ESOL Queen

Today some of my students taught me how to say "Merry Christmas" in their languages:     I love teaching my students about Christmas at school and using it as a chance to find out about festivals and traditions in my students' own countries.  Many of my ESOL students are very familiar with Christmas as they celebrate it in their home countries. However, for a lot of my students from the Middle East and Sudan Christmas can be a completely new for them:  "Who is this man with a red coat and white beard? Why is my child dressed as a shepherd in their school play? Why are there green trees with lights in every shop and building?" These are just a few questions that my students often ask! There are many great Christmas resources out there. Two of my favorite videos to show students are: The Nativity Story for ESL students:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swmOqAcFP80 Mr Bean's Christmas:  Mr bean Episode 6 FULL EPISODE 'Merry Christmas, Mr bean' - YouTube

I really love the build up to Christmas lessons at my school, as there are so many great opportunities to find out about important days and festivals in my students' own cultures. I am so blessed to teach students from over 20 countries currently and know learners from over 50 places (from Argentina to China and every country in between!).  From my experience students love to share about their own cultural traditions and celebrations. It is a great opportunity for them to learn from each other and to learn about important celebrations in the UK, It is also a good time for students to practice making comparisons between cultures. Just the last week I discovered the Egyptian Christmas is on a different date to the Polish one and that the Kurdish New Year (Naroz) is different from the UK! Here are some of my Pre-Entry and low Entry 1 Festival activities (click on the pic to download):   Here are some of my Level 1 and 2 Festival writing worksheets (click on the pics to download).