FESTIVAL WORKSHEETS Lesson Intermediate Worksheet A Teacher’s Notes

This is a READING AND VOCABULARY worksheet and can be used independently or before Intermediate Worksheets B and C.

1. Build your Christmas Vocabulary.  The Christmas Vocabulary Worksheet can be used to give students practice in reading and understanding dictionary definitions as well as revise and/or learn Christmas words.  Depending on the level of the students either ask them to read the definitions and come up either the words and phrases on their own, or – in case of lower levels- write the words on board first and ask the students to match them with appropriate definitions.  All definitions come from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, edition 4  Answers:

What’s the word or phrase?

Christmas pudding a special sweet food that contains a lot of dried fruit and is eaten in Britain at the end of the main meal on Christmas Day

Christmassy typical of Christmas

Christmas cracker a tube of coloured paper that two people pull apart at Christmas in Britain for fun. It makes a loud sound as it is pulled apart, and usually contains a small toy

Reindeer (plural: reindeer) a large deer with long wide antlers (=horns), that lives in cold northern areas

Rudolph, the Red-nosed a character in a children's Christmas song. It is a reindeer which has a shiny red nose. Reindeer The other reindeer think his nose looks silly, but asks him to help the other reindeer to pull his sleigh on a foggy night, because his bright nose helps them to see where they are going

Marshmallow a very soft light white or pink sweet, made of sugar and egg white

Turkey a bird that looks like a large chicken and is often eaten at Christmas and at Thanksgiving

Santa Claus (also Santa or, in an imaginary old man with red clothes and a long white beard who, children believe, British English, Father brings them presents at Christmas Christmas)

A a short novel by about an unpleasant old man called Scrooge who hates to spend money. On several ghosts visit him to warn him about what will happen if he does not change. When he wakes up the next morning, he becomes a happy generous person, especially to his worker Bob Cratchit and his sick son, Tiny Tim.

Christmas stocking a long sock which children leave in their house on Christmas Eve to be filled with presents

Christmas Day December 25th, the day when most Christians celebrate the birth of Christ

Boxing Day (British English) a national holiday in England and Wales, on the first day after Christmas Day that is not a Sunday

Christmas carol a Christian song that people sing at Christmas

Christmas Eve December 24th, the day before Christmas Day

2. Story telling:  Get students into groups of 4 and ask them to invent a story using the words from the exercise. You could introduce 3 extra words to help make the story more intriguing (e.g. gun, robbery, polar bear etc)  When students are ready, ask them to tell their stories to other groups; the best/most intriguing/funniest story can then be selected.  Alternatively, ask your students to write the story down.  If you are combining worksheet A with worksheets B and C you should do the story telling activity after you have done worksheets B and C.

Designed by Magda Wojdyło for Pearson Central Europe PHOTOCOPIABLE

FESTIVAL WORKSHEETS Christmas Lesson Intermediate Worksheet B and C Teacher’s Notes

Worksheet B is a SPEAKING lesson with elements of READING

1. My Christmas: Guess if I’m lying  The aim of this exercise is to introduce students into the topic of Christmas and provide opportunities for personalised speaking practice.  You may wish to start the lesson with a personal comment or questions e.g. “Have you noticed all the Christmas decorations in the streets?”.

2.  The aim of exercise 2 is to provide some vocabulary development and reading comprehension work as well as to lead to the role play.  Make sure students understand the words given in the box before they start reading. The pronunciation of Peace Corps and luxury or fiancé may need drilling.  You may also ask them to predict, on the basis of the words given, what the text/story will be about – if time allows they can try to make up their own stories using the vocabulary and then present the stories to the other groups. Ask students to make stories which relate to Christmas.

1. Role Plays  This is a chance for students to practise less controlled speaking in small groups. You may ask different pairs to work on different situations and then to act them out in front of other students.  When all groups perform their role plays, listen for phrases that are very well used as well as a few mistakes – you may decide to write up a few good phrases on the board and praise the students as well draw their attention to a few problem areas and elicit what was wrong. Just don’t put anyone on the spot .

Worksheet C is a READING AND VOCABULARY lesson with elements of SPEAKING

 Worksheet C can either be done after Worksheet B in class, or can be used as a homework assignment.

1. What’s the missing word : The missing word have been filled in for you in the text below.

John Grisham, the modern 1)WRITER, is usually associated with books such as , or , which most of us have either read or 2)SEEN in the film version.

He was born in Arkansas in 1955 and as a child 3) DREAMED OF being a professional baseball player. When he grew up he chose to study and practice law, 4)SPECIALISING in criminal defence and working 60-70 hours a week.

When he started writing novels it was just a hobby. However, after he 5)SOLD the film rights to The Firm to Paramount Pictures for $600,000, Grisham suddenly became a hot property among publishers and a hobby became a full time 6)JOB.

In 1996 he took time off writing to return to the courtroom to represent the family of a railroad brakeman who had been 7) KILLED in an accident. Grisham successfully argued his clients’ case.

Skipping Christmas is a very 8) DIFFERENT book from Time to Kill, or The Testament. It is a 9)MOVING, yet hilariously told Christmas tale about friendship, family values and the chaos and frenzy that are part of our Christmas tradition.

Grisham 10) LIVES with his wife Renee and their two children. When he's not writing, he devotes his time to charitable causes and working with his church group.

2 and 3. Follow the text with some vocabulary work in exercise 2 and then again with the comprehension check questions in exercise 3, which will help you make sure that students are not only able to concentrate on portions of text and do vocabulary tasks but also understand the text as a whole.  Additional/Optional homework: You may ask students to consult http://www.randomhouse.com/features/grisham for more information about books. In the next lesson they may be asked to share the extra details they remember.

Designed by Magda Wojdyło for Pearson Central Europe PHOTOCOPIABLE