Lesson 16: Festivals and Celebrations

Lesson Plan
Suggested time: 7-8 periods (40 mins each)
Content • National festivals
• Religious festivals
• Harvest festivals
• Birthdays as festivals
Objectives To enable students to:
• appreciate what festivals are
• name and describe the different festivals that are celebrated in India
• differentiate between national, religious and harvest festivals
• speak about the birthdays of famous Indians that are celebrated by the
whole country
Tools/Materials Timeline 3, a black board and chalk.
Used
Introducing the Use the Let’s begin… as a warm up to introduce the lesson. Ask the students
Lesson to complete the crossword with the help of the picture clues.

Methodology Teaching the lesson

• Explain what festivals are.Elaborate the importance of festivals in India.
• Explain that festivals fall under three classifications—national, religious and
harvest.
• Discuss the three national festivals celebrated in India. Remind them that
they come to school each year on Independence Day and watch the Indian
Flag being hoisted.
• Discuss the Republic Day parade.
• Explain the work done by Mahatma Gandhi and the reason for considering
him the ‘father of our nation’.
• Discuss in class why do we have so many festivals in our country in Let’s
talk… section.
• Ask the students to talk about the religious festivals that they celebrate at
home. Ask them what they do on the day and why. Explain to the students
the different festivals mentioned here. You can bring pictures of the
DurgaPooja celebrations in West Bengal, Ram Lila celebrations in the Delhi,
etc.
• Similarly, discuss the celebration of Diwali, Dusshera, Holi, Eid-ul-Fitr,
Gurupurab and Christmas. If there are students who follow the respective
religion they can tell the class how they celebrate the festival.
• Ask the students to choose the correct answer in the Think and answer…
section.
• Explain why harvest festivals are important to the people of India. Tell them
about the festivals given in the lesson.
• Ask the students whether their area or state has a harvest festival.
 Lesson 16: Festivals and Celebrations
Lesson Plan
Suggested time: 7-8 periods (40 mins each)
• Ask the students to name a few great leaders they know. Explain that it is
important to remember the leaders for their sacrifice and selfless work. You
can tell the story of Gautam Buddha and Mahavir in class.
• Help the students recall how Children’s Day and Teacher’s Day are
celebrated in class in remembrance of our great leaders.

Let’s answer…
• The teacher can help the students complete Exercises A, B, C, D and E on
pages 107 and 108 orally. The children can then be asked to write the
answers on their own.

Let’s do…
• Activity Time
(F) The students will be asked to find six festivals in the word search.
• Find Out
(G) The students are required to visit a potter and ask him how diyas are
made.
• Project Work
(H.1) Ask the students to collect the pictures of festivals celebrated in each of
12 months of the year and make a festival calendar.
(H.2) The students are required to think of a new festival that they would like
to celebrate, give it a name and write a short paragraph on it.

HOTS
• The HOTS question can be discussed in class.