TEACHER’S NOTES

WORKSHEETS, ACTIVITIE S & GA ME S Describing People

Activity Type Introduction

Vocabulary, Reading This describing people lesson helps to teach students how to
and Writing Exercises: describe people's appearance and clothing.
writing sentences, gap-
fill, writing and drawing Procedure
descriptions
Give each student a copy of the lesson. Students begin by learning
Speaking Activities: how to use the verb to be to describe height, body build and age.
describing, freer practice,
guessing (pair work) Go through the examples with the class and brainstorm other
possible adjectives for height, body build and age. Then, have
the students write short descriptions of the people in the pictures
Focus using the verb to be and adjectives, e.g. 'The girl is young and
Describing people slim'.

verb to be to describe After that, students learn how to use have and has to describe
height, body build and hair colour, hair length and facial features. Go through the
age example with the class. Then, draw some faces on the board and
go through more examples, adding extra vocabulary as you go.
have and has to describe
hair colour, hair length In pairs, students then take it in turns to describe the people on
and facial features the worksheet.
wear to talk about
Next, students practice describing what someone is wearing. Go
clothes
through the various forms of the verb wear and have students
brainstorm other items of clothing that aren't on the list. Students
then write about what they are wearing now and what they wore
Aim
yesterday.
To learn and practice
how to describe people's In pairs, students then put what they have learnt together by
appearance and clothing. describing pictures of two people. Afterwards, students complete
two gap fill exercises to practice the language from the lesson.

Preparation Exercise G and H - Answer key

Make one copy of the
G. 1. is 2. is 3. has 4. has 5. is
lesson for each student.
H. 1. first-year 2. China 3. am 4. am 5. have 6. have
Level 7. wearing 8. wear 9. wore 10. is 11. has 12. has

Pre-intermediate (A2) Students then move on to describe themselves and a classmate.

When students describe a classmate, have them secretly choose
someone to describe. When the students have finished, they take
Time it in turns to read their descriptions to the class. The class then
tries to guess who is being described.
60 minutes
Finally, students take part in a drawing activity where they
read descriptions and draw pictures of three thieves. When the
students have finished, they compare their drawings. Then, have
some students draw their pictures on the board and go through
the descriptions with the class.

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 DESCRIBING PEOPLE'S APPEARANCE

WORKSHEETS, ACTIVITIE S & GA ME S Describing People

Height, body build and age

When describing people, we use the verb to be to describe height, body build and age.

Examples: I am tall and slim.

He is overweight.
Ann is chubby.
You are old and short.
They are young.

A. Write short descriptions of the people in the pictures below using the verb to be
and the adjectives: tall, short, overweight, slim, old, young.

........................................... ...........................................

........................................... ...........................................

........................................... ...........................................

........................................... ...........................................

Facial features

We use have and has to describe hair colour, hair length and facial features.

Facial features are eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, lips, ears, chin, etc.

Example: She has long brown hair.

She has big blue eyes.
She has a small nose.
She has a wide mouth and big red lips.

B. In pairs, take it in turns to describe the people below.

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 DESCRIBING PEOPLE'S APPEARANCE

WORKSHEETS, ACTIVITIE S & GA ME S Describing People

Clothes

We use the verb wear to talk about the clothes someone has on.

Present simple form Past simple form Present continuous form

'wear' 'wore' 'wearing'
Example: She wears a Example: I wore a T-shirt Example: He is wearing a
uniform to school. and jeans yesterday. shirt and tie.

C. What other items of clothing can you add to this list? Write your answers in the
spaces below.

T – shirt dress sweater shirt ................ ................

jeans skirt suit boots ................ ................

trainers socks trousers shoes ................ ................

D. What are you wearing now?

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

E. What did you wear yesterday?

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

F. In pairs, describe these two people. Talk about what they look like and what they
are wearing.

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 DESCRIBING PEOPLE'S APPEARANCE

WORKSHEETS, ACTIVITIE S & GA ME S Describing People

G. Complete the following paragraph with the correct verbs.

My friend John (1) ................ tall. He exercises a lot and (2) ................ very strong.

He (3) ................ blue eyes and brown hair. He (4) ................ big ears and a small nose.

Today, he (5) ................ wearing a blue shirt and jeans.

H. Use the words in the box to complete the paragraph below.

am x 2 is have x 2 has x 2 wear wore wearing China first-year

My name is Mei. I am a (1) ................ student. I come from (2) ................

I (3) ................ not tall, and I (4) ................ not overweight either. I (5) ................

long hair and a pony tail. Like most Chinese, I (6) ................ brown eyes. Today, I am

(7) ................ my student uniform. Yesterday, I didn't have class, so I didn’t (8) ................

my uniform. I (9) ................ jeans and a yellow T-shirt. I went to a movie with my friend

Noi. She (10) ................ tall and (11) ................ short hair. She (12) ................ a big

nose, but I think she is pretty.

I. Now, write a short paragraph describing yourself.

My name is ..................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

J. Describe someone in the classroom. Don't write their name and don't tell anyone
who you are describing.

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

..................................................................................................................................

K. Now, read your description to the class and see if they can guess who it is.

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 DESCRIBING PEOPLE'S APPEARANCE

WORKSHEETS, ACTIVITIE S & GA ME S Describing People

L. Some thieves have been stealing things from your classroom. A student saw them
steal some pencils. Here is what the student told the police. Read the descriptions
and draw pictures of the thieves.

Thief 1 Thief 2 Thief 3

1. The first thief is tall and thin. He has a long face.

2. The second thief is short and overweight. He has a round face.
3. The other thief is short and thin. He has an oval face (egg shaped).
4. The thief with a round face has a big nose.
5. The thief with a long face has small eyes and a long nose.
6. The overweight thief has big ears and short hair.
7. The thief with an oval face has big eyes and a small mouth.
8. The thief with a big nose has big eyes and a big mouth.
9. The other thief has a long mouth and a pony tail.
10. The thief with a small mouth has a small nose and small ears
11. One man has ears that look like the number 8.
12. The man with a small nose is bald.
13. All of the thieves wore T-shirts and jeans.

When you have finished, compare your drawings with your classmates. Are they the
same?

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