This document provides many Christmas-themed teaching resources and activities for English language learners, including: 1) Stories, songs, videos and games about Santa, elves, toys and Christmas traditions that can be used to teach vocabulary and spark discussion. Flashcard activities help practice toy names. 2) Craft ideas like making Christmas cards, trees and snowflakes. Games to reinforce Christmas words. 3) A writing activity where students describe their own Christmas customs or favorite holiday and read about others'. 4) The story of The Snowman to discuss winter weather and build a snowman prop for acting out.

1. Teaching Kids resource
Christmas
There are lots of Christmas activities on the British Council’s site for young learners - LearnEnglish Kids -
which you can use with your students during the festive season.
You will find all the resources on one page on LearnEnglish Kids:
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/category/topics/christmas
On this page you will find tips and ideas for using and extending the activities in the classroom.
Story: Santa’s little helper
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories/santas-little-helper
Draw a basic picture of Santa on the board. Ask the students to identify him and to tell you what they know
about Santa:
 What does he look like?
 What does he wear?
 Where does he live?
 What does he do during the year?
 What does he do the night before Christmas?
 How does he travel?
 What does he like eating and drinking?
Students watch and listen to the story. Don’t worry about vocabulary, as the pictures will help convey
meaning. After the story, ask the students to say what is the same and different in their country at
Christmas. They could listen to the story again, pausing between pages, to identify differences and
similarities. If children are members of the site, they can add comments telling us about how Christmas
Eve is different where they live. You can find a worksheet, an answer sheet, and the story words to
download and print under the story.
Song: The busy elf
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/the-busy-elf
Print the song words from the link under the story.
 Ask the students: Who helps Santa make Christmas presents for children? (his elves)
 First play The Busy Elf song with no volume. Ask the students: Who can you see? Which presents
can you see?
 Play the song again this time with volume and mime the actions together - elves dancing, Santa
saying ho ho ho, tap tap tap with a hammer to make each toy, Santa pointing to reindeer, putting
the presents in Santa’s sleigh.
 Play the song again and sing along with actions!
 Hand out The Busy Elf song worksheet. Find this under the story.
 Listen to the song again and students tick the toys that the elf makes. The students can then
identify words and/or draw presents on the same worksheet.

2. Teaching Kids resource
We also have a new song on the site for Christmas: Turkey Trouble:
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/songs/turkey-trouble
Flash cards: Toys and presents
Print picture and word cards of toys and wrapped presents here:
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/worksheets/toys-flashcards
Play an online memory game to match wrapped presents with their names:
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/word-games/find-the-pairs/christmas-presents
To introduce the toy vocabulary, hold up a picture card and ask: What would you like for Christmas? A
scooter? A computer? etc. To avoid too much shouting out, show students how to do thumbs up for yes
and thumbs down for no. Then have students repeat the words after you. With students of reading age you
could stick the cards on the board and then ask individuals to stick the word cards next to the correct
picture.
To practise saying the new words hold up the wrapped present cards one by one and have students guess
what each one is.
Here are two activities that you can do with the cards:
Memory game! Give each group of learners a set of flashcards with a copy of each word card and the
corresponding picture cards. Ask them to place the cards, one by one, face down on the table. In turn,
each player turns up two cards and says what they are. If they turn up matching cards, they keep them and
have another go. If the cards are different, they replace them and the next player has a go. The player with
the most pairs is the winner. For very young learners use the wrapped present pictures cards instead of
the word cards.
Board rush! Place the flashcards on the board. In teams, ask your learners to line up a little distance away
from, but facing, the board. Ask your learners to run and touch the correct flashcard when they hear it.
There are lots more ideas for using flash cards and teaching vocabulary here:
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/teaching-kids/kids-vocabulary
A letter to Santa
After talking about toys it’s time to write a letter to Santa. Learners can write a letter to Santa with this
online game or download the worksheet below the game for a print version.
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/word-games/make-the-sentences/letter-santa
Things to make: Christmas cards, Christmas trees and snowflakes
If you have a selection of old or new Christmas cards, you could talk about the pictures, pointing to and
describing the different objects. Your learners could then design their own Christmas card, or make a
Christmas collage with the pictures.
You will find more ideas for Christmas things to make here, including a Christmas tree and snowflakes:
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/craft-downloads/christmas-tree

3. Teaching Kids resource
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/craft-downloads/snowflake
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/craft-downloads/snowman
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/craft-downloads/christmas-craft-ideas
Christmas words
Practise words related to Christmas using these games:
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/word-games/order-the-words/christmas-words
http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/word-games/wordsearch/christmas-presents
Christmas customs
Read and listen to the story My favourite day and find out about Christmas customs in the UK:
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories/my-favourite-day-christmas
Your students could write about their own Christmas customs, or their own favourite days: What do people
usually do at Christmas in your country? What do they do in other parts of the world? For example, do they
put lights in their houses? Do they decorate a Christmas tree? Do they get presents at Christmas? When
do they open their presents? Write a short description of Christmas in your country. What's your favourite
day of the year? What do people wear, eat, drink? What do people do? Why do people celebrate this day?
Do you give and receive presents?
Read about other children’s favourite days in Your turn:
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/your-turn/favourite-day
Children who are members of the site can add descriptions of their favourite day here. It doesn’t have to be
Christmas!
Story: The snowman
learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/short-stories/the-snowman
Before reading the story ‘The snowman', you could introduce the topic by asking your learners about snow
and winter; for example:
 Does it snow in your country?
 When does it snow?
 What do children like doing when it snows?
 Do you know how to make a snowman?
 Have you ever made one?
Draw a picture of a girl and a boy to introduce the characters of Katie and Eddie. Then draw some snow.
Ask your learners what they think is going to happen in the story. Now read and listen to each page of the
story online. Don't worry if your learners don't understand every word - the pictures will help them make
sense of what's happening.

4. Teaching Kids resource
After listening to the story, act it out! Start by miming the actions together - wake up, shout, run outside,
dance in the snow, make a snowman, wave ‘Hello', put on a scarf and a hat. Then take different roles of
Katie, Eddie and the snowman in turn and add the dialogue. If you've got a digital camera and/or video
camera you could record your learners' play and then make it into a slide show.
Alternatively, you could ask them to draw their own version of the story and add captions to describe
what's happening. Make the snowman 3-dimensional with cotton wool for his head and body, some wool or
coloured thread for his scarf and hat and some orange tissue paper for his nose!
Game: Pass the parcel
Wrap up a present in Christmas paper. Make sure there are plenty of layers, with a Christmas forfeit in
between each layer, for example, ‘Name something we eat at Christmas'. Now play the game ‘Pass the
parcel' to some background Christmas music. When the music stops, the child holding the parcel carries
out the forfeit. The child who opens the final layer wins the present!
A very Merry Christmas to you all!
Contributed by
Carolyne Ardron and Sally Trowbridge