5 activities for those ESL Christmas lessons
It’s that time of year again; the time for mince pies and sherry and – what TEFL teacher could forget? – ESL Christmas lessons. This guide offers a few ideas for how you can fill that pre-holidays classroom sesh. It’s got vocab trees and letters to Santa Claus, and some activities that are just perfect for using during the 2020 age of remote teaching…
The festive vocabulary tree
A variation on a normal word-association game, the vocabulary tree is all about broadening the lexicon by climbing from branch to branch. It can either be done as a group activity, or – as is more likely in the age of COVID remote teaching – a one-on-one task. Start by designing a worksheet or drawing a festive tree on the whiteboard. Then, add a single, holiday-related word to the base of the tree and ask your students to fill in the next one up. The only rule is that it has to be related. Keep going until you reach the star at the top and then assign a writing task as a recap exercise for homework.
Christmas word puzzles
Simple but sweet and easy to organize, a classic Christmas word puzzle is a great way to break the ice and get the brain into gear on a cold December morning. We also like wordsearches because they can easily be used online – the rules are pretty much universal, so it’s just a case of sending over the worksheet or even a link to a wordsearch that you’ve made online. Try to mix things up a little for more advanced students. Throw in some purposeful spelling mistakes or non-festive words and see if they can spot them.
Write a letter to Santa
This is a great one for younger students who really get into the festive spirit as those ESL Christmas lessons swing around. A tried-and-tested version of an age-old writing lesson plan, it’s all about constructing your note to the bringer of presents. All the usual stuff goes: An introduction, some information about your year, a thank you for last year’s presents, and – of course – a list of things you’d like to receive under the tree on the 25th. (Have a bit of cultural sensitivity with this one. It tends to work best with learners in Western Europe, because Eastern Europe often have Santa day on the 6th December and students in Asia might not even know who the big guy is.)
Christmas conversation starters
A great activity for older students who are after more conversational classes to improve their language flow, Xmas conversation starters is all about getting the Student Talk Time up. You ask an open, Christmas-related question that’s specifically designed to be broad and discourage a quick yes or no reply. Something like “what did you do last Christmas?” or, even more open: “Tell me about your childhood Christmases”. The challenge for the student is to talk for a whole minute on the subject without faltering or repeating themselves.
Christmas Act it Out
A fun and active one that’s great for kinetic learners and can be used as part of a group or an individual lesson online, the festive Act it Out is a redux of the Christmas game Charades. Cut up some cards with pictures of classic Christmas things on them – gingerbreads, elves, sleighs, snowfall. Then take it in turns with your student to try and show what is written on the card by describing it. This should help improve both speaking and listening. It’s also a cracking way to push elicitation of language and grammar in a more natural setting.
Can you think of any fantastic plans for ESL Christmas lessons? If so, we’d love to hear them in the comments below. Alternatively, if you think you’d be a great teacher and are ready to get your own ESL Christmas lessons in action, be sure to check out our online courses.