Skill: Reading, Speaking
Area: Culture, Vocabulary
Time: 60-90 mins
Theme: Christmas, Movies
New Lesson Plan
Goal
To discuss New Year’s and Christmas and other winter holidaysObjectives
• To discuss the culture and traditions of Christmas in the West in a comparative context• To activate, elicit and teach Christmas vocabulary
• To promote fluency
Materials
Introduction
A Christmas lesson plan that discusses the American Santa Claus and his counterparts in other parts of the world. Since I teach in the post-Soviet Union, where Ded Moroz, or Grandfather Frost, brings presents on New Year’s Day and has some other differences, I thought a comparison of Kazakhstan’s holiday traditions and American traditions was a good introduction to Christmas. But of course, you could compare American Santa Claus and Sinterklass or other variations in your students’ cultures.Warm Up
Show them a picture of Santa Claus and ask them who it is. Then ask them what they know about Santa Claus. Don’t correct them at this point, let them discuss among themselves everything they know about Santa Claus and Christmas.
Comparison
Now put a table up on the board with 3 columns. In the first column, write questions like:
When does he come?
What does he bring?
How does he get in the house?
How does he travel?
Where does he live?
Does he have family?
Who helps him?
How does he know what you want?
What does he wear?
On top of column one, write Santa Claus and on top of column two, write Ded Moroz or Sinterklass or whatever. Now discuss the answers to the questions as a class. Alternatively have students read the text, About Santa, and find the answers themselves. You could write up similar texts for Ded Moroz or other variations of Santa Claus and do a jigsaw reading where students in small groups read one text and then tell the other students about it.
Vocabulary Review
To reinforce vocabulary, hand out the Christmas flashcards. I recommend using only the flashcards that relate to Santa, and the words that came up in the lesson (North Pole, reindeer, presents, sleigh, chimney, fireplace/stockings, elves and so on). Call out a word and ask students to show you the picture of that word. Alternatively, use the word in a sentence or for higher level classes, give a definition or description of the word (How does Santa get into the house?). Get students to cycle through all the words.
I'm an American who recently moved back to the US after living in Kazakhstan for 6 years and teaching English I also did a Peace Corps stint in the South Pacific. This site houses what I hope are some of my best ESL or EFL lesson plans and activities, all of which I have done in the classroom. Feel free to try anything on the site or link to any lesson or post, but please do not copy any content entirely or host it anywhere else. You can leave a comment or email me (
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