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.

Easter lesson

For our Easter lesson with our English club, we tried something a little adventurous. We wanted to make the lesson fun and meaningful at the same time, so we set up a scavenger hunt. It wasn't terribly difficult to set up, considering that most every aspect of life is more difficult than I ever expect!

Supplies:
1. colored balloons- preferably, a different color for each team. Be sure to get enough for all the clues, plus a couple extras just in case.
2. Strips of paper with location clues written on them
3. A print out of the Easter story for each group. Divide the story into paragraphs/ sections and cut those into strips.

Before blowing up the balloons, fold a clue and a portion of the story up for each balloon and stick them inside the balloon. Blow up the balloons and put them in the locations. Our last balloons led the students back to our classroom where they had to put their stories in order. They really liked this part!

Then, we had an activity sheet prepared for them. We interspersed comprehension questions with "language-y" questions. Comprehension questions: why did the people want Jesus to die? What was rolled in front of the tomb? "Language-y" questions: how many times is 'Jesus' written in this story? Count how many words start with the letter 'p.' Find a word with 4 vowels.

After they finished this activity, we asked deeper questions: what did you think was the most interesting part of the story? Why did Jesus choose to die? Why was it important for him to die?

After we finished this portion of the lesson, I told my story. I focused on how the Lord proved faithful and real to me, particularly when the tornado came through during my senior year of college and destroyed everything. Things went really well.

To finish up, we played a 2 minute list game. Theme? Easter.

Zaccheus

Here's a favorite. This is a great one to use with kids but is also great with adults. It's a good opportunity to talk about how Jesus accepted and even sought out those who are different or who have never felt that they could belong.

Zacchaeus lived in a town called Jericho a long time ago. Nobody liked Zacchaeus very much mostly because he got rich taking money from other people and giving it to the Romans. Some of the money he gave to the Romans - but lots of it he kept for himself.

One bright, sunny day, Zacchaeus looked down the dirt road that came into Jericho and he saw a crowd of people coming his way. Everywhere Jesus went, people who were sick got better, people who couldn’t walk could walk again, people who were blind could see again. Everybody wanted to see Jesus, including Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus ran up to the edge of the crowd and stood on his tiptoes to see what was happening. But he could not see anything. He tried to push his way through the crowd, but everyone wanted to see Jesus, and they wouldn’t let him through.

Then Zacchaeus turned around and saw a sycamore tree growing right beside the road Jesus was walking along. He ran on ahead and climbed up the Sycamore tree. Jesus stopped right under the sycamore tree and looked up, and there was Zacchaeus. “Zacchaeus!” Jesus said to him, “Hurry down from there! I must stay at your house today!”

But the people in the crowd were not so happy. They had spent all day in the hot sun following Jesus, and now he was going to stay at the house of Zacchaeus, a rich, cheating tax collector. “This man is a sinner!” one woman said. “He cheats and steals from his own people!” said an old man. “He isn’t good enough for Jesus to come and stay at his house!”

Zacchaeus heard what the people were saying about him, and he must have known that they were right. He wanted to make things right for Jesus and change. He no longer wanted to cheat people. So he said, “Listen! I will give half of everything I have to the poor! And if I cheated anyone, I will pay them back four times as much!”

Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house! Your life was all wrong, but now it is all right. You were lost, but now you have been saved!

That is why I am here. I came to find and save the lost!”

Vocabulary:

1. Romans –

2. Jericho –

3. crowd –

4. tiptoes –

5. Sycamore –

6. to cheat -

7. Tax collector –

8. salvation -

With kids, this is a good one to act out.

Jesus Heals a Paralytic

"Jesus Heals a Paralytic "

One day while Jesus was teaching inside a friend's house, many, many people came to listen. They crowded around the tiny house. They tried to hear at least a few words of what Jesus was saying.

Four men carrying a stretcher pushed their way through the people. On the stretcher lay a very sick man. He could not move at all. His four friends had brought him to see Jesus. They knew Jesus could make him better.

"Let us by! Let us through to Jesus!" they called out. When they saw they would never make it through the door, two of the men climbed on top of the roof of the house. The other two threw them ropes so they could haul the stretcher onto the roof.

The four men began pulling tiles off the roof. They were making a hole! Inside the house, the people listening to Jesus heard a ripping sound above them. They looked up. Then suddenly, dirt and tiles fell on them. The next thing they knew, a stretcher was being lowered through the hole with a sick man strapped onto it!

Jesus saw how hard the man's friends had worked. He told the sick man all the bad things he might have done no longer mattered. He could start over. Jesus said, "Now get up and walk home."

The man did as he was told, just as if he had never been sick. "Glory to- God! This really is His Son!" He and his four friends shouted and sang the whole way home.

Vocabulary: paralytic, stretcher, haul, tiles, ripping, strapped, Glory to God

For grammar practice, you can have students put these words in the past tense: crowd, bring, see, make, throw, fall, know, tell, do, shout

Students can create sentences with the words for extra practice.

Ask students comprehension and follow-up questions to the story: describe what the friends did for their sick friend, how did Jesus respond?, etc.

Additional activity: have students make a list of character qualities that are important in a friend. Have them discuss why those qualities are the most important. They can also tell you about their friends and the qualities that they most love about their friends.