Teacher’s Notes
Strange Christmas Traditions
Type of activity: reading, vocabulary, speaking, 5. Assign new pairs. The students discuss the
writing questions in Task 3 (elicit or pre-teach
Focus: Christmas traditions ‘superstitions’ before they start). Monitor as they
Level: pre-intermediate and up do this, then collect feedback on content and
Time: 45 minutes give feedback on language.
Preparation: 6. Ask the students to look at Task 4 and elicit or
explain the meaning of the words and phrases in
– one copy of the Student’s Worksheet per
the list. Let the students work in pairs and share
student, folded as indicated
knowledge of any Christmas traditions to do with
the elements in the list. Collect feedback with the
Procedure: whole group.
1. Write the words in the list in Task 1 on the board Key: hay is hidden under the tablecloth during
and elicit and/or explain the meanings. Tell the Christmas dinner – after dinner, whoever draws
students that all the words have something to do the longest/the straightest straw will have a good
with foreign Christmas traditions. Give the year; an extra plate is put on the dinner table in
students a few minutes to work in pairs and come honour of Baby Jesus or for ‘a lost wanderer’;
up with ideas as to what these traditions could Christmas dinner starts as soon as the first star
be. Collect feedback with the whole group. appears in the sky; keeping a scale from the
Christmas carp in your wallet will bring you
2. Distribute the Student’s Worksheets. Students money throughout the year; there should be an
work individually, completing the sentences in even number of dishes on the Christmas dinner
Task 1 using the key words. Let them compare table, preferably 12 in honour of the 12 Apostles;
their answers in pairs before checking with the if you feed animals leftovers from Christmas
whole group. dinner, they will gain the ability to speak at
Key: 1. caterpillars, 2. devil, 3. brooms, 4. KFC, midnight; if you are standing with someone else
5. roller skates, 6. cucumber, 7. webs, 8. sauna, under a branch of mistletoe, you should kiss.
9. goblins, 10. ceiling 7. Students work in pairs, writing five sentences
3. Ask the students which of the traditions they find about Polish Christmas traditions. Monitor and
the strangest and whether they have heard of any help as they do this, then collect feedback with
other foreign Christmas traditions. the whole group. See if anyone described any
traditions that were unfamiliar to the rest of the
4. Ask the students to work in pairs and look at Task group.
2 without unfolding their worksheets (so they
don’t look at Task 1). Students work together,
trying to remember the traditions from Task 1 by
looking at the names of countries and the key
words. Collect feedback with the whole group.
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