Christmas lesson lesson plan

“Merry Christmas!”

Special lesson Level 3 Age 7-9

Lesson plans for ESL kids teachers

Special lesson

Christmas

In this lesson, students are introduced to some common Christmas vocabulary, learn a Christmas carol, read a story about [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us], make and present Christmas cards and play lots of fun Christmas games.

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Age: 7-9 years
Time: 1 hour – 1 hour 20 mins
Objectives: Recognize and identify 8 Christmas words and sing a Christmas carol.
Structures: “Merry Christmas”, “Here you are”, “Thank you”.
New vocabulary: [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us], Rudolph, sleigh, presents, decorations, Christmas tree, roast turkey, Christmas pudding.

Lesson materials

Flashcards:

Christmas flashcards: [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us], Rudolph, sleigh, presents, decorations, Christmas tree, roast turkey, Christmas pudding

Printables:

We wish you a merry Christmas song worksheet
[hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us] gets stuck reader worksheet
Christmas word search worksheet

Songs:

We wish you a merry Christmas (adapted)

Readers:

[hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us] gets stuck

Supplies:

name tags for each student
board with markers / chalk
[hide_on_uk]candies[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]sweets[/hide_on_us]
wrapping paper
construction paper / card (to make Christmas cards, enough for 1 card per student)
craft supplies to decorate Christmas cards (e.g. glitter, cotton wool for snow, shiny stickers, etc.)
envelopes (one per student)
device to play the song on

Notes:

In this lesson, students are introduced to some common Christmas vocabulary, learn a Christmas carol, read a story about Santa, make and present Christmas cards and play lots of fun Christmas games.

Lesson procedure:

Warm up and maintenance:

1. Greetings and name tags
Greet the students as they enter the classroom and gesture for them to sit down. Before class prepare some blank name tags (stickers or pin-on tags). Give these out and have everyone write their names and put their tags on. If you use pin-on tags, you can keep and give out every class.

2. Review time
Play some review games from previous lessons for this review section. Have some fun games and go over new structures and vocabulary.

3. Homework check
Check each students’ homework worksheet and ask questions to check their understanding. Give lots of praise, and then put some kind of mark on the homework sheet (e.g. a sticker, a stamp or draw a smiley face).

Finally, tell your students to put their homework back into their bags.

New learning and practice:

1. Set the scene for Christmas
Sit everyone down and show a flashcard picture of [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us]. Elicit who it is (“Who is this?”). Explain that today we are going to have a Christmas lesson because it’s nearly Christmas!

Put on some Christmas carol background music to create a Christmas atmosphere. If you have a [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us] hat or even outfit, this is a great time to put it on!

2. Play “Hunt for the Christmas flashcards”
Before class, download and print the following flashcards: [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us], Rudolph, sleigh, presents, Christmas tree, decorations, roast turkey, Christmas pudding.

You have already shown the Santa flashcard, but before class, hide the other flashcards around the room (e.g. in bookcases, behind curtains, etc.). Model by showing you are looking for another Christmas flashcard. Hunt around the room until you find a card. Now tell the students to find the other flashcards.

Collect the cards from the students, then elicit / teach and chorus x3 each one.

3. Play “Flashcard touch” and “Missing flashcard”
Next, play the following flashcard games:

Flashcard touch: Lay the flashcards on the floor. Tell the students to put their hands in the air. Then Teacher calls out a flashcard (e.g. “Christmas tree!”). Students have to touch the card as quickly as they can. Play for a few rounds until you have done all of the flashcards.
Missing flashcard: Tell the students to close their eyes. Take away a flashcard and tell the students to open their eyes again. Ask, “Which picture is missing?”. Students have to shout out the missing flashcard. Play a few rounds.

Note:

For larger groups, divide your students into groups of 6-8 and play the games in their groups.

4. Play “We wish you a merry Christmas”
Let’s play a popular Christmas carol that we’ve adapted for this lesson – most carols use a lot of difficult vocab which is rarely used in modern English. This doesn’t make it easy for lower-level English learners! We have therefore adapted this carol for our students.

We are going to do an ‘active listening’ activity. Before playing the song, give out the song worksheet. Model that you are going to touch the words “We wish you a merry Christmas” as the song is played and also touch the pictures as they are sung. Play the song and have everyone listen and touch along with you.

Then play the carol a second time and have everyone sing along!

Lyrics for “We wish you a merry Christmas“

Chorus:
We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
We wish you a merry Christmas,
And a happy New Year.

Verse 1:
Santa and Rudolph,
Will fly in their sleigh,
We’ll open our presents,
And have a great day!

Chorus

Verse 2:
Our Christmas tree’s up,
With decorations,
We’ll eat a roast turkey,
And Christmas pudding.

Chorus

Verse 1 again

Chorus

Verse 2 again

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
<br /> [/hide_on_uk]

[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
<br /> [/hide_on_us]

Note:

We also have an adapted version of the carol “Jingle bells” which you may want to use instead of or as well as “We wish you a merry Christmas”.

You can play / download Jingle bells on our songs page.

5. Read classroom reader “[hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us] gets stuck”
This classroom readers ties in perfectly with the We wish you a merry Christmas song above as it uses many of the same phrases and vocabulary. Before class, download and print off the reader “[hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us] gets stuck”. As you go through each page, point to the pictures and let your students shout out what they can see and think is happening:

Teacher: Who is this? (pointing at [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us] and Rudolph on page 1)
Students: [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us] and Rudolph!
Teacher: Yes, that’s right! (reading from the story) “It’s Christmas Eve night. [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us] and Rudolph are flying in their sleigh.” What [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] are [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us]’s clothes?
Students: Red!
Teacher: That’s right. [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us] always wears red. (turning the page) … Oh look! What is this boy doing?
Students: He’s sleeping!
Teacher: Yes, that’s right! Look, how many stockings does he have?
Students: 2!
Teacher: Yes, 2! He has 2 stockings for his presents from [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us].
etc.

Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions (e.g. eliciting the objects and their [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us]) and even getting everyone to speculate about what presents the boy and girl have under the wrapping paper.

There is also a reader worksheet to use with the story. For lower level students (level Starter), have them put the numbers on their worksheets as you read through the story. Students reading the Level 1 reader can try to complete the worksheet in pairs after reading the story. Then go through the answers as a class.

Alternatively, watch our video version of the reader (Internet connection required).

6. Read and write time
This segment can be part of all your lessons. Spend 10 to 15 minutes building up your students’ writing and reading skills. You’ll need to assess your students’ reading/writing level and then choose to start at one of the following stages:

Reading and writing activities by level:

1. Beginners: students cannot read or write the alphabet.
Each lesson introduce 3 lower-case letters of the alphabet (first lesson will be a, b, c). Use flashcards to do this. Play alphabet games and do printing worksheets.
» See our ‘Alphabet a-z (lowercase)’ mini-lesson plans for full details.

2. Early starters: students have experience with the alphabet but need phonics practice.
Each lesson introduce 5 lower-case letters of the alphabet (first lesson will be a, b, c, d, e). Use flashcards to do this. Start by working on the sounds of the letters and then move onto letter clusters (e.g. sh, ee, etc).
» See our ‘Alphabet’ and ‘Letter clusters’ mini-lesson plans for full details.

3. Early readers.
Work on reading and writing simple sentences with lots of practice activities.
» See our ‘Early reading’ mini-lesson plans for full details. (click on “Early reading” tab)

4. Elementary readers: students can read and write simple sentences well.
Work on reading and writing short texts and stories.
» See our ‘Reading short texts’ mini-lessons for full details. (click on “Reading short texts” tab)

7. Play “Flashcard pass the parcel”
All kids love this game! Before class prepare the parcel. Make sure you have enough [hide_on_uk]candies[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]wrapped sweets[/hide_on_us] for each student and a picture / flashcard of the Christmas vocab for each student.

The idea is for each layer of the parcel to have a [hide_on_uk]candy[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]sweet[/hide_on_us] stuck to vocab picture (e.g. [hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us], Christmas tree, etc.). When each wrapping paper is removed the student will have to correctly say the word of the picture in order to keep the [hide_on_uk]candy[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]sweet[/hide_on_us]. Wrap up the first [hide_on_uk]candy[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]sweet[/hide_on_us] / picture and then for each layer add another picture / [hide_on_uk]candy[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]sweet[/hide_on_us].

Play the game sitting in a big circle. Play Christmas music and have everyone pass the parcel around the circle until you stop the music. The student unwraps the first layer and has to say the word for the picture to get the [hide_on_uk]candy[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]sweet[/hide_on_us]. Keep going and make sure every student has a chance to remove a layer and get a [hide_on_uk]candy[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]sweet[/hide_on_us].

8. Make Christmas cards
Christmas cards are easy and fun to make in class with some construction paper and common craft supplies. Before class, you’ll need to cut out enough card for each student.

Tell the students they are going to make a Christmas card for one of their classmates. Either assign a classmate for each student to make a card for or let them chose themselves. Then have students draw, paint or use felt to make a Christmas scene on the card ([hide_on_uk]Santa[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Father Christmas[/hide_on_us], holly, a Christmas Tree , etc.). Students can then decorate the cards with glitter, cotton wool for snow, shiny stickers, etc.

Older kids can write a Christmas message inside the card and for smaller kids you can help them write their own message (even get them to trace over a message written lightly in pencil). Make sure they include their classmate’s name with the message.

Finally, the students put their Christmas card into an envelope.

9. Present Christmas cards
Teach the expressions “Merry Christmas”, “Here you are” and “Thank you”. Then model giving a Christmas card to a student whist saying the expressions. Have the students give their Christmas cards to their classmates while saying the expressions. Everyone can now open their Christmas cards.

End by asking some students questions about their cards (e.g. Who was your card from? What is the picture? What does it say inside?).

10. Play “Musical chairs”
Let’s end with a fun game! Put enough chairs in a circle for each student, less one (e.g. if you have 10 students put out 9 chairs).

Play the “We wish you a merry Christmas” song and have the students walk or skip around the circle of chairs. When you stop the music the students have to scramble to sit down on a chair. The student remaining is out.

For the next round remove a chair and continue the game by starting the music. Finally, the game will have 2 students and one chair – the winner is the one to sit down on the remaining chair. Play again if everyone wants to!

Wrap up:

1. Assign homework: “Christmas word search”
Hold up the homework worksheet and model what to do – find one of the Christmas vocabulary items and draw around the word.

Give out the worksheets and say, “Put your homework in your bags”.

2. Do “Quick check” and say goodbye
Time to leave the class. Make sure everything is put away and the students have gathered their belongings. Have them line up at the door and place yourself between the door and the students.

For each student hold up a Christmas flashcard and have the student say what it is.

When they give you the correct answer say goodbye and let them leave. If their answer is wrong, have them go back to the end of the line – they will have to try again once they reach the front!