Objectives To build up an area of vocabulary associated with Christmas and Spring Festival To read a narrative text and understand the story. To develop reading strategies to answer multiple-choice questions. To practise analysing and retell the text. To compare Christmas and the Spring Festival To Know about and respect the different cultures in foreign countries.

“We wish you a merry Christmas”Lead- in

As we all know, Christmas is the biggest festival in the western cultures , just like our Spring Festival.

Just now we watched a Christmas carol “We wish you a merry Christmas” to enjoy the fantastic atmosphere of Christmas.

Which of the things do you think western people have at Christmas?

balloons

stockings

Christmas candles

Carol service

Christmas card

decorations

Christmas tree Father Christmas

Snowman

presents hats

turkey

cake pudding

Elements of Christmas

Christmas

treefather

candle

snowman

stockings

hats balloons

pudding

cake

turkey

decorations

carol service

cards

presents

Brain storm :

According to the pictures and the first sentence of each paragraph , predict : What kinds of memories of Christmas do you think the text will tell?

Use some adjectives.

Prediction

1,Scan the text quickly to check the prediction.

Fast-reading

2, Listen to the text and answer: Match

the main idea with each paragraph .

Para. 1 decorations outside

Para. 2 the beginning of Christmas

Para. 3 activities on Christmas Eve

Para. 4 activities after lunch

Para. 5 activities on Christmas morning

Fast-reading

Careful -Reading

1,Analyse the text and then fill in the table.

paragraph time activities

Before Christmas eve

write a letter to Father Christmas, open the new year calendar, Christmas lights appear, attend carol service, make snowmen, have snow ball fights

On Christmas eve

On Christmas Day

Para.1.2

Para.3decorate the house, put up Christmas tree , leave wine and biscuits for Father Christmas, put our stockings at the end of the beds, stay awake as long as possible to see Father Christmas

Para.4.5go to church, play with our new presents, have a big lunch (it’s so hard to swallow so much food), sing carols, laugh at jokes, put on silly paper hats and laughed again, adults watch Queen’s speech, we play cards, carry on eating a huge Christmas cake covered with snowmen, turn off the lights and fall into a deep and happy sleep

• Multiple-choice questions

• Read the question and answers.

• Try to guess the correct answer.

• Find the place in the text where you think the answer is.(eg.question1=paragraph1)

• Read the text and check your answer.

• Make sure the other two answers are not possible.

2,Reading-Strategies

3, Answer the multiple-choice questions using the reading strategies.1. Who do you think reads the children’s letters?

a) Father Christmas b) their parents c) nobody

2. What do you think people do in a carol service?

a) sing songs b) give presents c) watch a play

3. What happened on Christmas Eve?

a) The writer stayed awake all night.

b) Someone put presents in his stocking.

c) The writer saw Father Christmas.

4. Why did they laugh?

a) The Christmas carols were happy songs.

b) The songs and hats were funny.

c) The jokes and hats were funny.

5. After lunch,

a) the adults played cards.

b) the children made a snowman.

c) everybody had more to eat.

• Retell this text according to the table.

Post-reading

Return to the table

1, As is known to us ,Spring Festival is the most popular holiday in China. So ,can you think of any elements of Spring Festival?

Comparing cultures

Spring Festival couplets

firecrackers (People scare off evil spirits and ghosts with the loud pop.)

blessing

setting off fireworksmaking dumplings

dragon dance (to expect good weather and good harvests)

2, What are the differences and similarities between Christmas in western cultures and the Spring Festival in China?

Comparing cultures

Origin Date Activities

3, Nowadays , in China ,many young people admire Christmas a lot, they spend too much money celebrating it. What is your opinion?

Meaning

Although Christmas is a western festival, it is popular with the people all around the world . Because this lovely festival not only brings us happiness, but also it is a bridge between the people from different countries.

We should respect the different cultures in foreign countries.

However, we shouldn’t waste too much money on it, because

thrift (saving) is a good virtue in our Chinese traditional culture.

• What have you learnt in this lesson?

The vocabulary of Christmas

The reading strategies to analyse a story

Summary

To compare Christmas and the Spring Festival

Choose one topic to write an article :

Memories of Spring Festival.

Christmas and Spring Festival.

Homework

Let’s sing the coral “We wish you a merry Christmas” together