Tag: Christmas

Posted in Conversation Classes

First class back after Christmas

Posted on by Tim Warre

Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio

Image credit: willingness.com.mt

First class back, Christmas is over, back to the grindstone. Here’s a conversation activity to ease you and your students back into class and hopefully keep a spark of Christmas cheer alive.

Warmer – Xmas present 20 questions

Think of your best Xmas present, tell students they can ask 20 yes/no questions to guess what it is. If they struggle to come up with questions, model a few on the board:

Can you use it to…?

Is it bigger than a…?

Does it have…?

Does it cost more than a…?

The student who guesses correctly takes the teacher’s place and the game is repeated.

If students struggle to think of a present, print and cut up the handout below and use them as game cards.

Christmas Present 20 Questions

 

Who had the best Christmas?

Write on the board:

Objectives

Who got the best present?

Who had the best Christmas?

Who had the most fun on New Year’s Eve?

Who had the strangest Christmas?

Tell students that they need to speak to as many people as they can to find out the answer to the four questions.

Put students in pairs and have them brainstorm the questions they will need to ask:

Who got the best present? – What did you get for Christmas?

Who had the best Christmas? – What did you do at Christmas? Where did you spend Christmas? What was the best thing about Christmas?

Who had the most fun on New Year’s Eve? – What did you do on New Year’s Eve? Where did you spend New Year’s Eve?

Let them ask you the questions first as an example.

Then give students 10 minutes to speak to as many of their classmates as they can. While they circulate, correct their mistakes and board the correct forms. After 1o minutes stop the activity and draw students attention to all the boarded language they have generated.

Then in open class nominate a student to answer one of the original questions:

Teacher: “Xavi, who do you think had the best Christmas?”

Xavi: “Gerrard had the best Christmas, he went to the Bahamas with his family.”

Then ask the rest of the class if they agree and see if the class can reach a consensus.

Follow up

Students write a composition on their Christmas holidays. This could take the form of an informal email to a friend.

Posted in Conversation Classes, Games

Christmas Quiz 2015

Posted on by Tim Warre

 

Image credit: www.history.com

Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio

This is a Christmas quiz for the last day of term made using tekhnologic’s amazing quiz template. Download it below:

Christmas Quiz 2015 – Easier version for kids and teenagers.

Christmas Quiz 2015 Adults – Slightly more difficult version for adults.

Posted in Conversation Classes, Games, Young Learners

Christmas Trivia Quiz

Posted on by Tim Warre

This is a fun Christmas trivia quiz for the last day of term. Bring prizes for the winning team.

Split the class into small groups and get them to come up with a festive team name. There are two rounds, the first is the picture round. Show the pictures in the picture round handout, students have to name the items they see.

The second round is the trivia round. Read out the questions below one at a time, students write their answers on a piece of paper. You can download the list of questions here. Christmas Trivia Quiz

Trivia Round

  1. What are the names of these dates? 24th + 25th, 31st of December, 1st of January. Christmas eve, Christmas day, New Year’s eve, New year’s day.
  2. What do people traditionally do under the mistletoe plant? Kiss
  3. Where do children hang their stockings on Christmas Eve? Next to the fireplace.
  4. Which English author wrote the book ‘A Christmas Carol’? Charles Dickens
  5. In Charles Dickens’ novel A Christmas Carol, how many ghosts visited Ebeneezer Scrooge? Extra points for their names. 4 Jacob Marley, Ghosts of Xmas past, present and yet to come.
  6. Name 2 of Father Christmas’ reindeer apart from Rudolph. Comet, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Donner, Blitzen, Alternative question: Which of these names is NOT one of Father Christmas’ Reindeer? Comet, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Chaser, Vixen, Donner, Blitzen
  7. The character Jack Skellington appears in which 1993 Tim Burton film? The Nightmare before Christmas
  8. What are the names of the three wise men said to have brought gifts to the baby Jesus? Balthasar, Melchior, Caspar (or Gaspar – Interestingly the Bible does not states state their names, nor even the number of wise men: “…there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem… and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh…” from Matthew 2:1 and 2:11. Thanks A Russell.)
  9. What is New Year’s Eve called in Scotland? Christenmouse, Hogmanay, pigmany
  10. In which modern country is St Nicholas’s birthplace and hometown? Turkey (St Nicholas, bishop ‘Nikolaos of Myra’, 270-343AD, was born a Greek, i.e., of Greek parents in Patara, Lycia. He lived in and was bishop of Myra, Lycia. Patara and nearby Myra, in Lycia, or fully Lycia et Pamphylia, were then technically provincial territory of the Roman Empire with no specific country name. Patara became ruins centuries ago. Where the ancient town of Myra stood, now stands the Turkish town/district of Demre, Antalya Province, Turkey)
  11. From which country does the poinsettia plant originate? Mexico
  12. How many points does a snowflake have? Six
  13. What is the name of the cake traditionally eaten in Italy at Christmas? Panettone
  14. Which country does the tradition of Christmas trees come from? Germany
  15. What do people in England do at 3pm on Christmas day? Listen to the Queen’s speech.
  16. Name 3/5 traditional English Xmas dinner ingredients. Turkey, potatoes, carrots, brussels sprouts, sweet potato, parsnip, broccoli, cauliflower, sausages with bacon.
  17. What 3 things do children leave next to the chimney for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve? A drink, some food, carrots for the reindeer.

Thanks to Business Balls for some of the questions.

Posted in Conversation Classes

Christmas conversation lesson

Posted on by Tim Warre

christmas

This is a topical lesson plan for the festive season based on comparisons between a traditional British Christmas and Christmas celebrations in the student’s countries.

You will need:

The lesson plan:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!278&authkey=!AOWfTUkqHy7AtDc

The discussion questions handout:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!279&authkey=!ACygXSBVrDDA5H4

The Christmas in England powerpoint:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!127&authkey=!APSM9pHn8j56pvg

The cracker jokes handout:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!130&authkey=!AN8mCLV6wHxpSuQ

Brainstorm Xmas traditions in (the country you’re teaching in) in small groups.

Feedback traditions and put on board.

In pairs or small groups students discuss the following:

How many of these traditions do you follow?

Describe and compare your normal Christmas with your partner.

What do you do on Christmas eve? Christmas day? Boxing day? Kings Day?

If you have children what traditions do you follow? Father Christmas? Caga Tio (a Catalan Xmas tradition)?

When do you give presents?

What do you give?

What did you used to do when you were a child?

Do you still follow the same traditions your parents did?

Who in your family is the most difficult to buy presents for? Who is the easiest?

How have other cultures influenced Christmas celebrations in your country?

Debate:

Christmas is too commercial.

But the statement above on the board, split the class into two teams and assign “for” or “against” to each team. They then have 5 minutes to brainstorm their arguments. Then give them 5-10 minutes to debate the topic. Debate structure should be:

  • 2 minutes for each team to present their argument, the other team mustn’t interrupt, they should make notes ready for the 2nd phase.
  • 2nd phase 5 minutes open debate. Students attack the oppositions arguments and try to defend their own.
  • 1 minute each for a closing statement. Why each team thinks they have won the debate.

Teacher decides which team wins, but as it’s Christmas a draw is probably the fairest result!

 

British Christmas

Ask students to brainstorm a British Christmas.

Tell students that they are going to watch a presentation about Christmas in England. They have to watch and try to memorise as much as possible.

Show presentation “Christmas in England”

In groups students try to remember as much as they can, in the correct order.

Cracker Jokes

If students hadn’t heard of them before the presentation will have introduced them to Christmas Crackers. Hand out copies of the cracker jokes and have the students tell them to each other. They will get some fairly easily but some might need a little explaining.