Seasonal English A1 Englisch

Seasonal English A1

Englisch

Ideas for English for Thanksgiving for A1 classes

Teacher’s notes Aims – To present information about Thanksgiving – To enable students to talk about family get-togethers

© 2009 Cornelsen Verlag, Berlin. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Tasks – To match pictures with words and do a quiz about Thanksgiving – To read a text about Thanksgiving – To do a crossword puzzle – To discuss questions about family get-togethers Preparation Make enough copies of the worksheets. Timing 25 mins for all activities Procedure 1. State that you would like to do a lesson on an important US holiday, called Thanksgiving. Ask if anyone knows any words to do with Thanksgiving. Collect on board. Then hand out first worksheet and ask students to find out which two pictures in ex. 1 have nothing to do with Thanksgiving. Answers: C, I 2. Then ask pairs of students to check statements in ex. 2. Answers: 1c, 2b, 3a, 4a & c, 5a, 6a, b & c 3. Hand out next worksheet and read text in ex. 3 out loud. Make sure that there are no questions. 4. Ask students to do the crossword puzzle in ex. 4. Answers: Across 2. thanks, 5. midday, 6. indigenous people (without space), 9. Harvest Down 1. turkey, 2. travel, 3. corn, 4. family, 7. pilgrim, 8. eat 5. Hand out next worksheet and ask pairs of students to go through questions in ex. 5, then conduct a class discussion to compare answers. If you like, you can ask students to write some answers down. Repeat the necessary vocabulary to describe a family with a family tree on the board if necessary.

Autorin: Nicole Tomberg www.cornelsen.de/erwachsenenbildung

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Seasonal English A1

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1. Thanksgiving – a very important holiday in the USA Which pictures are the odd ones out? (Welche Bilder gehören nicht zum Thema Thanksgiving?) B family gettogether

C christmas tree

A turkey


D corn

F ship

E pilgrims

G indigenous people

I church H farm

2. Thanksgiving quiz – What do you know about Thanksgiving? Make a guess. (Was glauben Sie, ist die richtige Antwort?) 1. Thanksgiving is in a. spring. 2. Typical food at Thanksgiving: a. chicken 3. You visit your ______________ at Thanksgiving. a. family 4. You do not go _____________ at Thanksgiving. a. to school 5. Thanksgiving is a a. very old tradition. 6. Thanksgiving is a a. family day.


b. summer. b. turkey

c. autumn. c. bacon and eggs

b. friends

c. old classmates

b. home c. to church b. modern holiday. c. religious celebration. b. public holiday. c. day off for most people.

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Seasonal English A1

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3. Thanksgiving and its history The English people who arrived in New England in North America in 1620 were called pilgrims*. They arrived by ship in the winter and were too late to farm the land. So they had a difficult winter with little food and many died. The next spring, indigenous people helped the pilgrims and showed them how to be good farmers and how to farm corn. The harvest* in 1621 was very good and everyone had enough to eat. The pilgrims invited the indigenous people to a big party Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and together they ate turkey and corn. This was the first Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving today is all about eating a meal with family and giving thanks for what you have. Thanksgiving is one of the most important family days in the USA. Thanksgiving is a bank holiday and is always on the fourth Thursday in November. A lot of people take a day off on the Friday after Thanksgiving and have a long weekend. They travel across the country for family get-togethers. Together the family eats a big dinner with turkey and cranberry sauce at midday, and then they do family things. They might for example watch an American football game or the Macy’s* Thanksgiving Day Parade on television. Others go to the park and some play baseball. _____ pilgrims: Pilgerväter

harvest: Ernte

Macy’s: Macy’s is a big department store in New York

4. A Thanksgiving crossword puzzle

Across 2. Dank 5. mittags 6. Ureinwohner 9. Ernte

Down 1. Truthahn 2. reisen 3. Mais 4. Familie 7. Pilgervater 8. essen


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Seasonal English A1

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5. Over to you


Talk to a partner. (Sprechen Sie mit einem Partner.) – How big is your family? My family is very small / big. I’ve got two brothers … There is my brother and his wife, my sister and her family ... – Do you like family get-togethers? I love them. / I (don’t) like them. – When do you have family get-togethers? At Christmas. / On my birthday. / At Easter. – How important is food at a family get-together? It is very / not so important. – What is your favourite food at family get-togethers? I like to eat potato salad. I like to eat goose.


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