Early Learning Centre Christmas Card Game
Materials:· Pack of cards
· ppt slide Christmas words
· Hand out of pictures and words (will need to be made up)
· Chocolate prizes
NB There are 18 sets of different picture cards, 3 in each set. The pictures are:
present bell Christmas pudding snowflake
manger cracker donkey church
robin stocking Father Christmas three wise men
reindeer snowman Christmas tree star of Bethlehem
holly partridge in a pear tree
Lesson Suggestion 1: (suitable for B1 upwards teens and adults)
1. Divide the class into two groups. Hand out 9 different picture cards to each group. Give them a time limit to brainstorm the words being depicted. Allocate a scribe to write them down.
2. Swap the cards around and get each group to repeat the process with their new set of cards.
3. Monitor and see which group has the most number of (a) correctly guessed words and (b) correctly spelt words. The members of the winning team all get a chocolate as a prize.
4. Put the 18 cards on the floor in front of the sts. Put up the slide of words and get sts in pairs / small groups to read the words and match them to the pictures.
5. Do open-class feedback and drill pronunciation. NB with a few, you may need to clarify are they are fairly culturally specific eg: partridge in a pear tree, robin, cracker, Christmas pudding.
6. Collect up the picture cards and hand out the worksheet. Get sts to match picture to word. Monitor. Get them to put the worksheets away and turn off the OHT.
7. Select one picture card and keep it a secret from the sts. Give them a definition of it and get the sts to guess the word from your description eg: It’s something (which) you leave at the end of your bed or the chimney for Father Christmas to fill with presents (stocking).
8. On the board write:
It’s something which / that you use to + infinitive
for + gerund
It’s a place
It’s a person
Elicit the pronoun for place and person.
9. Divide the class into small groups (ie groups of 3 or 4) and hand out an equal number of cards to each st. tell them to look at their cards but to keep them a secret from the other people in their group. They should prepare a definition for each card (they don’t need to write this down).
10. When everyone’s ready, one person gives a definition and the others in the closed groups listen and guess the word. The first person in the group to guess correctly wins the card, which they place face down in front of them. The winner is the person with the most cards in front of them. Hand out chocolate prizes for the winners.
Lesson Suggestion 2: (suitable for B2 teens and adults upwards)
Materials:· Pack of cards
· ppt Christmas words
· Hand out of pictures and words (will need to be made up)
· Chocolate prizes
· Blank worksheet (attached)
1. Follow steps 1 – 6 in the above lesson, except they can keep out their worksheets.
2. Tell them that the company that manufactures this pack of cards wants to produce packs that a more suitable for individual countries within the EU and that their class have been chosen to produce a new pack of cards suitable for Portugal. They can of course keep those that are universal, but may wish to change some.
3. Divide the class into small groups and hand out the blank worksheet to each group. They need to look at the original cards still on the floor and decide which ones they are happy to keep and say why, and which ones they’d like to change and why and what they’d change them for. They may need help eg: food, places, drink, objects, people.
4. The group then designs a picture for the ones they’re going to change and labels each ‘card’.
5. When the groups have finished, get one person in each group to report back to the other groups explaining which ones they’ve decided to change and why and what they’re being replaced with and what the card would look like.
6. The class could vote on the best cards.