YOUNG LEARNERS – Christmas Lesson Online (2020)
November 2020 – Here is a lesson plan for a possible Christmas lesson online with young learners. The ideal age could be 7-12, level A2 (Flyers/Key for schools).
WARM UP: to introduce the topic of Christmas and Rudolph
Play hangman on an oneline whiteboard (Jamboard). The puzzle to solve is:
THE RED-NOSED REINDEER
Once your student guessed the phrase, ask for the reindeer’s name (Rudolph). Ask him/her if he/she knows the names of the other reindeer and right after what the plural form for ‘reindeer’ is.
LEAD IN: to revise plural forms with animal names, with emphasis on irregular plural forms
Send your student to this interactive worksheet: Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer – ask him/her to share their screen and complete the plural forms for the 10 animal names. Clarify:
– normal plural forms: dogs, horses;
– plural forms that appear singular: fish, sheep, reindeer;
– plural forms with letter-changes: wolves, mice.
Then introduce the students to the exercise: the song has two verses, 8 lines in each. They need to reorganize the lines of the verses by clicking in the drop-down menu on the line they hear before moving onto the next line. If they are familiar with the song, they can do it first on their own and listen to song after to check their answers.
Listen to the song together.
(After the song, you can also find the karaoke version: if your student likes singing, he/she can sing it. Before doing so, practise pronunciation by reading the lyrics aloud together.)
MAIN PART: to introduce students to the reading-into-speaking task; to read for general understanding; to enable students to give reasons for their choices
Ask your student if they believe in Santa and if no, when did they stop believing in him (and why)?
Tell your student that you are going to talk about presents. Copy this list into the chat box: a teddybear, a book, some money, socks, a laptop, a new school bag, a toy car with a remote control, a soccer ball, a cinema ticket, a subscription to a sport course, a make-up set, etc. (feel free to add any other items).
Ask the student to categorize these presents: Are they good or bad presents? First they need to consider themselves, then their brothers/sisters (if they have any).
Now, tell your student that he/she is going to read short descriptions of 6 children. After reading them, he/she needs to invent some good presents for these kids for Christmas (you can also decide about conditions: presents under 100 euro, money doesn’t matter, they can do magic, etc.).
Here is the text, also in PDF VERSION:
What gift is the best for these kids?
David likes soccer and goes twice a week to soccer training. He has all the equipment for his sport. He is an only child. His mother is a housewife.
His father works long hours, so he doesn’t see him very often and he nearly ever has the opportunity to play with him.
Dana is a very lovely girl who is the best student at school. But even in the afternoon, she learns or reads for school instead of playing. She has a few toys, but always asks for books.
Felicity got a little sister but was not prepared: nobody has enough time for her any more. She likes baking with her mother but with the baby no cake gets ready. She is not happy any more about the little baby-sister.
Barbara is like a boy, she sometimes fights but first of all when she wants to protect the weak ones. She usually wears a baseball cap and jeans with a T-shirt. She doesn’t play girly games at all.
Tom is a computer fan. He even has an own home-made website – it is a record, he is only nine! Because of his hobby he doesn’t go out to play with other kids in the street. So he sometimes feels lonely.
Jonny always wanted to have marvel-figures – as many as possible. He already has Superman and Spiderman, Batman and Sandman. He plays further LEGO and wants to have the complete Star Wars collection. He only has a few of them.
And what about YOU? What do you wish for Christmas?
If your student is high A1, you can pace this exercise: After the first reading, he/she needs to understand what hobbies these kids have and only after a second reading he/she needs to get an idea of an ideal present. Prompt him/her whenever necessary.
You can also provide for some ideas: Who would be happy about an online video-game where friends need to work together on one project or a cooking course or a story-writing set, etc.
At A2 level, students need to be able to give reasons, using ‘because’. Make sure they use complete sentences: I think a soccer ball is a good present for Barbara because she likes boy-games, etc.
WIND-DOWN: to finish the lesson with a relaxing song about Christmas
After feedback on the reading task, ask your student what they like about Christmas apart from the presents? Prompt them for good food, family time, snow, no fights = peace.
Introduce your student to the interactive listening task:
Song: Celine – Dion – So this is Christmas
The song offers practice of opposite adjectives, which need to be filled in the lyrics while listening. Finally, it asks the student to understand the main messages of the song. Since the worksheet is interactive, you can assign it also for homework or do it in the lesson if time allows.
N.B. Living a very peculiar situation with COVID-19, you can also ask your student to speak about some differences between previous Christmas holidays and the one we might live this year (2020). Think of traveling, gathering, shopping, etc. (We cannot travel because airports are closed. We cannot visit our grandparents because they live in another city and we cannot travel. We order the gifts online because we cannot go to the shopping centers to buy Christmas presents, and so on.)
You might like these materials too:
This is a set of 27 lexical items linked to Christmas from Santa Claus & Christmas tree over bells & angel to Christmas pudding & snowflake. There are two files attached: a Google Slide which you can personalize and a pdf file.
This is a Christmas activity book with seven exercises, such as teacher-led/student-centred guided colouring, picture dictation and reading comprehension. Ready to print and free to download.
YL activity books for Cambridge Starters, Movers and Flyers or any ESL primary classroom about Toys (free), Sweets, Beach, Animals, Meals, House, Clothes and many other topics. Shop around in the ELT-Tutor webshop.
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