Home4eCurriculum notes
English · Year 4e · Learning Journey 5 · Theme 3 Cities, villages and neighbourhoods · A2+

Melbourne, the Garden City

The biggest tram network in the world, parks everywhere, trees that get emails: I discover Melbourne and I imagine my ideal city with “if” sentences.

A2+if + present, willif I were…, I would
Yellow card · April → May · 6 lessons

Making hypotheses

Two kinds of “if” sentences: real (if + present, will) and imaginary (if + past, would). Tap the cards.

If you visit Melbourne, you will love the parks. If it rains, you can take a tram: in the city centre, it's free! I live in Paris, but if I were in Melbourne, I would go to the Royal Botanic Gardens every weekend. If I were the mayor of my town, I would plant thousands of trees.
if + present, will
Real condition: if + present, will + base verb.
If it rains, we will take the tram.
no will after if
Never use will right after if.
If it rains, we'll stay home.
if I were
Imaginary condition: if + past, would.
If I were the mayor, I would plant trees.
I'd love to
would love to / would like to for a wish.
I would love to visit Melbourne.

My words → tap a card: it turns over and I hear the word

Culture → Melbourne, Australia's garden city

A lake with trees and grass, skyscrapers in the distance
The lake in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne · Gary Houston, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria, has about five million inhabitants. It has often been named one of the best cities in the world to live in.

People call it the Garden City: it has big parks, like the Royal Botanic Gardens, created in 1846, the Fitzroy Gardens and the Flagstaff Gardens. Its tram network, about 250 km long, is the biggest in the world; in the centre, the Free Tram Zone lets you travel for free.

To fight the heat, the city started an urban forest strategy in 2012: planting thousands of trees to make more shade. Each tree got a number and an email address to report a problem… and many people wrote love letters to them!

Did you know? → tap a card

I listen → a visit to Melbourne

Listen. Write down two real conditions and two imaginary ones. What would the speaker do if they were the mayor?

I watch

Video: “Melbourne's Urban Forest Strategy” · channel City of Melbourne (city council) · watch on YouTube. The video only loads when you tap (youtube-nocookie player).

My mission during the video
  1. Write down three reasons to plant trees.
  2. Write down one number or one date.
  3. Write a conditional sentence: If a town planted more trees, …
The lessons in this learning journey (6)
  1. Australia's cities: map and facts.
  2. Melbourne, the Garden City: parks and trams.
  3. The Urban Forest: trees with email addresses (official video).
  4. Grammar: if + present, will.
  5. If I were the mayor, I would…
  6. Final task: my ideal city project.
Sentence starters → for my final task
  • “In my ideal city, there will be…”
  • “If we plant more trees, the city will…”
  • “People will be able to…”
  • “There won’t be…”
  • “If…, …”
For the teacher → goals and official curriculum
  • Theme 3 “Cities, villages and neighbourhoods” → topic: Melbourne, the Garden City. 2020 theme: meeting other cultures; school and society (city life).
  • Understand a presentation of a city and a city council video; describe and compare cities.
  • Grammar: conditional sentences (If it rains, we'll take the tram; If I were in Melbourne, I would…); would + base verb.
  • Final task: present my plan for an ideal city.

Texts and materials: A City of Melbourne video (urban forest strategy); a tram map; photos of the botanic gardens.

Theme 3 “Cities, villages and neighbourhoods”. Source: French national curriculum for modern languages, cycle 4, BO no. 31 of 30 July 2020 (in force in 4e in 2026-2027); matching theme of the English curriculum, BO no. 22 of 29 May 2025, which will apply in 4e from September 2027.

Worksheet to fill in (paper or ENT)

The same learning journey, to print or to put on the ENT. For a PDF, choose “Save as PDF” in the print window.