2 Room holiday

In 1790, instead of travelling to some strange overseas location, Xavier de Maistre, a twenty-seven-year-old
Frenchman wrote a book called ‘Journey around My Bedroom’. In this very unusual travel book, he described a
tour of his room as if it was an exotic foreign country. He walked from door to chair to window, looking at each
object as if it was a fascinating and wonderful new discovery.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could see our dull, ordinary lives in a new way like this?

FOLD

One of you is an alien from Jupiter. You have come to this

room for your holiday. Look carefully at all the things and
ask lots of questions, for example:

What is this for?

How do you
use this?

Why is it like this?

The other person is a tour guide. Take the tourist on an

exciting tour around your classroom. Point out all the
ordinary objects (big and small). Explain what these
normal things are and how they are used.

FOLD

Now work together to write a postcard back to your home in Jupiter.

I’m having a wonderful holiday!

Today I saw

Wish you were here!

Love from

Photocopiable Learning Teaching Copyright © Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2011. This page may be photocopied for use in class.

Intermediate Teachers Notes.indd 4 11/16/10 1:04 PM

 2 Room holiday
Activity
Pairwork. Roleplay.

Focus
Asking about & describing the purpose of things.

Preparation
Photocopy one worksheet for each pair. Fold the worksheet
along the upper dotted line.

Procedure
• Distribute the folded worksheet so that only the top
section (with the text) is visible.
• Write Where did Xavier go on holiday? on the board and
then ask students to read the text and find the answer.
Get feedback. Students may take a while to come to terms
with the idea that he took a tour of his bedroom! Discuss
the idea a little bit. Ask students if they agree with the last
line about seeing the world differently.
• Point at the wastepaper bin in your room. Ask students
to imagine they are visitors from another planet and have
never seen a wastepaper bin before. How could they
describe it?
• After a pause for thought and feedback suggest a short
description yourself, something like:
It’s a strange metal object. It looks like a soldier’s helmet –
but instead of a head there are different colourful things
inside. Maybe this is a food container.
• Now ask students to unfold the worksheet to the second
dotted line. Working in pairs, students take the two roles
described, guide and alien. Ask students to stand up.
The guide should now show the alien around the room.
Encourage them to talk as they look around. Monitor
carefully as this is an unusual task. Weaker students may
need a little encouragement and help.
• When students have finished their tours, ask them to work
together to write the alien’s postcard home, describing
what he’s seen today. Students can read each other’s
postcards at the end.

Intermediate Teachers Notes.indd 5 11/16/10 1:04 PM