Competitions for children's parties in English. New Year games or how to have fun all night

Very soon, decorated Christmas trees will appear in our apartments and the magical spirit of the holiday will settle in our hearts. English grammar and new words will gradually fade into the background, giving way to a dreamy mood and anticipation of a miracle.

Let's combine this miracle with an English lesson!

Christmas for the little ones

My child and I are now intensively studying numbers, so this presentation, in which we will count New Year’s items, will be an excellent addition to mathematics lessons in English. And we’ll also help three reindeer find their way to Santa Claus so that he can deliver New Year’s gifts to the children.

You can also learn a short poem about snowflakes and surprise Santa Claus at the matinee:

Snowflakes are nice, (Snowflakes are nice,)

Snowflakes are white. (Snowflakes are white.)

They fall by day, (They fall by day)

They fall at night. (They fall at night.)

Christmas for schoolchildren

Children over 12 years old and with a language level of at least A2 can be told about the traditions of celebrating Christmas in England and the USA, solve a crossword puzzle and talk about holiday traditions in Russia and the student’s family. The last task can also be used with adults.

Christmas for adults

We will definitely talk to adults using Speaking Cards and edit them a little, and watch the first and second episodes of my favorite series from the British Council, Word on the street (for shopping lovers there is a story about Christmas shopping).

Or let's listen to Mariah Carey's Christmas song and do exercises for it.

P.S. Almost all materials are taken from the ESL Printables website.

Happy holidays to everyone, dear friends! Let the New Year holidays leave only positive memories for you and us, and let us, adults, be able to plunge into the world of childhood, fairy tales and sleep!

Young children love to play, but it is a mistake to think that they do not like to learn at all. They love it if you teach them not in boring ways, but with the help of fun games, pictures, cubes, and visual aids with illustrations. The tasks you will see below were created specifically by American teachers. There is nothing special there, it’s just from these pictures and cubes that little Americans recognize the words symbolizing Christmas and New Year.

Learning any language for a child is, first of all, the alphabet. to some extent even easier than Russian, and many well-illustrated manuals will help you make learning it fun and memorable.

English for children in pictures on the topic of New Year and Christmas - this is an archive with different files, where there are both coloring pages and diagrams of New Year's cubes, which you can print and glue together with your child. Before the Christmas holidays last year, I published various tasks for children. and additional bonus tasks on the Merry Christmas theme for children can be viewed here. Some tasks require communication and contact with the child, such as coloring or connecting numbers will give you the opportunity to do your thing while the child draws.

Almost all files are in pdf format, which is very convenient for printing and viewing. English cards for children, diagrams of cubes, a New Year's poster, lined New Year's sheets for writing New Year's words and other tasks - all in one archive.

Olga shared a great find, and since it’s December, it’s especially important that it’s New Year’s Eve.

There is a widespread belief among parents that the days immediately before and after the holidays are not the best time to study a foreign language. These days, many are freeing their children from any exposure to English in order to immerse themselves in the holiday bustle.

Meanwhile, practice shows that this opinion is wrong. And today I will try to convince you that it can just become that “magic kick-off” that can awaken your child’s dormant motivation to learn English.

Let's put aside all the textbooks, audio and video recordings and workbooks - and take a look around. Which of the real, not book, characters speak English? Of course, Santa! And if your child knows not one, but two whole languages (even if he knows only a few words from the second), he has every right to receive two gifts in the New Year: from and. You agree with me?

True, in the case of Santa Claus there is one tiny “but”: he does not understand a word of Russian. So if your child wants to write him a letter, he will have to do it in English - but you will help him, right? Here you have both spelling practice and eyes burning with impatience - two, as it seemed before, absolutely incompatible things.

By the way, if you don’t know where Santa lives, I’ll secretly share the address with you - after all, that’s what you’ll have to indicate on the envelope:

Santa Claus
1 Reindeer Lane
North Pole

It was from this address that my daughter received a letter last year:

Do you know what Santa wrote to her? He suggested to Dasha that he create one with his own hands, to which the elves could bring tasks every day. We settled on a version made from cardboard cubes, which my daughter signed herself, at the same time understanding the differences between even and odd numbers, and also making significant progress in counting:

Santa kept his word: the tasks actually arrived every day throughout December. And all of them, naturally, were in English. And now, a year later, I can say with confidence: believe me, if Santa asks your child to learn, dance to or draw a picture using the colors named in the letter (blue, red, yellow, brown, green, purple etc.), your child you won't have to ask twice.

Here is our list of tasks from Santa last year - I will be glad if it is useful to you:

Advent Calendar Activities

It is very cold outside. You are lucky to have a home and some food to eat. Go out and share some bread with birds.
Why not make paper snowflakes and decorate the windows today? Your home wants to look beautiful!
Your home looks beautiful and festive. It’s time to think about trees growing outside. Pour some colored water and put some pieces of thread into an ice cube tray and put it into the freezer. When the water freezes, go out and decorate a tree with your ice toys.
Make a paper chain for the tree.
Decorate every door in your house.
Make a birdhouse and feed birds.
What do snowmen eat for breakfast? (Answer: Snowflakes) Do you know any other riddles?
Write your letter to me. Yours sincerely, Santa.
Learn a New Year poem by heart.
Go out in the dark tonight. Look at lights and take some pictures.
Make a gift for your friend.
Write a New Year story together - have each person add a line.
Describe what you love best about each family member.
Bring home some snow and stand in it barefoot.
Take out some colored water in a bottle and paint a picture in the snow with its help.
Make a New Year drawing — use glitter to make the snow glitter and the stars twinkle.
Put on a play. Act out your favorite New Year story.
Draw a house on the kitchen window with toothpaste.
Make a paper tree to decorate the refrigerator.
Color the page I've sent you. You'll find it according to the plan I attach.
Create homemade cards to give to friends and family.
Go out with your camera and take some pictures of snow, trees and the sky.
Read a story about New Year.
Watch a New Year cartoon.
Make some paper crackers.
Draw or print a picture. Ask your mother to make some holes all along its outline. Switch off the light and shine a torch from behind your picture. What can you see?
It's time to be generous. Make an ornament — then give it away as a present.
It is a family game night.
Let's have some fun today! Why not dance and sing to Christmas music?
Bake New Year cookies.
Well done, my dear friend! You’ve coped with all my tasks. Now it's time to celebrate. After midnight look for the present I’m going to send you in your Christmas stocking. Happy New Year!

This year, my daughter herself sat down to write letters to both Father Frost and Santa. And she no longer needs tasks - she herself knows what she can do in preparation for the New Year. But she is really looking forward to answers from both and, of course, the ordered gifts.

By the way, gifts from them also come in different ways: Santa Claus usually puts his surprise under the Christmas tree, and Santa - this funny and wonderful grandfather - out of habit puts his surprise in a sock hanging on the wall or a boot sewn specially for this purpose:

I wonder if you are one of those mothers who uses preparations for the New Year and other holidays to stimulate your child’s interest in learning the English language and the culture of English-speaking countries?

Learn English words on the topic “New Year” and read the text about how New Year is celebrated in different countries.

New Year Vocabulary. English words on the topic “New Year”

Happy New Year – Happy New Year!
on New Year’s Day (Eve) – on New Year’s Eve
New Year’s tree – New Year tree
Christmas tree - Christmas tree
in the morning - in the morning
late at night - late at night
when the clock strikes 12 – when the clock strikes 12
New Year's Party - New Year's party
Snow Maiden – Snow Maiden
Jack Frost – Santa Claus
Father Christmas - Santa Claus (who comes at Christmas)
to see (welcome) New Year in – celebrate the New Year
to look forward to New Year - look forward to the New Year
colored lights – lanterns
glass balls, toys - balls, New Year's toys
a tinsel – garland
to hang up – hang up
to be hung with – hung with
a candle - candle
to light (lit) – light up
to decorate with – decorate
special decorations - special decorations
to celebrate (all over the country) – celebrate throughout the country
to congratulate - to congratulate
to wish each other – to wish each other
a wish - desire
to make a wish - make a wish
to come true - come true
to tell fortune - predict fate
to explode crackers - clap crackers
to make fireworks – arrange fireworks
to send greeting cards – send greeting cards
a holiday meal - festive dinner
a treat - treat
merry – cheerful
midnight - midnight
a guest - guest
to invite - to invite
to visit smb; to go to see - go to visit
popular - popular
popular gifts – ordinary gifts (a box of chocolate, flowers, books, records, a photo album, A CD, computer games, perfume)
hand-made gifts – homemade gifts
to prepare – to prepare (sya)
to put up – put, install
to put up a New Year Tree – put up a Christmas tree
to represent – represent, symbolize
to listen to the speech of the president – listen to the president’s speech
relative - relative
to stay up late – stay up late

These English words (New Year Vocabulary) will help you talk about how you are going to celebrate the New Year. And here is a short text in English about the New Year.

Text "New Year Celebrations"

Every country has its national holidays, but there are also holidays that are common for many countries. New Year's Day is the first holiday of each New Year. In Russia it is the most popular holiday, but in the West people pay more attention to Christmas.

New Year is always connected with our new hopes and dreams. Everyone hopes that next new year will be better than the last one. As usual people make New Year Resolutions, they promise to start doing morning exercises, to eat healthier food. Unfortunately people don’t always keep them.

The celebration of this holiday begins on New Year’s Eve, that is, on the 31st of December. At home people stay up until midnight and much later. They light colored lamps on New Year Tree and have late dinner with champagne. Sometimes they just watch TV or go out for late walk. Everybody gets presents.

In Scotland New Year's Eve is called Hogmanay. Also the Scottish have the custom of First-Footing.

Most differences in celebrating New Year are connected with a meal or special food. For example, in Switzerland special bread, rich in butter, eggs and raisin is baked and a roasted goose is cooked. In Spain there is a custom to eat 12 grapes at midnight. In Greece some people play cards believing that they will be lucky the whole year if they win. In Russia the traditional dish for the holiday is “Russian salad” (Olivier).

The New Year is very soon and both students and teachers want a holiday. This is not a problem - there will always be exciting tasks that will embellish the not quite New Year's Mixed Conditionals or Present Perfect.

#Teachaholic has prepared 5 great New Year's activities for you that will help make the last activities of the outgoing year fun and memorable.

GUESS THE NEW YEAR'S GIFT

Levels: All

Materials: blank cards

Everyone loves gifts, and this is a very pleasant conversation starter. Give students blank cards and have them write on them the names of 3 New Year's gifts that fit the following categories:

the gift I’d like to get this year;
the gift I want to give someone I love;
the best New Year’s gift I’ve ever been given.

Students' answers must be written in a different order. Remind students to sign their cards.

For lower levels, try replacing spelling words with pictures.

After this, students exchange papers and take turns trying to match the gift and the category. The authors of the cards must confirm or refute the guesses of their classmates.

To help students, be sure to write the categories on the board in advance and suggest gift ideas. As an example, start with your list and invite others to find matches. Small prizes can be prepared for students who were able to guess all the categories.

THE BEST SECRET SANTA

Levels: Elementary – Upper-Intermediate

Materials: blank cards

The New Year is a good reason to start over with a clean slate and get rid of unnecessary things. This is exactly what we can offer students.

On the cards they should write the name of one thing that they would like to throw out of their house (a box, a broken clock, an old carpet, etc.) Collect the leaves, mix them up and distribute them again to the students. Make sure everyone gets someone else's card.

Now add an unexpected twist: inform that the items indicated on the leaves are New Year's gifts from Secret Santa. Each student must tell why he wanted to receive this particular gift and what he will do with it (students will have to use their imagination). After listening to all the stories, you can choose the best gift and reveal the identity of this Santa.

LETTERS TO SANATA CLAUS

Levels: Pre-Intermediate – Advanced

Everyone dreamed of writing a letter to Santa Claus and receiving the desired gifts. Give your students this opportunity in your English lesson.

This activity is great for brainstorming vocabulary. The letter consists of ready-made sentences with gaps that will be filled in with randomly selected words. Before starting, make sure students remember the different parts of speech; together give examples of verbs, nouns, adjectives.

At the first stage, without showing the letter, ask students to write down one word as an example of the part of speech that you will dictate, according to the omissions from the letter. As a result, everyone should have a list of eight words.

Encourage students to be more creative in their choice of words, since their vocabulary is not limited to the words beautiful and good. Then distribute the finished letters and tell them that they need to be supplemented by adding examples that the students came up with. After this comes the fun part when everyone reads their final letter to Santa Claus.

MISHEARD LYRICS

Levels: Intermediate – Upper-Intermediate

Materials: song White Christmas by The Drifters,

We've all had the opportunity to open the lyrics to a song to check whether we heard a phrase or word correctly and, to our surprise, discover that the original is very different from our "unheard version."

This is exactly what students will do as they listen to the well-known Christmas classic. White Christmas. The task is aimed at training listening skills and checking spelling.

Students work with handouts where the necessary words or phrases have been replaced with consonant ones, which is why the song has lost all meaning. You need to listen and correct the lines you heard incorrectly, which is not so easy! Students will practice listening, you will laugh a lot together and hum this song for a long time.

CHRISTMAS WORD SNEAK

Levels: Pre-Intermediate – Advanced

This fun competition requires students to work in pairs or small groups. Each couple must present a dialogue in which they discuss their New Year's plans. Students are also given lines from well-known Christmas songs to include in their story. Depending on the number of people, you can distribute one line per group or per student.

The difficulty of the task is that they must use these lines discreetly - so that other students do not understand that this is a phrase from a song. After each dialogue, ask the rest of the students to identify which line from the entire story was a quote from the song. Those couples whose lines no one could guess win and receive gifts 😉 If you have time, you can listen to excerpts of the winners’ songs.