Christmas and New Year teaching ideas 2008
… are exactly the same as Xmas ESL ideas 2007 (haven’t written any special lessons on seasonal shopping in a worldwide depression yet, although I could use my grandfather’s story about his pet rabbit being served up for an East End Xmas lunch if I did), but at least that means this year I can get all the links out of the way in one post and so not repeat the TEFL equivalent of 6 weeks of nonstop Xmas carols like we had here in 2007. And here all the articles, teaching ideas and photocopiable worksheets are- a veritable Xmas feast, stuffed stocking etc etc to bring seasonal cheer to the last few weeks before the holiday without the need for sipping brandy between classes:
Articles and teaching ideas
Christmas vocabulary you can mime
Combining Xmas with a young learner syllabus
Doing something with Xmas songs
Putting the grammar back into Christmas
Games and other photocopiable worksheets
Future Perfect New Year predictions
New Year action and state verbs
New Year resolutions adverbs of frequency - going to for plans and learner training
Xmas first conditional superstitions bluff game - a classic, hopefully not ruined in my version
Christmas Adverbs of Frequency- Present Simple and lots of lovely (not stereotyped) cultural information
Christmas traditions passives bluff game
Xmas guess the country modals of deduction
Christmas Present Simple and Continuous mimes- contrasting routines and things happening now, with lots of nice Chrimbo vocab
Christmas Past Tense mimes - Past continuous when they finish miming and then tense review as they talk about their own experiences of those things
Will for future predictions Xmas
Xmas trivia number pairwork - good for Business English, Technical English and other ESP classes
Business English Christmas cards Do’s and Don’ts - imperatives and important cultural information
Describing Xmas foods bluff game - good for students who want to explain food from their own country to foreign guests, e.g. Business English students who often entertain clients
Going to Xmas mimes - for predictions with present evidence
Xmas party negotiations - the best ever game for the language of meetings and negotiations, as there is a clear winner, and some good Xmas vocab
Video Worksheets
Friends Series One New Year episode
Edward Scissor Hands- cute, seasonal, the easiest film in the English language, and full of lots of lovely reference expressions
The Life of Brian - as mentioned on a recent Dave’s ESL Cafe thread, only for veeeery high level and open-minded students
Xmas Song worksheets
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
The Christmas Song (“Chesnuts roasting on an open fire” etc)
December 4th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Alex,
Hi and thanks for the comment at my blog. As you will have figured out already the place is not really all that concerned with matters TEFL, but I have just stuck up a second posting about teaching English abroad.
Your views would be welcome.
December 14th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Hi Alex,
Great tips – I’m linking to this posting on my blog:
http://kalinago.blogspot.com/2008/12/nothing-more-important-than-your-family.html
I’ve also posted up a great Christmas conversation lesson on my website, available at:
http://www.kalinago-english.com/cms/index.php/Marketplace/SimplyConversations/Free-Samples.html
Take care,
Karenne
December 16th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Some wonderful ideas; I especially love the business English sheets and the way you mention the grammar focused on in the titles, makes it much easier to find something suitable for every class!
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:46 am
[...] googled xmas activities for TEFL or ESL or what-have-you, you’ve no doubt come across the TEFLtastic page of X-mas goodies, which pretty much has the market cornered on holiday ideas. Really, dude is mad thorough over [...]
December 16th, 2009 at 11:11 am
[...] songs Time to carry on what’s sure to become a tradition at $4MT: the annual link to Alex Case’s TEFLtastic bag of Xmas goodies. I particularly like the “Describing X-Mas Foods Bluff game” and the “X-Mas [...]
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:02 am
Very large collection of New Year worksheets here:
http://esolcourses.blogspot.com/2009/12/new-year-worksheets-activities-lessons.html