already familiar with many of them), such as:

ride a bike, swim, ski, play piano, play (a sport), do ballet , get a haircut, read a book,
eat (steak), take a bath, play a board game, go bowling, go to the movie theater, play
TV (video) games

c) Hold up the first flashcard (e.g. ride a bike) and elicit the vocab. Then say "Does
(Bart Simpson) ride a bike?". Elicit "Yes, he does".

d) On the right-side of the board write:

- 0 = never
- 1 = once
- 2 = twice
- 3 = three time
- 4 = four times
- 5 = five times
- 6 = six times
- 7 days = every day

- a week
- a month
- a year

e) Now write next to the character's image, "How often do you ride a bike, Bart?". Turn
to the class and by pointing at the numbers on the right-side of the board try to elicit
an answer (e.g. every day). For the first couple of questions, you may need to give
the answer until your students start to pick up the idea. Say and write the answers
(below the picture of the character) ... if you can, try to say the answers in the
character's voice (e.g. "I ride a bike every day" in a Bart Simpson voice).

f) Go through all of the flashcards electing the answers and writing the questions and
answers on the board - so you should have something like this:

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Board layout:

How often do you ... ?

How often do you ride a bike? - 0 = never

How often do you ski? - 1 = once
How often do you swim? - 2 = twice
How often do you play piano? - 3 = three time
How often do you play tennis? - 4 = four times
How often do you do ballet? - 5 = five times
How often do you get a haircut? - 6 = six times
etc. - 7 days = every day

- a week
- I ride a bike every day.
- a month
- I ski once a year. - a year
- I swim twice a week.
- I play piano once a week.
- I never do ballet.
- I get a haircut four times a year.
- etc.

Students can make up any answers they don't know (e.g. how often Bart has his hair cut) -
any logical answer is fine.

As you elect the answers, be sure to point out the word order:

• numbers (e.g. once a week, 6 times a month, every day, etc.) go at the end of the
sentence (e.g. I swim twice a week, I ride a bike every day).
• 'never' goes directly after the subject (I never do ballet).

4. Practice the structure "How often do you?"

We'll do this in three steps:

STEP 1: Controlled speaking practice

Put students in pairs - Student A asks the questions on the board and Student B is the
character on the board. Make sure that all Student Bs speak in the character's voice!

A reads the questions to B and B answers using the sentences on the board. For example:

Student A: How often do you ride a bike, Bart?

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Student B: I ride a bike every day.

After all of the questions have been asked and answered

students swap roles and practice again.

During this activity the teacher should monitor carefully and

help with mistakes and pronunciation. At the end, ask a few
of pairs to stand up and demonstrate a question and answer
to the class - give lots of praise and a round of applause!

STEP 2: Roll play practice

Before class prepare more character pictures (cartoon
characters, superheroes, film stars, TV stars, pop stars,
etc.). Make sure you have enough pictures for each pair.
Give our one picture per pair. Pairs then practice the
questions on the board and giving their own ideas for
answers.

After all of the questions have been asked and answered

students swap roles and practice again. When finished,
you can have pairs exchange pictures and do again with another character.

Again, the teacher should monitor carefully and help with mistakes and pronunciation. At
the end, ask a few of pairs to stand up and demonstrate a question and answer to the class -
give lots of praise and a round of applause!

STEP 3: Interview practice

Finally, your students are going to give their own answers to the questions. In pairs, Student
A asks the questions on the board to Student B, and student B will answer truthfully about
themselves.

After all of the questions have been asked and answered students swap roles and practice
again.

As before, the teacher should monitor carefully and help

with mistakes and pronunciation. At the end, ask a few
of pairs to stand up and demonstrate a question and
answer to the class - give lots of praise and a round of
applause!

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5. Do the "How often ...? (2) Week / Month / Year" worksheet

Give out the worksheets and circulate as your students write their
answers.

6. Play "Three Truths and a Lie"

On the board write four sentences about yourself using the time frequency structures but
make sure only 3 are true and one is a lie. E.g.

• I cook dinner five times a week.

• I go to the gym three times a month.
• I play golf 5 times a year.
• I never ride a bike.

Tell your students one sentence is not true about yourself and ask everyone to guess which
is the lie.

Then give everyone a slip of paper and have them write 4 sentences about themselves,
again 3 truths and 1 lie. As they are writing walk around and give help with spelling, etc.
Students don't need to use the same actions from the previous activity - they can write
anything they like.

When everyone has finished, get everyone to stand up and find a partner. Tell everyone
that they have just 1 minute to read their sentences and guess which is their partner's lie.
Use a timer and shout "Go!". After 1 minute get everyone to stop and find a new partner,
and continue like this for a good few rounds.

At the end, get everyone to sit down and then ask for some students to tell you some truths
about other students.

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Wrap Up:
1. Assign Homework: "How often ...? (4) Week / Month / Year" worksheet.
2. Wrap up the lesson with some ideas from our "Warm Up & Wrap Up" lesson sheet.

• All flashcards, worksheets, craft sheets, readers and songs used in this
lesson plan can be downloaded at eslkidstuff.com/esl-kids-lesson-
plans.html
• More free Lesson Plans are available at eslkidstuff.com/esl-kids-lesson-
plans.html
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