December can be a time of great happiness for children all over the world but also a time of misery. The prospect of end of term exams could weigh heavy on the minds of children. Yet, as school nears its end for the year and the Spring Festival creeps closer children can also be in great spirits. For children in my country December brings another source of joy: Christmas.

I chose to create a lesson based on the western festival of Christmas. It is peculiar to find myself in a country that does not celebrate something that my entire country loves and take time of work for. So, I wanted to bring this source of happiness for so many children in my country to Shuangliu Experimental Primary School.

For the Grade 1 and 2 classes we practiced just 4 words: Santa, Rudolf, Christmas tree, and presents. We also practiced saying ‘merry Christmas’ which is the greeting that is spoken around the time of Christmas. These words are for me what signify the most important elements of Christmas to a young child. They embody everything that makes Christmas so special; A jolly fat man, that brings toys and happiness in the night, using his flying reindeer. We sung a famous Christmas song ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’ and played a snowball game. The children had to throw a piece of paper, or a ‘snowball’, at a target to gain points after speaking one of the Christmas words. They were so excited to play and learned the words well!

Not all students are so easy to excite, however! The grade 5 and 6 classes are older and less enthusiastic. So, for this lesson I focused on telling a story. The story of Santa Claus. They are too old to believe in such stories now but it’s an important piece of western culture. I first taught 8 words to the children. We then played a simple game. I would point to each picture. If I used 2 fingers the children had to speak the word. If I used 1 finger the children had to stay quiet. A very simple game that is great for practicing the vocabulary whilst having a little fun. Once they knew the words, we practiced some sentences with the words. Finally, we played another game. In order to involve students who do not like to raise their hand I took a ball in for the children to throw to children in different teams. The person who gets the ball must speak a sentence using the festive word. Simple games to make the lesson more exciting and ensure happy children at Christmas!

Grade 3 and 4 lesson was similar to the years above. I took out one word to make it 7. Also, I did not use the ball game for fear of causing a riot in the classroom. I opted this time to practice a little more in depth on the sentences. We played 2 kinds of guessing games involving these sentences. As I taught the vocabulary, I told a story. The children were then given sentences on the board from this story. They had to remember who or what word the sentences applied to. I then mirrored this game in a guessing box game. A student from one team had to choose a box and read the sentence. They then selected someone from a different team. That person had to answer correctly, then they could choose the next box and person.

The children showed great interest in this lesson which was very encouraging and rewarding as Christmas is such an important festival and holiday in my culture. To see the children learning these words and having fun was a great way to spend Christmas.