Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Teacher’s notes Age: Teenagers/Adults Key: Level: Pre-intermediate – intermediate (A2 – B1) 1. created Time: 60 minutes 2. official 3. ancient Activity: In this lesson, students will: 4. honour 1. read two texts about Mother’s Day and Father’s 5. foster Day around the world; 6. hike 2. do a quiz; 7. raised 8. mine 3. discuss Mother’s Day and Father’s Day 9. service celebrations in their countries; 10. public holiday 4. tell short stories and anecdotes about their parents, and their childhood. TEACHING TIP: When your students have matched the underlined words to their Language focus: vocabulary for talking about definitions, ask them to identify whether each word families; using past-tenses for story-telling is a noun/verb/adjective etc. Tell them to look up the Materials: one copy of the worksheet per student other forms of the word (e.g. honour – honourable / Procedure dishonourable – honesty /dishonesty) in the Macmillan Dictionary (www.macmillandictionary.com) and record these new words in their notebook. A good idea for WARNING: Be aware that all students will have helping students memorize new vocabulary is for them had different upbringings and some people to write an example sentence with the new word. may not be comfortable talking about their mother or father. Before teaching this lesson, 3. Ask students to look at the discussion questions make sure to check that it will be appropriate and talk about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in for your class. their country and how they celebrate them (if at all). Tell them they can also talk about gifts for mothers 1. Hand out a copy of the first page of the worksheet. and fathers. If the task is done in groups, get them Ask students to work in pairs or groups of three, to share their ideas and answers with the class. read the statements in Exercise 1, and decide together whether each one is true or false. Get 4. Lastly, get students to read through all six sentence them briefly to compare and discuss their answers beginnings and individually make notes about with the other groups of students. Then hand out how they could continue each one to talk about the rest of the worksheet pages so that they can their family or family figures. Tell them that they read the texts and check their answers. can use these notes in the second part of the task. Key: Give help where necessary during this part of the task so that they all have something to talk about. 1. True. Once they are ready, in small groups, ask students 2. False. 3. False. to take it in turns to tell short stories about their 5. False. mother, father, or other important family member 5. True. of figure. Encourage them to ask each other 6. False. questions about their stories. 7. True. 8. False. Key (possible answers from photos) : 2. Next, ask students to individually read the • Walk on the beach definitions in Exercise 2 and search the texts to find • Ride bikes in the forest the underlined words that match the definitions. • Play tennis • Play computer/video games When they have finished, ask them to discuss the answers with their partner before checking as a class. © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2017 Celebrations: Mother’s Day and Father’s Day 1 Mother's Day and Father's Day Worksheet Exercise 1: True or False Work in pairs. Decide whether the statements about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are true or false. Compare and discuss your answers, then read the texts on the next page to check your answers. 1. Father’s Day was invented by a woman. 2. Both celebrations fall in the same month. 3. Father’s day is an official public holiday around the world. 4. Mother’s Day is celebrated in the same month in the UK and the US. 5. Father’s Day is always on a Thursday in Germany. 6. In China, Father’s Day is celebrated in August. 7. Mother’s day is an official public holiday in Thailand. 8. Both celebrations come from the United States. Exercise 2: Language Find the underlined words in the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day texts and match them with their meanings below. The words are not in chronological order. Mother’s day: Father’s Day: 1. made something that did not exist before 6. a long walk in the countryside _______________ _______________ 7. took care of children while they were growing up 2. done by people in authority _______________ _______________ 3. very old, relating to people who lived thousands of 8. a large hole or tunnel in the ground from which years ago _______________ people take coal, gold, etc _______________ 4. to show your love, respect or admiration for 9. a religious ceremony in a church _______________ someone _______________ 10. a day when shops, banks, businesses and schools 5. someone who raises a child but is not a biological are closed _______________ parent _______________ © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2017 Celebrations: Mother’s Day and Father’s Day 1 Mother's Day and Father's Day Worksheet Mother’s Day Mother's Day is a time to honour mothers and mother figures, such as stepmothers, foster mothers, grandmothers or mothers-in-law. On this day many people visit their mother and give her a card and a gift, or they take their mother out for a meal in a restaurant. Mother’s Day is held on the second Sunday of May in many countries in Europe as well as in Australia, Canada and the United States. In the United Kingdom it is on the Sunday three weeks before Easter. Celebrations of mothers go back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honour of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, but the more recent history of Mother’s Day goes back to the 1600s in England. There, Mothering Sunday was celebrated on the fourth Sunday of Lent (the 40 days before Easter). After a church service to honour Jesus’ mother Mary, children gave flowers to their own mothers. These days, in the UK, Mothering Sunday has become less of a religious holiday and more similar to the American Mother’s Day celebration. In the United States, Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in 1908 and became an official US holiday in 1914. However, Mother's Day is not a public holiday. Businesses and stores open or close, just as they do on any other Sunday in the year, but restaurants are busier than usual. Mother’s Day is an official public holiday in some countries such as Costa Rica (August 15), Georgia (March 3), Samoa (second Monday of May), and Thailand (August 12). Father’s Day Father's Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in June in the UK and in many other countries around the world. The idea to have a special day for fathers started in the USA and in 1972 President Richard Nixon made it a US national holiday. Although Father’s Day is celebrated in many countries around the world, it is not usually an official public holiday. There are two stories about the beginning of Father’s Day. One says that Sonora Dodd, from Washington, came up with the idea in 1910 after attending a Mother’s Day service in church. Dodd and her brothers and sister were raised by their single father after their mother died, and she asked why fathers did not have their own day too. The other story says that Grace Golden Clayton, from Fairmont, West Virginia, invented Father’s Day in 1908. After a mine explosion killed more than 360 men in a nearby town she suggested that children in the town needed a special day to remember their fathers. In Germany Vatertag (Father’s Day) is celebrated on Ascension Day (a religious public holiday) which is always on a Thursday in April, May or June. The day is also called Männertag (or Men’s Day) and it is traditional for groups of men to go for a hike, taking beer and meat for a barbecue. In China, Father’s Day used to be celebrated on 8 August. The Chinese word for eight is ‘ba’, and one word for father is ‘ba-ba’ – so the eighth day of the eighth month sounds similar to ‘daddy’. These days, the celebration has moved to the third Sunday of June; the same day as the UK and US. © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2017 Celebrations: Mother’s Day and Father’s Day 2 Mother's Day and Father's Day Worksheet Exercise 3: Discussion questions • When is Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in your country? • Do you celebrate Mother’s Day or Father’s Day? If so, what do you do? • If you had 25 pounds / 30 euros to spend on a gift for your mother or father (or a mother or father figure), what would you buy? Exercise 4: Conversation and story-telling © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2017 Celebrations: Mother’s Day and Father’s Day 3 Mother's Day and Father's Day Worksheet Read all six of the sentence beginnings below. Think about how you could continue each one and make notes for yourself. Use the photos for some ideas. Then take it in turns to tell short stories about your family to your partner. My mother/stepmother/grandmother/aunt/sister loved to ... My father/stepfather/grandfather/uncle/brother often ... My mother/stepmother/grandmother/aunt/sister never ..