Cambridge Starters: Animals & Pets

Animals is the most popular topic in Cambridge YLE Starters -- and often the first topic children learn. The good news: kids usually love it. Animals are concrete, visual, and easy to practise with toys, books, and real life.

Here is everything your child needs to master this topic.

The 30 Animals You Must Know

Cambridge Starters tests a specific vocabulary list. These are the animals that appear most frequently:

Pets & Common Animals

Wild Animals

Ocean Animals

Important Describing Words

• big / small -- An elephant is big. A spider is small.
• long / short -- A snake has a long body.
• has / have -- A cat has four legs. Fish have scales.
• can -- A bird can fly. A fish can swim.

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4 Practice Exercises

These exercises are designed to match real Cambridge Starters question types.

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Exercise 1 -- True or False? (Starters Reading Part 1 style)

Look at each sentence. Write True or False.

A cat has four legs. ___

A fish can walk. ___

An elephant is small. ___

A spider has eight legs. ___

A duck can swim. ___

A monkey lives in the sea. ___

A bee can fly. ___

A giraffe has a long neck. ___

Answers: 1. True 2. False 3. False 4. True 5. True 6. False 7. True 8. True

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Exercise 2 -- Unscramble the Letters (Starters Reading Part 3 style)

Rearrange the letters to make an animal word. The first letter is given.

t - a - c = c _ _ (3 letters)

g - o - f - r = f _ _ _ (4 letters)

r - h-o-s-e = h _ _ _ _ (5 letters)

b-i-r-d = b _ _ _ (4 letters)

t-e-n-l-a-h-e-p = e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (8 letters)

g-o-n-r-i-t-e = t _ _ _ _ _ (5 letters)

k-y-o-m-n-e = m _ _ _ _ _ (6 letters)

r-a-b-b-i-t = r _ _ _ _ _ (6 letters)

Answers: 1. cat 2. frog 3. horse 4. bird 5. elephant 6. tiger 7. monkey 8. rabbit

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Exercise 3 -- Choose the Right Word (Starters Reading Part 4 style)

Choose the correct word from the box to complete each sentence.

Word box: swim, fly, jump, eight, long, farm

A bee can _______.

A frog can _______.

A fish can _______.

A spider has _______ legs.

A snake has a _______ body.

A cow lives on a _______.

Answers: 1. fly 2. jump 3. swim 4. eight 5. long 6. farm

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Exercise 4 -- Colour the Animals (Starters Listening Part 4 style)

This exercise practises following instructions -- a key Starters listening skill.

Ask a parent, teacher, or older sibling to read each instruction aloud. Draw or colour each animal as instructed.

Instructions to read aloud:

"Colour the big elephant grey."

"Colour the small frog green."

"Draw a black spider web next to the spider."

"Colour the fish orange and yellow."

"Make the rabbit white."

"Colour the duck yellow."

Check: Do the colours match the instructions?

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Key Sentences for the Speaking Test

In the Starters speaking test, the examiner may ask about animal pictures. Practise these sentences:

Describing an animal:

• "It's a [animal]."
• "It's [colour]."
• "It has [number] legs."
• "It can [action]."
• "It lives in [place]."

Example answers: > "It's a tiger. It's orange and black. It has four legs. It can run fast. It lives in the jungle."

> "It's a fish. It's orange. It can swim. It lives in water."

Personal questions about pets:

• "Do you have a pet?" -- "Yes, I have a [cat/dog/fish]." / "No, I don't have a pet."
• "What is your favourite animal?" -- "My favourite animal is a [animal] because it's [cute/funny/big]."

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Exam Tips for Animals Questions

Tip 1: Learn the animal AND what it can do. Cambridge doesn't just ask "What is this?" It asks "What can it do?" or "Where does it live?" Learn the action verbs together with each animal.

Tip 2: Colours are often tested together with animals. The colouring exercise will say "Colour the [animal] [colour]." Make sure your child knows all 10 basic colours: red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, pink, black, white, brown.

Tip 3: Singular vs plural for the reading. "A cat has four legs" but "Cats have four legs." Both forms appear. Practise switching between them.

Tip 4: "Has" vs "Have" is a common mistake. "The dog has a tail." (singular) / "Dogs have tails." (plural). Practise this pattern with multiple animals.

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Games to Make Practice Fun

Animal Bingo

Make a 3x3 grid. Fill each square with an animal name or simple drawing. Call out animals randomly. First to get a line wins.

What Am I?

Describe an animal using only the vocabulary above. The child guesses.

• "I'm big. I'm grey. I have a long nose. I live in Africa. What am I?" (Elephant)
• "I'm small. I have eight legs. I make a web. What am I?" (Spider)

Flashcard Race

Lay all animal flashcards face down. Flip one. First person to say the animal name AND one fact about it ("dog -- it has four legs!") wins the card. Most cards wins.

Animal Alphabet

Go through the alphabet. For each letter, name an animal: A = ant, B = bear, C = cat... How far can you get?

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What's Next?

Now that you've mastered Animals, the next most-tested Starters topics are:

• Body & Face -- head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, feet, hair
• Family & Friends -- mother, father, sister, brother, grandma, grandpa, baby
• Colours & Clothes -- dress, shirt, shoes, socks, trousers, hat

See the next lesson in the CubLearn Cambridge Starters series for Family & Friends practice.