Video Lesson: Mr. Bean

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This is a video lesson based around the video “Mr. Bean packs his suitcase” thanks to British Council for bringing it to my attention in their lesson plan on making predictions but I’ve adapted it for use in different ways with different levels.

Kids and lower levels

The aim of this lesson plan is to practice holiday vocabulary (clothes and items that go in a suitcase) and some basic grammar structure.

Project a picture of a suitcase on to the board (or draw one) and ask “What do you put in your suitcase when you go on holiday?”  Brainstorm things that you pack on the board. Make sure students know:

• toothbrush
• toothpaste
• swimming shorts/trunks
• towel
• underpants
• can of baked beans
• cloth/flannel
• soap
• book
• suitcase
• trousers
• shorts
• shoes
• teddy bear
• scissors

You could also use this quizlet set to go over clothes vocabulary.

If children are old enough to write, put them in pairs and hand out post-it-notes and a pencil to each pair. Tell them they are going to watch a video of a silly man packing his suitcase, they have to write 5 things on the post-it that they think he will put in his suitcase. Have them copy the following:

Mr. Bean will put

1. _________
2. _________
3. _________
4. _________
5. _________

in his suitcase.

Then stick all the post-its on the board and show the video. The team that guesses the most objects correctly wins. Have them read out their original post-it using past simple affirmative and negative forms: “Mr.Bean put a shirt in his suitcase. He didn’t put a mobile phone in his suitcase.”

Higher levels – video dictations

Ask students: What do you have to do before you go on holiday?

Buy your ticket, pack your suitcase, find your passport etc.

Pre-teach the following vocabulary:

Objects:

• toothbrush
• toothpaste
• swimming shorts/trunks
• towel
• underpants
• can of baked beans
• cloth/flannel
• soap
• book
• suitcase
• trousers
• shorts
• shoes
• teddy bear
• scissors

Verbs:

• to fit (the chair doesn’t in my bag)
• to take out (I took a pen out of my bag)
• to pack a suitcase
• to swap (I swapped the shirt for a t-shirt)
• pick up (I picked up the pen)
• throw away (I threw away the coke can)
• to choose (I chose the red shirt)
• to do eeny-meany-miney-mo
• to realise (I realised I had forgotten my passport)
• to squeeze (I squeezed the toothpaste)
• to snap in half (He snapped the pencil in half)

Put students in pairs and arrange them so that 1 is facing the screen and one has their back to the screen. Tell them that the one facing the screen is going to watch 20 seconds of the video then describe it to their partner, their partner will then repeat back what they’ve heard to make sure they have understood. Students then change positions and repeat until minute 3:14. Then let all students watch the end together. Alternatively students could come up with predictions for how the video will end.

I recommend pausing the video quite frequently so that students can concentrate on describing 2 or three actions accurately rather than trying to describe a big chunk of the video.

Then replay the whole video from the start so that everyone can watch it together, ask students if they think their partner described the action well.