My school: a short text in English for kids, with questions

The text

• My school is big and new. It is near my house.
• I go to school at eight o'clock. I walk with my friend Sam.
• My classroom is on the second floor. It is bright and it has big windows.
• There are twenty children in my class. My teacher is Miss Green. She is kind.
• We have English, maths, art and PE. My favourite subject is art.
• At eleven o'clock we have a break. We play football in the playground.
• The school has a library. I read books about animals there.
• We eat lunch in the canteen. On Friday there is pizza!
• School finishes at two o'clock. My mum picks me up.
• I like my school because my friends are there.

Words to teach first

• classroom, playground, library, canteen — the four places; point at the real ones through the window
• English, maths, art, PE — the subjects; add the class's own
• eight o'clock, two o'clock — draw the clock face each time
• break — the ten minutes everyone waits for
• favourite — teach it with a hand on the heart
• picks me up — act it: the parent at the gate

Questions about the text

• When does school start? (At eight o'clock.)
• Where is the classroom? (On the second floor.)
• What is the favourite subject? (Art.)
• What do the children do at break? (They play football.)
• What is there on Friday? (Pizza.)

Three things to do with it

• Fix the text. Read each sentence; if it is true of your school, thumbs up; if not, a child says the true version: "My classroom is on the third floor."
• My timetable. Each child writes one line per day: "On Monday we have English and maths." Five lines, and the days of the week come free.
• My school, six lines: "My school is ___. I go to school at ___. My teacher is ___. We have ___ and ___. My favourite subject is ___. I like my school because ___."

What your pupils will get wrong, and why

Prepositions of time are the trap: "in eight o'clock" from Russian speakers ("v vosem'" is "in eight"), "at the eight" from Spanish speakers ("a las ocho"), "in the eight" from Arabic speakers ("fi s-sa'a"). Teach "at" with a clock face every time it appears. Then articles: Spanish and Arabic speakers put "the" on subjects ("the art", "the maths"), because their languages do; Russian speakers leave out "a" and "the" everywhere. And "I like my school because are my friends" from Spanish speakers: "there are" needs its "there".