Just like last year, I will be sharing with you another holiday season countdown till school break up for Christmas holidays. So, here are some suggestions for activities you can do with your learners. Where possible I have added an educational twist.

Tuesday 1st December

Christmas/holidays around the world project: Get your students to find information about how Christmas is celebrated around the world. It may be a good idea to do some research on how people in Australia celebrate cause it is summer over there :). Give your students about ten days to finish their projects. Inform them that they will be presenting to the rest of the class. Depending on class size, you can do this as individual/pair or group work. You can also send your learners to this website and ask them to find information. Presentation date: Friday the 11th

Wednesday  December 2nd

Sock Snowman: Get your students to make a snowman out of a sock. You can watch the video with your learners and make a sock.

Educational twist: Get them to write down the instructions on how to make this. Half the class watches the video and then they have to tell their classmates (the other half) what to do. If you are interested in grammar, get them to practice countable and uncountable nouns.

Thursday December 3rd

Secret Santa time. Explain what secret Santa is. Put all your students’ names in a bag and then each student pulls a name. Make sure there is a money limit or that everyone is making a gift instead of buying something (that’s up to you to decide).Also specify that the presents need to be gender neutral!  Tell them they must bring in their presents on X of December (give yourself time to make or purchase something if a student has forgotten to bring a purchase).

Friday December 4th

Charlie Brown and the Christmas tree: Watch the video with your class.

Educational twist: tell them to summarise what happens in this story (writing). You can also make your own listening true or false questions. This is a great video about the true meaning of Christmas/the holidays.

Monday December 7th

3D paper tree: Again time for some video-viewing. Make some 3D paper trees with your students to decorate your class.

Educational twist: Get them to write down the instructions on how to make this. Half the class watches the video and then they have to tell their classmates what to do OR you (the teacher) make some trees, ask them to try to explain how they think the tree was made and then watch the video and check if they got it right!

Tuesday December 8th

Christmas gingerbread men streamers. Get a string of paper and get each student to draw a gingerbread man. Then cut out the men and make a hole on the top of the paper and hang it in the class.

 

Picture from http://www.enchantedlearning.com. Found here

Educational twist: teach your students the parts of the body while making the streamers.

Wednesday December 9th

Get your learners to look for and find words related to Christmas. Depending on their age, you can choose hard or easy word search games. You can even give them a time limit to make it even more challenging. Find word search games here.

 Thursday December 10th

Time for some Christmas songs/ carols. Find a Christmas song you like, search for the lyrics and start singing with your students. My suggestion: Santa Claus is coming to town

                           You better watch out

                                  You better not cry

                                          Better not pout

                                                   I’m telling you why

                                                        Santa Claus is coming to town

Friday December 11th

Students present their Christmas project.

Monday December 14th

Online Christmas trivia: Get your learners to answer questions about the holidays.This can be done online in pairs or groups. You can find the quiz here.

Tuesday December 15th

Make gingerbread men: Get your students to watch the video with the recipe on how to make gingerbread men.

Educational twist: 1. ask them to write the recipe! This is a good way to practice numbers. 2. You could also have the ingredients and ask them to show you how you are supposed to make the gingerbread men (after they have watched the video). 3. Homework task? Based on notes they made, ask them to make gingerbread men and bring them to class.

Wednesday December 16th

Make decorative banners using various Christmas Fonts with your students. You can find free Christmas fonts here.

Thursday December 17th

Pin Rudolph’s red nose. How do you play? Find a picture of Rudolph online, blindfold your students, turn them round in circles for a bit, and then ask them to pin Rudolph’s nose. This activity is loads of fun and young learners really like it. 

Friday December 18th

How about watching a movie related to the holidays? Here are some movie ideas:

The Polar Express

Home Alone

Frosty the Snowman

Miracle on 34th Street

The Muppet Christmas Carol

It is a wonderful life

Educational twist: Get your students to write a film review or summarise the main points of the story.

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday extras (December 21st-23rd)

• Go to audible.com and use the free trial option to listen to Charles Dickens audiobook (it is 2hrs 54 mins long). This is appropriate for higher-level learners.
• Play Christmas word snake. How is this played? Each student takes turns to write a word connected to holiday season on the board. The final letter of student A’s word is the first letter of student B’s word.

                                     Christmas

                                                       Santa

                                                                 Angel

                                                                           Lantern   

• Time to make a card for the Holidays! You can find templates here or improvise!!
• Play Holiday season Bingo (make word or picture Bingo cards). You can find templates here.

So, that’s all for now. Happy planning your Christmas/ Holiday season exercises. You may also want to check out Tekhnologic’s website for a Christmas advent calendar. Feel free to add any ideas in the comments section below. Don’t forget to follow/ subscribe to my blog.

Till next time…..