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Introduction:
You should approach this subject with sensitivity and not assume that all your children will be flying off on holiday with Mum and Dad. Holidays are often about spending time on their own, with grand-parents or spending time in holiday camps with summer schools. The best thing to do is personalise your lesson so that each child can express themselves without fearing the comparison with other children. Explain that spending your summer holidays at home can be just as fun as going away.
Linguistic aims:
- To help sts recognize frequency adverbs (usually, sometimes) in a written text.
- To integrate the expression ‘going to +verb’ to ask about future plans. This is done on a passive level and is used by the teacher and appears in the written text. The learners will not be expected to actively reproduce the expression – just understand it.
- To introduce summer-related vocabulary: suitcase, sunglasses, shorts, t-shirt, passport, swimming costume, sun cream (or sunscreen).
- To review weather and season vocabulary: spring, summer, autumn, winter, sun, (heavy/light) rain, storm, snow, wind, ice.
- To practise introducing oneself in an official context. (with a passport).
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Cultural / social aims:
- To make learners aware of different seasons in English speaking countries.
- To refer to the internet as a place to read and (later) write.
- To make learners feel comfortable with the diversity of their lifestyles
- To stimulate imagination for addressing problem of boredom. To find alternative activities to playing on computers.
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Blogs:
There are more and more authentic resources on the internet that we can use in our lessons. This blog is written by a French ELT teacher:
http://mfc-french.blogspot.com/2007/06
- This particular entry is written by Florian, a 12-year old French boy, who describes what he usually does for the summer holidays and what he is going to do this year.
- It’s a clear authentic text to use with pictures to help with understanding.
- He uses the expressions I usually go/ I sometimes go and I like + ing’. He then uses ‘going to +verb’ to talk about his future plans.
- You don’t need to present this but you can use the structure as your teacher language. E.g. you ask the question: ‘What does Florian usually do in the summer holidays?’
- They can read the text and try to find any activities and answer the question using those expressions. Eg he goes canoeing, swimming, shopping…
- Move on to ask ‘What is he going to do this summer? And then ‘What are you going to do this summer?’
- They can reply ‘ride a bike’, ‘visit my grand-parents’ ‘ go to the beach’, ‘swim in the sea’, ‘read my book’. If they don’t know how to say it they should mime it and then you elicit from the class or provide the word in English if no-one knows.
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Summer holidays around the world:
- Integrating cultural references to other Anglophone countries is very important. For primary children it’s culturally rich for them to think about their summer weather in relation to other people’s summer weather.
- Start with a world map http://www.gozo.ws/World.php (you can use this one to give yourself an idea of what you want the children to do).
- Use this one to print, blow up and display: http://visibone.com/countries/countrychart_4080.jpg
- Give the children weather flashcards to stick onto the map. Here are some you can use. You will need to enlarge them with a photocopier and then stick blutack on the back so that they can be moved around the map.
- They can guess what weather could go where for summer. Each time they place a flashcard they should say what it is. Drill with the whole class. You can have a few of each so that you don’t just end up with one sunny country.
- When they have thought about which countries have which type of weather they can do this on-line gap-fill game. There are 8 sentences. Each sentence has a word missing.
- The sentences are all about different seasons around the world.
- Following the sentences there is a text which develops the subject further. This is only for higher level primary.
- They are then given the option to write about the seaons in their own country. You could work together as a class to produce a short description of the weather and what children do in the summer in the country you’re teaching in. http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games-gapfill-seasons.htm
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Packing a suitcase:
Going away in the summer, whether it’s to stay the family holiday home, to go travelling in a caravan, to fly on a plane, get on a train or drive in a car, implies packing a suitcase. For those who aren’t going away for the summer holidays they can pack a stay-at-home bag full of everything they need to make their summer holiday amazing.
- Brainstorm with the children’s help what they need to pack in a suitcase or stay-at-home bag.
- Draw the pictures on the board as they say the words in their L1, checking first to see if anyone knows the word in English.
- An alternative is to show these flashcards.
- You can do this worksheet below with your learners. They have to cut out the picture of the suitcase, cut out the pictures of the objects they want to put into their suitcase, then stick and label:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-print-summer-holidays.pdf
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Make your own passport:
To lead on from packing a suitcase you can get your class to make their own passport.
- You can print out a ready-made passport for your learners to fill in: http://membres.lycos.fr/englishforkids/
To get to the passport go to ‘progression propose’ then go to unit 23 ‘going on holiday’. Where it says ‘make your passport’ click on ‘recto’ and then ‘verso’ and print both.
- They can use their passports to do a role-play milling around the class or in pairs with the person sitting next to them.
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Word games:
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Extra activities:
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