Bringing Christmas into the classroom (8-10)

Lesson framework for using stories – min 2 hours

Steps Aims Procedure

To raise interest in the topic
1
To elicit vocabulary/language chunks
of their interest.
Tell children what you like about Christmas and
how you celebrate it with your family. Pick an
interesting anecdote or something that makes it
really special for you. Use a lot of body-language to
make yourself understood.
Ask children about how they celebrate Christmas
at home. Let them use L1, and reformulate as
appropriate.
Make note of the vocabulary of their interest AND
the ones that will come up in the story.

To pre-teach vocabulary in order to Target vocabulary: Santa, (pack) presents,

enable children to follow the story
2 Stick them onto the board, write a number next to
reindeer (pulls the) sleigh, (fly through the) sky,
(go down the) chimney, star, Christmas tree, star,
Christmas card, candles, baubles, stockings …
(depending on the story)
Download and colour pictures from:
http://www.coloring.ws/christmas2.htm
each picture.
Play: Listen and say the number. (1st in order, then
randomly)
Listen and say the word. (in order, then randomly)
Flash-reading of the written word-card from age
of 7/8 – depending on when you start exposure to
written English

3 To practice vocabulary in order to Christmas whispers: (whispers only for ages 3-7,
or with word-cards for 7/8-10): Say there are 15
enable children to act out/retell the
kids in your class. Divide them into 3 groups of 5.
story at a later stage. (retelling with
higher levels only – A2) The 3 groups stand in a line facing you, the
teacher. At the end of each line/group they have
To expose children to the written an envelope with the target picture words (present,
Santa, reindeer, etc.). The first kids from each line
form of the words-from second term
come to the teacher, the teacher quickly flashes a
of 1st grade plus
word-card. The 3 kids run back to their group and
whisper the word to the second child. The second
to the third, etc. The last child need to find the
right picture and bring it to the teacher. If it's
correct, the teacher flashes this child a new word-
card and the previous process continues.

Erika Osváth, Teacher Trainer erikaosvath@gmail.com, www.angoltanaroknak.blogspot.com


To allow children to familiarise
themselves with the content of the
story
4
To allow children to identify cultural
differences in how Christmas is
celebrated with their families as
opposed to the UK
To give children listening practice to
gist and specific information
5 same or different. (the order of the picture story)
To check understanding of the
language in the story
To give children more exposure to
6
the language of the story
Erika Osváth, Teacher Trainer erikaosvath@gmail.com, www.angoltanaroknak.blogspot.com
The game finishes when all the groups have
emptied their envelopes with the pictures.
Alternative ideas:
Mingle-drill with cards: say and swap
(NB Avoid checking understanding of words
through checking spelling of words. The two are
completely different things. Children should not be
penalised for incorrect spelling at the age 8-10)
Children are given the cut-up pictures of the story
in pairs/groups of 3. They identify their order and
guess what the story may be about. Allow different
versions.
Children tell each other in pairs/groups what they
think it is happening in the story.
Alternative (much less engaging):
Children look at the whole picture story to identify
minimum 3 differences in how Christmas is
celebrated in the UK and with their families.
T tells and acts out the story as clearly as possible
to make all the messages understood.
Children listen and watch to find out if their
guesses about the content of the story were the
T asks them to identify minimum 3 differences in
how Christmas is celebrated in the UK and with
their families. Allow in L1 and reformulate when
necessary.
Teacher says the lines of the story in random
order, and children hold up the card that it is
about.
Alternatively, T sticks the enlarged story-cards
around the room and kids point to /touch the one
the line is about.
 To allow children to engage with the Before children act out the story, they have to
content of the story in a personalised think about their personalities: choose for Santa:
way.
To give them a lot of exposure to the
language of the story.
(With higher levels – A1, A2 – to
enable them to memorise the
chunks/sentences of the story
through listening to it several times
7
and acting it out/watching it.
grumpy, bored, over-excited, rocker…?
Children: well-behaved, naughty, whinging, heavy-
metal kids, etc.
They also have to come up with 2 strange presents
(e.g. smelly sock, a wig)
They all practice together at the same time.
Teacher walks around to make note of the the
situations, types of personalities and presents.
Teacher asks for volunteers to act it out in front
of the class. Teacher tells the story making the
necessary changes to it, as acted out. Kids have a
lot of fun at this stage :-)
The rest of the class watch to guess what is
happening and what the presents were from the
gestures and facial expressions they have seen.

This procedure is repeated several times with

different children from the class. Some kids will
start narrating or saying a few lines.

To give children reading practice – Handout2: ticking the correct picture

identifying the shape of the sentence Tell children they will have to identify the shape of
and meaning of words the sentences. They will not have to read them
8 word-for-word!!!
Children tick the boxes next to the correct
picture. Do not let children to start reading word-
for-word.
To give children further flash- a. Teacher flashes sentences to the class, and they
reading practice to sentences. call out the number of the picture that it is about.
(NB I'd recommend stage c. with b. Enlarged sheets with the sentences are placed
9 grade 3 and 4) around the room. Teacher read them out and
run/point to the one they hear.
c. Children match sentences to the pictures.

Erika Osváth, Teacher Trainer erikaosvath@gmail.com, www.angoltanaroknak.blogspot.com

 To engage children in the content of a. Play the song 'When Santa got stuck up the
the story through a Christmas song. chimney” and ask kids to guess what it might be
about. (Show picture with Santa stuck in the
To give them listening practice to chimney, if they need clues)

specific information – words/language

b. Teach them the song line by line – putting the
chunks they can identify from the
first letters of each word on the board.
previous story.
10
c. Ask children to sing it as you are pointing to the
corresponding letter.

d. Erase letters in random order gradually until the

board is empty and the know the song. (Great
anchoring technique used for memory). Praise kids
for knowing the song, although the board is empty.
Have fun!

Erika Osváth, Teacher Trainer erikaosvath@gmail.com, www.angoltanaroknak.blogspot.com

 The Christmas story

1. It's Christmas time. Santa packs the presents for the children. He packs the

presents in his huge sack.

2. He puts the sack on the sleigh. The reindeer pulls the sleigh. They fly through

the sky.

3. They land on the roof of a house.

4. Santa goes down the chimney. But he gets stuck. He goes hatchoo, hatchoo,

hatchoo.

5. The children wake up at the noise. Santa says: 'Children, pull me out please!'

6. The children pull out Santa. They pull and pull and pull.

7. Santa, finally gets out of the chimney. His face is black. His beard is black.

There's soot in his sack.

8. Santa gives the presents to the children. The children are very happy.

9. Santa says 'Thank you (for pulling me out), children! Goodbye.' Children say:

'Goodbye, Santa. Thank you for the presents!'

Erika Osváth, Teacher Trainer erikaosvath@gmail.com, www.angoltanaroknak.blogspot.com