[the Obscure]

Hey everyone,

I've been asked to come up with some Christmas activities for some classes of 3rd year junior high school students (the equivalent of US freshmen, so they're 14/15 years old). I was thinking about making Christmas cookies, but the cooking room might not be free during our class periods, so in the event that that doesn't work out, I need to have a back up plan. And even if we do make cookies, we'll have some down time while they're baking, so it would be nice to have something for them to do while they wait.

I've searched a bunch of sites on line, but the activities are mostly targeted at elementary school level classes. The students have had quite a few previous English Assistants who have talked about Christmas before, so they really don't need anything explained to them about the holiday, we just need an activity so that they can do something fun and holiday-ish. This class isn't super motivated, and it's really hard to get them to participate, so I'd really like to do something funny and active so that they can try to have a good time.

Even if you have an activity that's not specifically Christmas related, but has a general festive holiday spirit, that would work too.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any help you're able to offer!

the O

[Canadajin]

Sorry I:m really not helpful but I need help with my JHS class Holiday games too. For Halloween I played a really fun game but the teacher was annoyed it wasn:t challenging enough for them, in that they only learned some vocabulary. Anyway with my elementary kids lately I've been teaching "what do you want for Christmas" and they get to draw a present idea and then eventually ask eachother (usually I make them pass a santa hat and a present around with music on and then when it stops santa has to get up and ask what the kid holding the present wants)...maybe that could be adapted for first year JHS but third year...I don:t think so. I know not helpful, just hoping someone else has some ideas.

[EngliPatrick]

It's not extremely helpful but here are some ideas, worksheets and links that might help you out.

JHS NonTextbook Holidays Christmas

[Ingonyama]

I have tried a number of classroom games, taken from this website:

BBC | British Council teaching English - Try - Activities - Other

My students specially enjoy the pass the parcel game, find someone who or pin the nose to the reindeer (depending on group and esl level) Hoper it's useful to you!!

[madaniela]

I think that at this age, they can practise the 4 skills, first introducing a reading about the origen of the Christmas celebration, where Santa is supposed to live..., they can then make role plays, thus they read, listen and speak. Then they can practise any structure or vocabulary or phonetics with a board game about Christmas time to finish with Jingle Bells rock song.

[kisito]

Hi,
There are lots of Christmas activities and ideas here :ESL festivals Worksheets for teachers, Christmas, Halloween
and ESL Holiday and Festival Worksheets , Halloween, Christmas, St. Patrick's Day
I used them with a number of teachers in our school and things went well in teaching all the language of Christmas. There are activities and resources to try in your classroom. Tomorrow we will be doing a number of Christmas songs and activities with the parents for Christmas. Some of the songs that we have so far practised are "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree", "War is Over" , "Jingle Bells" " Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer".
One way to teach the songs is to google for the lyrics and mp3 files. Then blank out some words from the sheets. Let them listen to the song and feel in the missing words. Then later play a game where you sing the first half of a song and the students sing the next. If they hesitate they loose points. That is how I got my students to sing the songs so well without the lyrics.
The students singing "Rudolph" have made anthlers which they will wear and sing. They have also practised a number of actions to go with the songs. I have seen these types of Christmas activities work several times- They may work for you.

[kierstin]

hi everyone I am little I am not a teacher but I play school all the time because I want to be a third grade teacher when I grow up and I was hoping you can help me with some stuff anything at that so please e-mail me at derosky@sbcglobal.net
thanks kierstin

[Eric18]

For my adult and community college students, I used to bring in a huge selection of holiday greeting cards from the very religious to quite secular. Each student got to choose two holiday cards to send - one for a relative and one for a friend. They added their own messages in English. They loved it!
The UNICEF cards worked well, but you could also get card collections on sale. Variety - and a nod toward multi-religious faiths - works best in cosmopolitan cities like Los Angeles. It's also a nice end of semester activity because students get to use and display their increased language skills.
As the old American TV commercial used to suggest, "try it; you'll like it."

[shauna_brooke77]

I`m just gonna say something difrent to what your saying but i just love christmas games and activities.