Ideas for English Language Learners: Celebrate the Holidays
By Larry Ferlazzo
from the The Learning Network – Teaching and Learning With The New York Times
Larry Ferlazzo shares four language building activities in this archived blog.
The first is writing about holiday objects. After viewing a video, students write a list of objects associated with holidays that they celebrate. Then they choose three and make a quick drawing of each one. After that, they write a paragraph about each one. Ferlazzo provides sentence frames for this. Students then make final versions with the pictures and paragraphs on the same page. They can post these online, and/or continue with a speaking activity in which they share what they have written with their classmates in a speed-dating format.
A second activity involves origami; first sharing a slideshow of how to make a simple project, doing it as a class, and then having the students write the steps they took to complete the project. Students might repeat this process with a holiday-designed origami that could be given as a gift.
A third option begins with a list of sentences or short paragraphs related to New Year’s celebrations. Students read these and then group them, giving explanations for the rationale behind their classifications. They can search for additional information about their categories and write about them.
The final activity begins with making New Year’s resolutions. These are specific and short-range such as the number of pages they hope to read each week.
You can find detailed instructions and links to the videos here.
This page on dave’s ESL Cafe website has links to a variety of activities for students of all levels contributed by teachers from around the world. Although many are focused on Christmas, they can be adapted for whatever holidays your students celebrate.
