English Teachers Everywhere » Holidays

Kevin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:48:43 +0000

Looking for a St. Patricks song with an EFL/ESL twist? Listen to the song “If I Were a Leprechaun.” The lyrics comes from Mary O’Flynn at songs4english.com. I recorded some music to them.

Animals of the Chinese Zodiac

Kevin — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:53:54 +0000

Celebrate the Chinese New Year! 2009 is the year of the Ox. This activity is for beginners or lower-level learners. Print the pictures and words in this Word doc: Chinese Zodiac Animals

Cut. Allow students in groups to match the word with the picture.

Next play the song “Animals of the Chinese Zodiac.” Young learners might enjoy acting it out–making the sounds the animals make or moving like them. You’ll find the lyrics printed in the document above.

Also, since dogs are in the Chinese Zodiac, go check out the listening/creative writing activity about dogs here.

Paul the Monster Crashes a Party

Kevin — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:58:39 +0000

Here’s a Halloweenish story/poem with accompanying audio.
crash a party = to attend a party without invitation, or sneak into a party

Poor Paul the Monster!
Depression at last had set in,
from living alone the woods
with not a soul there to threaten.

What good is a monster
if there’s no one to see
what a hard, cold-hearted
hideous ol’ brute he can be?

So Paul the Monster crashed a party.
It wasn’t easy to get in.
But, my what a shock he got–
from all those there that met him.

They reached out their claws
or paws or tentacles in slime,
and our poor Paul yelled
“You’re monsters too–just like I’m.”

Next to them, he wasn’t so bad,
so there was no one to threaten.
Then some creature cried out, “Let’s party!”
and popped a cassette in.

Repulsively pulsing
monster music!
But they all rather liked it,
and it was their right to choose it.

Each creature had its own unsightly
unseemly, yucky dancing style
which, to his amazement,
Paul got used to after a while.

So in the end
what kind of monster was Paul?
He looked at the strangeness around him
and saw friends.
They were no longer monsters at all.

Valentine’s Day Pie

Kevin — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 05:15:47 +0000

Here’s a mini C-test you can write on the board. It’s the words to a song called “Valentine’s Day Pie.”

In a C-test the second half of every other word is missing. If the word has an odd number of letters, the larger half is taken away. An apostrophe is counted as a letter. One-letter words are skipped, and the first sentence is untouched.

The C-Test was developed by Christine Klein-Braley and Ulrich Raatz, and it is an accurate way of testing language proficiency.

Students should complete the text below by filling in the missing letters. Try this before listening to the song

I’ve got a sweetheart.
Sometimes I do___ know h__ to sh__
that I lo__ her.
S_ I ga__ her a gi__,
a le___ pie,
ba___ it mys___
on Valen______ Day.
Ye__, a le___ pie
o_ Valentine’s D__
but I for___,
she doe____ like p__
or lemons eit___.

Or if you prefer a straight listening activity, play the song below and ask students to write down ALL the words. You can play the song several times; it’s only 46 seconds long.

The History/Mystery of Valentine’s Day

Kevin — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 03:38:27 +0000

Investigative reporter Kristin Krinks takes a tough look at the history of Valentine’s day.

Be sure to listen to to the audio (below).

Teachers can make a listening activity by copying and pasting the text below into a Word document and making a gap-fill activity.

You might want to listen to the outtakes too.

Long ago, in ancient Rome there was a festival, celebrated in February, where men on the streets hit women with pieces of goatskin.

This was said to help make them become more fertile. (In reality, it probably just made them distrust men. And maybe goats too). Oh, incidentally the goatskins were called FEBRUA. Can you guess what word we get from that?

Later, Rome conquered France. You know for certain that when the Italians and French get together, something romantic will ensue.

They had a festival, and what they did was this: A woman wrote her name on a note, and she may have added a few lovely-dovey or suggestive words. Then the note was put into a barrel, and a man would reach in and chose one.

It was a kind of love lottery.

We donâ€™t know what the happy couple did together after that, but these barrel notes might actually have been the first form of Valentineâ€™s Day cards.

But that doesnâ€™t tell us who St. Valentine was.

Again, nobody really knows. But during the Roman Empire days, young soldiers were often forbidden to marry. There was a religious man who didn’t agree with the no-marriage-for-soldiers rule, and he went against the law and married people anyway.

His name was Valentine. Good for you, Valentine.

Sadly, he was executed.

There you have it. Some of the possible roots of Valentine’s Day.

Samples used from Freesound in the audio:
By sukaton (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=13313)
drawing3.wav (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=17859)
By acclivity (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/usersViewSingle.php?id=37876)
Cheer.wav (http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=22952)

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Holiday Song

Kevin — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 21:46:53 +0000

This is a Christmas song from the earthly 19th century. Thus, its English is not particularly useful to today’s students. You can see the old form for plural “you”–ye–which isn’t too handy nowadays, for instance.

God rest ye, merry gentleman
let nothing you dismay
remember Christ our Savior
was born on Christmas day
to save us all from Satan’s power
when we were gone astray
oh, tidings of comfort and joy
comfort and joy
oh, tidings of comfort and joy

In the first recording version, the melody repeats 3 times, with singing in the middle one.

Students can sing along, and of course, if they like, write their own words–a Recycle song to the karaoke version.

You’ll also find in the audios below, “God Bless you, English Students” which is a Recycle Song. There is also a karaoke version on this.

key words: to sleep in = to sleep late

Here are some of the words: have your students find the rest….

God bless you, fellow English students
It’s all (1) __________ and no (2) __________
Put down the (3) __________ lists
It’s time for a (4) ___________
(5) __________ stay up (6) ____________
on the dance (7) __________
(8) __________ homework will have to wait
And (9) __________ the morning
we’ll sleep (10) __________ very late
very very late.
(repeat last line)

Answers
(1) work, (2) play, (3) vocabulary, (4) holiday, (5) We’ll, (6) till, (7) floor, (8) our, (9) in, (10) in

Dancing with the Skeletons

Kevin — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 02:28:20 +0000

This is a choreography song… A Halloween dance number. There are almost no words to to this song.

When you listen to the mp3 file, you’ll notice sections of the song are numbered: a voice will say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

For example:

Here are the dance directions for Section 1:

Hold both arms out, but bent at the elbows, hands pointing to the ground. Turn slowly around in a circle.

Once students in groups learn Section 1, they have an example. They can begin choreographing the remaining 7 sections of the song. Play the song. Assign one section per group. Their dance must be simple enough that they can write the instructions on the board or on poster paper. We want all dance “steps” on the board so that the entire class can perform the dance, following the instructions.

For basic learners, the directions for one section might be as simple as “Put your right hand on your head.” More advanced groups may write, “Raise your left leg, open your mouth like a fish, jump up and down.”

Perform the dance together, reading the directions from the board. Later, perhaps even the next day when the instructions have been erased, ask students to re-create them–the whole dance, either writing the instructions as best they can in pairs, or verbally.

Real skeletons have been creating dances this way for centuries. This activity is still very popular at traditional skeleton weddings.

But wait. Is this an effective activity for language learning? Well, students will have to create language describing movement, write the directions on the board for all to see, listen and follow others’ directions, with the physical movements reinforcing the meaning of the language. That ain’t bad.

If you like songs involving movement, check out Movement Songs.

Mr Candlelight

Kevin — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 02:16:38 +0000

In this creepy song the singer actually sings to a candle. What does he say?
Some key words have been gapped out of the lyrics, but they are listed below. You might try filling in the blanks before listening.

NOUNS: bed, man, nothing, shadows, spider, stair, wall
VERBS: lead, look, make, show, throw

Hey, there, Mr. Candlelight
you __________ the __________ on the __________.
You __________ a __________ look nine feet tall,
and a __________ look small

Hey, there, Mr. Candlelight
Please __________ the way up the __________.
And when I __________ underneath my __________,
Please __________ me __________â€™s there.

As a Recycle Song follow up, students in groups can write their own words to the karaoke version of the song. They will address some inanimate object and talk to it, using the above lyrics as a pattern. For example, “Hello, Mrs. Tennis Shoe,” or “Good Evening, my dear chocolate bar.”

Words and Music: KM
Time: 1:10

Ghost at the Door

Kevin — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 01:55:06 +0000

Here is a short Halloween song of four lines. However, it has been mixed into language chunks. The task is to rearrange the eleven chunks below into the four-line poem. Afterwards students can listen to the song to check their work.

1. a ghost came
2. a ghostly voice call out
3. But when I opened it
4. â€˜Cause I heard
5. down the street
6. Maybe he wandered
7. he wasnâ€™t there
8. On Halloween eve
9. no more
10. to my door
11. â€œTrick or Treat.â€

Words and Music: KM
Time: 0:51