Holidays

Who doesn’t love the holidays?  Whether it is a well-known and cherished holiday or an obscure one, we tend to enjoy the celebrations.  And suppose we are living in a foreign country?  We would want to understand the various celebrations in that country as well as our own.  Being able to discuss and learn about different holiday allows us to integrate even further into our host country. 

Vocabulary

• Independence Day
• Easter
• Holy Week
• Lent
• New Year’s Eve/Day
• Christmas
• Thanksgiving
• Halloween
• St. Patrick’s Day
• Labor Day
• Mother’s Day
• Father’s Day
• Memorial Day

Grammar

• What is your favorite holiday?
• When is it celebrated?
• How is it celebrated?

Warm Up

Video Clip

• Procedure: watch a short video clip (ex. Ground Hog’s Day, Miracle on 34^th Street, National Lapoon’s Christmas Vacation) so students can hear some of the vocabulary surrounding specific holidays.

Picture Prompt

• Procedure:  Students draw a representation of their favorite holiday and how they celebrate it

Practice

What Holiday Am I? 

• Procedure: 
• Students stand in a circle while the teacher secretly tapes a piece of paper with a holiday written on it on their backs. 
• The students are allowed to ask yes or no questions to other students to try to guess what holiday is on their back (ex. Is food part of the celebration?) 
• Students can only ask three questions per classmate. 
• At the end of set time, students take turns guessing what holiday was on their back. 
  

Categories

• Procedure: 
• The teacher gives a topic (ex. Mother’s day) 
• Students take turns saying a word that corresponds to the topic (ex. Cards, flowers, moms, etc.) until someone either repeats a word already said or can’t think of something.  
• Then a new topic is said (ex. Independence day, holidays, etc.)

Password 

• Procedure: 
• Students are divided into two teams.  
• Each team selects the first representative.  
• The representatives sit with their back to the board or screen.  
• A secret word (ex. Christmas) is shown behind them.  
• Their teammates give them clues (ex. Gifts, Santa, December 25, etc.) so the representative guesses the secret word.  
• Once word is guessed a new representative is chosen. 
• Go to this website to download the PowerPoint

Production

Journal Prompt

• Procedure: Students write about their favorite holiday and how they celebrate it.

Movie Trailer

• Procedure: Students work in small groups to create a movie trailer (1 min. teaser about a movie) about a plot surrounding a holiday
• Modification: students make a trailer for a already existing holiday movie

Advertisement

• Procedure: Students pretend to work in a store that is trying to sell a food or decoration for a specific holiday.  Students can work individually or in pairs to create a poster to try to sell the food or decoration.   

Don't forget to check out the Classroom Management Series every Wednesday!