Holiday Charades | ESL Game

Students will...

• Use holiday vocabulary (provided below) and regular rules of grammar to increase fluency through dramatic expression and oral interpretation.
• Learn to relate experiences and observations in the target language.
• Narrate and post a 140-character Twitter story or Facebook update by sequencing provided phrases and their own original content.

21st Century Skill:

Use social media (Facebook or twitter) to communicate and share experiences and feelings in target language

Grouping:

Teams (Small Groups) and Individuals

Modalities:

Bodily-Kinesthetic, Verbal-Linguistic, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal

Bloom’s Taxonomy:

Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, and Evaluation\

Materials

1. Holiday Charades List.
2. Paper and pencils.
3. Timer.
4. Class Twitter or Facebook Account.

Preparation

1. Download and print your Holiday Charades List.
2. Cut out and double-fold each sentence individually.
3. Place the strips into a basket.
4. As an aid for younger students, write out key vocabulary words from the charades list on the board or Word Wall.

Activity

1. Explain to your students the basic rules of charades. This eHow article offers a great summary of the game along with a few “Tricks of the Trade.”  
2. Depending on size, divide the class into groups of 3-5.
3. Set the timer for 2-3 minutes and allow the first group to pick a strip of paper and briefly prepare how to act it out.
4. As soon as the timer goes off, let the first group perform while the rest of class tries to guess the phrase.
5. Remind the students to call out their guesses in the target language and to start by trying to identify the important vocabulary words.
6. If the class doesn’t guess the right vocabulary words, hand the same strip of paper to the next group and restart the timer.
7. If the class does guess the vocabulary words but not the entire phrase or sentence, then after the timer sounds give them a few minutes to discuss as groups how to put the words together into a complete sentence.
8. Once a complete sentence has been identified, write it out on the board.
9. Repeat this process until ten or more sentences are on the board.

Tech Tools

1. Instruct each student to choose two to four of their favorite sentences, the things they’re most looking forward to about the holiday season, and to write out on their own a 140-character Twitter story or Facebook post about them.
2. Encourage your students to write their Twitter story or Facebook post so that it flows and isn’t just a list.
   For example: During the winter break I want to...
   Put on gloves and a coat, go sledding, and then drink hot chocolate.
   Wrap presents for my family, decorate the tree, and then open presents.
   Eat cookies, visit my grandparents, and count down to midnight.
3. Once their Tweets or updates are ready, have your students post them either to their personal account or to your class account.