Teaching tenses in Christmas lessons

Christmas lessons are popular with students and often include seasonal vocabulary. However, they can also be full of language that is only relevant once a year. To make the most of Xmas topics, it’s a good idea to combine them with grammar lessons. This article provides ideas on how to practice talking about the past, present, and future during the holiday season. Additionally, there is another article with similar ideas on grammar points like relative clauses and uncountable nouns.

 

Teaching present tenses in Xmas lessons

Teaching Present Simple in Xmas lessons

The Present Simple tense is well-suited for discussing Christmas traditions as it represents actions that happen repeatedly. Students can engage in activities where they guess Xmas customs in different countries, such as “In _________, people usually eat fish on Xmas Eve” or “Santa often puts presents under the ______________”. This activity also allows for the practice of adverbs of frequency to avoid overgeneralizing statements about Xmas.

 

Teaching Present Continuous in Xmas lessons

Students can practice Present Continuous by miming or drawing actions like “You are opening a present” or “You are carving the turkey” for others to guess. They can also compete to create the best mime or drawing to represent a Present Continuous sentence.

 

Teaching Present Simple and Continuous in Xmas lessons

Building on the miming and guessing activity, students can incorporate Present Simple to describe habits related to the actions being mimed. This adds an additional layer of complexity to the activity.

 

Teaching past tenses in Xmas lessons

Students can practice various past tenses through storytelling activities and miming exercises. They can also engage in trivia quizzes to reinforce their understanding of past tense usage.

 

Teaching used to in Xmas lessons

Students can complete sentences using “used to” or Present Simple to indicate habits or past actions. This activity helps reinforce the distinction between these two language forms.

 

Teaching Present Perfect in Xmas lessons

Students can practice Present Perfect questions related to Christmas and engage in follow-up discussions to determine the accuracy of their responses.

 

Teaching future tenses in Xmas lessons

Discussing future actions in the context of Christmas can be engaging for students. They can use various future tenses like Present Continuous, going to, will, and would like to talk about their plans for the holiday season.

 

Teaching going to in Xmas lessons

Students can describe their future actions using “going to” for their partners to guess. This activity can also be extended to making New Year Resolutions related to English language learning.

 

Teaching going to and will in Xmas lessons

By combining “going to” and “will,” students can make predictions about future events. Watching a suitable video like “Merry Xmas Mr. Bean” can provide a context for these predictions.

 

Teaching will in Xmas lessons

Students can make predictions about future Christmases using “will” and engage in discussions about the likelihood of these predictions coming true. This activity helps practice will for spontaneous intentions.

 

Future tense reviews for Xmas lessons

Students can complete sentences with the correct future tenses, and their partners can guess the accuracy of their statements. This activity can be further extended with listening exercises and bluffing games.

 

Tense reviews in Xmas lessons

Trivial quizzes and vocabulary guessing games can be used to practice various tenses in the context of Christmas. These activities help reinforce students’ understanding of different language forms.

 

Teaching passive voice in Xmas lessons

Practicing the passive voice with different tenses through trivia quizzes and guessing games can enhance students’ comprehension of this grammatical structure.