Classroom tips: 12 days of Christmas

Iram Ahmed
Young children stood in a row clapping and celebrating with a christmas tree in the background

With the holiday season approaching, it’s good to add some fun into teaching to keep your students engaged and motivated. We’ve created 12 simple classroom activities and tips that you can carry out with your primary class to encourage them to be good.

Classroom tips for the lead up to the holidays
Play
Privacy and cookies

By watching, you agree ÃÛÌÒapp can share your viewership data for marketing and analytics for one year, revocable by deleting your cookies.

Day 1

Santa’s watching

Fact: Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, Sinterklaas – whatever we call him, many countries around the world have a tradition that naughty children will only receive coal, twigs or even onions. But do children always know how to be good?

Classroom application

Classroom tip: Catch students being good

Watch out for good behavior and praise it when you see it - much more effective than dealing with problems as they arise.

Ìý

Day 2

Christmas countdown

Fact: Advent calendars count down the days to Christmas, and for children that usually means gifts! But is the festive period all about presents?

Classroom applicationÌý

Classroom tip: Kindness calendar

Challenge students to carry out one act of kindness every day in December. They can plan this on a blank calendar and tick the kind acts as they complete them.

Ìý

Day 3

Season’s greetings

Fact: Did you know that greeting students individually at the door improves learning and engagement?

Classroom application

Classroom tip: Holiday password

Have a holiday-themed password for children to give as they enter the classroom. Students choose a new password every lesson.

Ìý

Day 4

Frosty the Snowman

Fact: The largest snowman in the world was actually a snowwoman. and had trees for arms.

Classroom applicationÌý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý

Classroom tip: Concrete poems

A concrete poem written in a shape that reflects the topic of the poem, for example a poem about a snowman written in the shape of a snowman. Challenge your students to write their own concrete poems about Christmas (or a current holiday for them).

Ìý

Day 5

DIY decorations

Fact: Chinese New Year is the most important winter festival in China. Like Christmas, one of the main activities is putting up paper decorations.

Classroom application

Classroom tip: Collaborative tree

Each child draws around their hand, cuts it out and either draws a picture or writes a sentence about themselves. The whole class makes a display out of the handprints.

Ìý

Day 6

Star students

Fact:ÌýStars feature in many Christmas traditions. For example, in Poland, the Christmas eve feast only starts when the first star appears in the night sky.

Classroom application

Classroom tip: 2 stars and a wish

Give focused feedback on written tasks by identifying two positive aspects of work and one area to work on. Works great for peer assessment too.

Ìý

Day 7

Perfect presents

Fact: Everyone loves getting presents. In Liberia, instead of Santa bringing toys, you’ll find Old Man Bayka, who walks the streets asking for gifts!

Classroom application

Classroom tip: My gift to the world

Brainstorm things students can do to help make the world a better place, such as volunteering at a local charity or planting a tree. Challenge them to do one thing as a holiday gift to the world.

Ìý

Day 8

Festive feasts

Fact: Famous fried chicken in Japan, caterpillars in South Africa, hot tamales in Venezuela and oysters in France. Christmas dinners vary greatly as you move around the world.

Classroom application

Classroom tip: Recipe for success

Students can make their own Recipe for Success by thinking about what they need to be successful in the new year.

Example (to be designed to look like a child wrote it):

  • 1 cup of doing my best
  • ½ cup of ideas
  • ¼ cup of smiles
  • 2 tablespoons of teamwork
  • 3 teaspoons of listening to the teacher

Ìý

Day 9

Holiday traditions around the world

Fact: Festive saunas in Finland, roller skating in Venezuela and Christmas cobwebs in Ukraine, no two countries celebrate Christmas in exactly the same way.

Classroom application

Classroom tip: Venn Diagrams

Students choose 2 countries and research how they celebrate during wintertime. They record their findings as Venn Diagrams. They record the different traditions of the two countries in the sections on the left and right. Anything they have in common goes in the middle.

Ìý

Day 10

The excitement of Christmas

Fact: Anticipation plays a big part in the excitement of Christmas. Will Santa come? What presents I get? Who will win the annual family game of charades?

Classroom application

Classroom tip: Big questions

Start lessons by posing big questions to engage students’ natural curiosity and motivate them to find answers. Open questions work great, such as How do animals communicate? or What makes someone a hero?

Ìý

Day 11

Holiday cheer

Fact: Forget the Grinch, the festive season is a time for feeling good and spreading happiness.

Classroom application

Classroom tip: Compliment corner

Allocate a space in the classroom as the compliment corner – a notice board or a big piece of paper. Students can write compliments to each other on sticky notes and put them on the board. Such as ‘I love the pictures you drew of your favorite hobby’, or ‘You’re so good at singing’.

Ìý

Day 12

New Year’s resolutions

Fact: The start of a new year is a great time to focus on self-improvement, but only 8% of people are successful in sticking to their resolutions.

Classroom application

Classroom tip: Self and peer reflection

At the end of each lesson, ask students to reflect on their learning. Support students by providing sentence stems such as I learnt…I enjoyed …I’m good at…To improve I will…I didn’t understand…

Ìý

Make these activities your own and adapt them to your class. They should help you turn the lead-up to the holidays in the classroom into an exciting one for your students and almost make them forget they're learning at the same time.

For more inspiration and general activities for your primary learners, try readingÌý5 quick and easy ESL games for teaching young learners.ÌýIf you're looking for inspiring and engaging English courses for young learners check out our range:

More blogs from ÃÛÌÒapp

  • College students sitting together working on a project

    Five ways to apply startup thinking in your classroom

    By Nicole Kyriacou
    Reading time: 3 minutes

    Startups are generally considered to be new, technology-focused companies that are less than five years old. For the most part, they aim to disrupt industry with innovations, grow in terms of users and revenues and provide value to customers and shareholders.

    It may not appear that startups have much in common with English Language Teaching (ELT), but there is, in fact, plenty to learn from startups and the way they work.

    By understanding how startups think and looking at their best attributes, we can bring more creativity to our classrooms. Not only can we find new ways for our students to learn, collaborate and grow together, but we can also help our students develop much-needed leadership and critical thinking skills.

    What is startup thinking?

    At its core, startup thinking is about problem-solving and growth. User-focused and data-driven, startup teams theorize, research, plan and test their products on new markets. Their strength is in their agility, being able to "pivot" quickly: change products, services and technology based on feedback from their customers.

    They also operate on a number of key principles, all of which can be applied in the classroom:

    1. Be entrepreneurial

    Startups are entrepreneurial by definition. Their staff work in teams, but also have no problem going it alone, finding solutions and taking responsibility for new projects and initiatives. These are all excellent traits to encourage in the classroom as they will not only help your learners in an educational context, but in their professional lives too.

    By learning to be accountable to themselves, measuring their own progress and seeing their achievements, autonomous learners develop self-confidence and progress faster as a result.

    It’s therefore important to encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning. Rather than being solely reliant on their teacher, autonomous learners seek out ways to practice and improve their language skills in ways that appeal to them.

    To do this, brainstorm strategies with your students to help them find ways to use English outside the classroom. They could, for example, keep a journal in English, watch English language films and take notes, read short stories or news articles, or even set their technology and social media language settings to English.

    2. Collaborate and learn from each other

    Startups have a common goal: to establish a business model and achieve a product-market fit. This goal focuses people’s attention and develops rapport among team members. As an additional benefit of working together, startuppers learn their own strengths and weaknesses and begin to collaborate with team members with complementary skills.

    By learning about your students’ interests, objectives and needs, you can find inspiration to design relevant class projects. These give your students a common goal and the chance to collaborate effectively. What’s more, project work is rich in language learning opportunities and makes students accountable to one another. This in turn increases motivation and provides a genuine context for language learning.

    3. Reward effort

    Startups are not afraid to get things wrong. In fact, all entrepreneurs embrace mistakes, as they are part of coming to the right solution. As Thomas Edison once said "I have not failed 10,000 times – I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work." ÌýSome startups go as far as to reward and celebrate failure – saying that it’s a sign that a person is trying to succeed.

    Encourage students to see mistakes as learning opportunities. Creating a safe space in the classroom where everyone is treated with respect and mistakes are viewed as natural learning experiences. This will help your students learn the language at their own pace, without fear of ridicule.

    4. Foster a growth mindset

    Startups are famous for focusing on growth and believing in improving their products. They see both negative and positive feedback as opportunities to grow. By always seeking to optimize their products and services, they improve the user experience and earn loyalty.

    Similarly, it’s key to foster a growth mindset in your learners. ÌýA growth mindset perceives intelligence and ability as attributes to be developed, whereas a fixed mindset sees intelligence and ability as innate and unchanging.

    Students with a growth mindset will therefore believe they can improve, be more motivated and see more progress as a result.

    5. Mentor and support

    Startup founders mentor and support their team members when they face challenges, when they need to grow and when they are not reaching their potential. This increases the value of the workforce and enables them to be more productive.

    Teachers are often already naturals at this. We know how important it is to offer support to our students, especially when they are feeling frustrated or disappointed with their progress. With our encouragement and support, our students can achieve things they never thought possible. So perhaps, in this final point, startup leaders could learn a thing or two from us.

  • Children sat in a classroom with raised hands, their teacher stands at the front of the class

    GSE Partner School Program: Batari School and Maitreyawira School

    By Thomas Gardner
    Reading time: 4 minutes

    The Global Scale of English (GSE) Partner School program by ÃÛÌÒapp stands as a beacon of innovation and excellence. This initiative is not just about enhancing English language ability: it's about transforming the educational journey for both teachers and students. Today, we celebrate the success stories of two institutions: Batari School and Maitreyawira School, both of which have embraced the GSE Partner School program with inspiring results.

  • Two people sat togther with phones smiling

    Don't give up when it comes to learning English

    By Steffanie Zazulak
    Reading time: 2 minutes

    We love sharing stories of English learners and educators whose lives have been positively transformed by the language. One such inspiring story comes from Rodrigo Tadeu in São Paulo, Brazil. Discover why he holds a special appreciation for mastering English.

    Motivations for learning English?

    Rodrigo grew up speaking Portuguese in South America. As a child, he never thought about learning another language. However, when he became an adultÌýand began aspiring to a career, he realized that expanding his language abilities would help him achieve these dreams.

    "I worked as an accountant for an American company," he said. "So, to communicate and achieve professional success, I had to learn English!"

    Rodrigo has changed jobs since then. And even though he’s no longer required to speak English with his new company, he still feels a responsibility to himself to continue his education.

    The road to English fluency

    There are many tools that you can use to improve your English language skills, and Rodrigo used several – some he’s still using to this day. First, he started learning English formally by taking classes in high school. However, his shy disposition made it difficult for him to practice because he was afraid of failing in front of others. At the time, he didn't haveÌýcareer goals motivating him to learn the language either.

    Later, however, our adventurous accountant decided to learn English in earnest, so he traveled to Canada to study and become aÌýconfident speaker. When he returned to Brazil, he kept studying and continues to do so. Reading books and articles, listening to podcasts and copying other English speakers have also helped develop his conversational skills. Among his favorite podcasts are "English as a Second Language" and "Freakonomics".

    English learning is not without challenges

    Rodrigo noted that he struggles with pronunciation most.Ìý“The way English speakers say words is very different than the way you would say something in Portuguese.â€

    He thinks the issue is the same for Spanish speakers as well.Ìý"In Portuguese or Spanish, if you know the words,Ìýyou can basically speak exactly what you read. In English, it's totally different. You cannot speak the words that you are reading. So you have to know about this!"

    This might be the most challenging part of learning the language for Rodrigo, but he assured us that he’s not giving up.

    English for enjoyment

    Rodrigo may have initially studied English as a way to progress his career, but the language quickly became something he enjoyed.ÌýAnd instead of being content with the skill that he has now, Rodrigo dreams of continuing his English-speaking education so he can travel and further enjoy his life.

    "These days, English has become fun!" he said. "Now it's better to watch movies and TV in English."

    He also mentioned that he eventually would like to visit Europe. But when asked about his dream destination, Rodrigo said that:Ìý“I’d like to move back to Canada, maybe live in Vancouver for a year or two!â€

    Advice for English language learners

    After working hard for years to learn English, Rodrigo now offers advice to fellow Brazilians (and others) who wish to speak another language:

    "You have to be confident, and don’t give up. You have to keep your dreams. It's difficult to ... speak one language that's not your mother language ... If you can imagine, you can achieve, and you can do. So 'don't give up' is the perfect phrase."