Christmas, week 2

This lesson is a continuation of the first part of the Christmas story. We started the lesson with a warm-up: Starburst game. The questions we used were: 1) What is your favorite holiday and why? 2) What is your favorite holiday tradition and why? 3) What is your favorite part about winter? and 4) What is your favorite holiday memory?

Next, we checked to see who could retell the first part of the Christmas story from the previous week. This is GREAT for checking comprehension and triggering active thinking. I brought candy for the student who was brave enough to tell the whole thing. Everyone was rather sad that they hadn't tried. :)

We continued with more vocabulary and the spelling game:
1. Angels
2. to appear
3. Shepherds
4. (to be) afraid
5. Flocks
6. Savior
7. Nearby
8. a sign
9. Peace
10. Company
11. Terrified
12. Glory

Some of these they knew, others they didn't. We translated all of them and created sample sentences. After going over the vocabulary, we read through the story.

There were shepherds out in the fields nearby, watching over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord was around them. They were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in Bethlehem a Savior has been born; he is the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly, a great company of angels appeared, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men."

We read, translated, discussed, etc. After going through this part of the story, we retold the first part and then added this part. They did a great job!

As a grammar section (I know, so fun!), we did a secondary activity of preposition fill-in-the-blank:

There were shepherds out ___the fields nearby, watching____their flocks___ night. An
angel of the Lord appeared___them, and the glory___the Lord was around them. They
were terrified. But the angel said___them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of
great joy that will be for all people. Today__Bethlehem a Savior has been born; he is the
Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped___cloths and lying in a
manger." Suddenly, a great company___angels appeared, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and___earth peace to men."

To finish up, we played a rousing game of Hangman. They love it. :)

Christmas, week 1

I started teaching Christmas lessons a few weeks ago, but I forgot to update about them! I've been doing the Christmas story in parts, so as not to overwhelm everyone with vocabulary. Here's the first part of the story that I used with the Intermediates:

In those days Caesar Augustus ordered that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world, and everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth to the town of Bethlehem, because his family came from King David. He went there to register with Mary, his fiancée, who was expecting a child. While they were there, it was time for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Here's some vocabulary that we went over:
1. Census
2. to order
3. to register
4. fiancee
5. to expect a child
6. to wrap
7. cloths
8. Manger
9. inn

You can play the spelling game, have students create sentences or a role-play, play Charades, or play Pictionary. After going through the story, we discussed comprehension questions, practiced reading aloud. After discussing it for a while, I got the students to try to retell it. Based on my own language-learning experience, this is pretty effective.

Here's the story for the Beginners (you can adapt it as needed):

In those days Caesar Augustus ordered that citizens should be counted. Everyone went to his own town. Joseph went to Bethlehem. He went there with Mary, who was expecting a child. While they were there, the baby was born. It was a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger. There was no room in the inn.