After recycling my yearly Christmas blogpost for the last few years, I decided it was time to make a new one. As a result you now have 18 ideas. Enjoy!

Idea 1: Lyrics Training, Christmas songs and mini-whiteboards

Create an account on Lyrics Training. Load up the website. Give out a set of mini-whiteboards. Pick a song, set your difficulty level. Decide on write mode and choice mode (write means writing full words and choice is a selection from four). Project the video on the screen and hit play. Students write the words when the music stops, show their answers and keep a points tally. Ones I have used in previous years.

Santa Claus llegó a la ciudad Enzo- Laura Pausini version

Feliz Navidad si tu quieres – Enzo

Mi burrito sabanero – Juanes – more on this one later.

You can find others just by typing in Navidad / Noel / Weihnachten or Christmas related words.

Idea 2: The Christmas Quiz is the vehicle for teaching about Christmas.

I’ve seen a lot of Christmas quizzes like this one by Alex Rose on TES. My personal favourite is this one although now it will cost you the wallet destroying sum of £1. It’s a bit shorter and cultural knowledge is dropped in with the answers.

Idea 3: Plan to reuse them every year.

I now have Christmas, Easter and day of the dead PPTs with all of the following in. Yes, it makes for a large file size but at least it is all in one place and easy to load up. It took me 8 years of teaching to think this up but it works now. The resources that go with the PPT are all in the same folder.

Year 7	Lesson 1: Cultural talk, Christmas Quiz + Worksheet. Lesson 2: Burrito Sabanero.
Year 8	Lesson 1: Navidad Mexicana. Lesson 2: Lyrics Training lesson (see above).
Year 9	Lesson 1: Lyrics training lesson (see above) or Todo lo que quiero eres tu Lesson 2: El Gordo
Extras	Christmas Calligrams Writing a letter to santa Spanish Christmas info

Idea 4: Mi burrito sabanero (or similar in German/French)

Most UK primary school kids have come across the song “little donkey”, and if they haven’t then they are missing out/lucky (delete as applicable). I like to think that “mi burrito sabanero” in Spanish is the equivalent!

Do now: 12 words on screen. 8 from the song, 4 not but similar sounding. Students work them out or look them up. Avoid “Belén” as to some teenagers, apparently it sounds quite rude…learnt that one the hard way.

Listen 1: Students listen to the song and identify which ones they hear in the song.

Listen 2: lines from the song mixed up on screen / on paper. Students number them in the order they hear them.

Listen 3: Gap fill

Listen 4: With video containing lyrics to check answer.

If i have heard the song too many times in that week then listen 1 moves straight to listen 3.

Idea 5: Class discussion sentence builder 1

Set up a single powerpoint slide with: “What is the best Christmas film?” in your target language.

Opinion phrases	Name of Film	Simple reasons	Agree/disagree phrases
I love	Home Alone	I like the story	I agree, it’s fantastic
I like	Muppet Christmas Carol	it makes me smile/laugh	I disagree it’s terrible
I enjoy		it makes me feel christmassy	I haven’t seen it

Consider it a sentence builder with reactions added at the end.

Students discuss in pairs and then pick a few to listen to.

Idea 6: Class Discussion Sentence Builder 2

I’ll be honest here, I got to 8 ideas when writing. So, take the idea above and change “best” to “worst” and alter opinion phrases and reasons.

Idea 7: Penguins (Spanish only)

Yep, you read that right.

One whole lesson ready to go. Neil Jones’ Madagascar Penguins is a great “off the shelf” lesson that is fun, enjoyable, Christmassy and goes down well with most groups i have done it with. If you are in the kind of school that doesn’t allow films then maybe try adding it to the scheme of work first.

Idea 8: Activity around a short film (French only)

Courtesy of Josiane Cullis on TES. Le Loup qui n’aimait pas Noel is a lesson based around a short film and with plenty of activities including pre and post listening tasks.

Idea 9: German Christmas Digital Escape Room

I wish I could make something like this but Ann-Kathrin Latter definitely has some skills. This German Christmas Digital Escape Room looks great fun, is beautifully presented and I can see it going down well with Years 7,8,9.