Third Conditional Drill. The story of Penelope and Ferdinand + three wishes extension

OLD TASK WITH EXTENSION EXERCISE ADDED. CHECK THIS AGAIN!!

Aim: practice the third conditional structure

Procedure: teacher tells students an extravagant story, which includes an evitable death. The plot is devised in such a way that various characters (or weather conditions) could be blamed for the demise of one of the characters.
Ask students to take notes as you tell them the story. Otherwise they will forget the plot.
When the teacher finishes telling the story, students work in pairs to decide who is to blame and why. They need to produce several different sentences.

Sample sentences you may expect from your students:

• Caroline is guilty: If she had not said anything about Ferdinand and Penelope, Gabriela would not have listened. 
• Ferdinand is to blame:  If he has not driven fast, the car would not have crashed.

This can be your  base story. Adapt it to the level of your students.

The story

A friend of mine has just died. I am going to tell you how it happened.

My friend’s name was Ferdinand. Not a long time ago he started dating a girl, whose name is Penelope. Penelope’s family is really upper class and since Ferdinand was the son of the baker, Penelope’s mother disapproved of their relationship. Last week the mother, Caroline, said publicly that Ferdinand was not worth of her daughter. She said this aloud while shopping on market day. Unfortunately Ferdinand’s cousin, Gabriela, was among the listeners. Gabriela could not help but tell Ferdinand about the gossip in the market...

Click HERE to download the rest of the story.

EXTENSION: 

THREE WISHES 1 minute  VIDEO  by BBC Express English

Procedure:

• Ask the students this question:

IF YOU HAD THREE WISHES WHAT WOULD THEY BE? 

• Watch BBC three wishes video
• Compare your answers 

   
  
Video source. BBC Learning English HERE