This lesson plan describes teaching students about Christmas celebrations. The teacher will have students brainstorm celebrations, play a matching game to practice vocabulary, and look at pictures of Christmas parties. Students will describe the pictures using the phrases "there was" and "there were". They will fill in blanks with these phrases. Finally, students will write their own descriptions of Christmas parties they attended.

1. Lesson pLan
Topic: The celebrations - Christmas day
Course: 8ºB
Purpose: Describing the Christmas celebration through the observation of
images
Content: Simple past “There was” “There were”
Agenda: Brainstorming
Game
Christmas celebration pictures
Exercise filling in the blacks
Description of a Christmas party
Reading
Events:
Presenting the topic, teacher asks the students about the different celebrations
they know around the world, but specially in Colombia, doing like a
brainstorming. Trying to remember these celebrations, students participate in a
game –competition by rows or lines- in which they have to match some images
of different and common celebrations –that are stuck on the board- with their
correct names. It is done with the purpose students familiarize with the
vocabulary of this topic they have to work during the next classes.
These names are practiced modeling the students’ pronunciation when the
teacher asks them about the months in which we celebrate all of them (here,
they can remember the vocabulary of the months and the dates.)
CHRISTMAS DAY
HOLY WEEK
MOTHER’S DAY
After that, teacher asks them about the most important celebration in the world,
then they talk about Christmas and the different things they do in this time of
the year and finally teacher tells then the purpose of the class.
Continuing with this topic, teacher presents the students a big image (or two
small ones) about a Christmas party and she asks about the things they can see
in it. While they describe the image, teacher is writing on the board the
vocabulary they are using (that is like a response, because when students say
the words in Spanish, teacher writes them in English and pronounces it).

2. After the description, teacher asks them to imagine that this party was the last
year, so she asks: what were there in this party? Teacher starts answering this
question by using the vocabulary students said in the first description and also
by using the structure “There was/were”. She sticks three papers on the board
showing this structure and giving some examples in such a way students
understand the singular and plural use of it.
WAS one tree / a nativity scene
THERE
WERE two bells / many gifts
Then, teacher asks them to describe again the picture, but using this structure.
Maybe here, some students could go at the front of the classroom to build some
sentences related to this description by removing the papers.
To practice this grammar content, students receive a sheet of paper with a small
picture of a Christmas party and with some exercises to fill in the blanks with
“there was” or “there were” according to the things they observed in it. At the
end of this exercise, they could do in pairs, they share the answers -reading the
sentences aloud- with the rest of the group and the teacher to solve questions.
Example:
Image about a Christmas party
Observe the picture and complete the blacks with there was or there were
Example: there was a tree
1. ______________ five gifts 4. There ______ a turkey
2. ______________ ten people 5. ____________ two children
3. ______________ a cake
After teacher is sure students have understood, each one of them receives a
sheet of paper in which they have to describe the Christmas party they had in
the last December. This is part of the students’ production in which they have to
create a text that contains the date of the party and the things they say in that
celebration (here, teacher present a model that helps the students to organize
their ideas). The drawing is optional although it could be good for the reading

3. moment, because some of them (or all the students) read their texts aloud for
the rest of the group and if the time is short, it could be read in pairs.
Students hand this exercise to the teacher.
Finishing the lesson, teacher asks the students about the things they learnt and
what for they learnt it.
Resources: Flash cards with words and images, sheets of paper with the
exercises and for student’s production.
Assessment: It is done from the very beginning when the students are
trying to speak in English but using the Spanish in some moment, it helps
teacher knows the students’ prior knowledge and to compare it with the results
at the end of the lesson and after they have finished the production that is a
kind of evaluation.
Assessment is also done in the moment students work in pairs, when they
participate in class and in the practice exercise, trying to give them direct
feedback about the questions and the good results they have, specially being
with students who may have more problems.
***This lesson plan is the beginning of the celebrations unit in which teacher is
going to teach simple past tense.
Liliana Maria Ramirez Vanegas