Is your classroom ready for a weather phenomenon that affects the entire planet? This engaging 90-minute lesson plan, inspired by the BBC News video How ‘super’ El Niño could bring chaos to the world’s weather, takes students on a journey from the warming waters of the Pacific Ocean to the chocolate prices in their local supermarket.
Students will discover how a natural climate pattern called El Niño can trigger devastating floods, extreme droughts, intense heat waves, and raging wildfires across different continents. They will learn why scientists are calling this year’s potential event “Godzilla El Niño” and how it could make 2027 the warmest year on record. From the cocoa fields of Ghana to the forest fires of Indonesia, your students will see the real-world connections between ocean temperatures and human lives.
Skills students will develop:
- Listening comprehension through two staged video tasks based on authentic BBC News content
- Vocabulary acquisition of 7 key topic-related words including drought, devastating, flood, threshold, correlate, suppress, and harvest
- Grammar mastery of passive voice across 8 tenses (Present Simple to Past Perfect)
- Speaking fluency through lead-in discussions, personal response tasks, and grammar production questions
- Critical thinking by evaluating the relationship between weather patterns and global food supplies
Your students will walk away from this lesson with more than just new vocabulary and grammar rules. They will see how English connects them to global issues like food security, climate patterns, and humanitarian challenges.
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Teach English through El Niño, extreme weather, and the global impact of climate change.
