Theme: Special days and greeting cards
Instructions for language assistants in Italics
Introduction:
This lesson can be used at any time of year but you may like to tie it in with a special day in the country you're working in or with a special day in the UK. If you do this, pick and choose some of the activities here to extend your lesson.
Did you know that in the UK the greeting card industry is huge, producing more than £1.3billion annually? You may well find that in the country you're teaching in, giving cards for special days isn't as common as it is in the UK so your students may be interested to know more about the British habit of sending cards for occasions such as birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries, for the arrival of a new baby etc. etc. If you have examples of any cards people have sent you take them into class to show your students. If you don't have any cards to show your students make sure you explain clearly what a greeting card is before you start the class. The best way to do this would be to make a few, they don't have to be too professional looking.
Task one is a simple true or false activity about the enormity of the greeting card industry in the UK. Task two asks students to match typical greetings to special days and task three is a ranking activity which gives students the chance to talk about special days in their own country. Task four is a short reading and writing activity and the fifth task discusses the advantages and disadvantages of communicating greetings via cards, text messages, phone calls and e-mails. Finally students are asked to design a greeting card for their favourite special day.
1. Greeting Cards - True or False?
As mentioned above, the custom of sending cards for many occassions is very British. The statements below are all true! Ask your students to read the statements (or save paper and read the statements to your class instead) and vote to see if they think they are true or false. If your students are surprised by any, add any extra ‘local knowledge' to expand on the information.
Task 1
Read the sentences and decide if they're true or false. Then check with your teacher.
1) On average, a British person sends 55 greetings cards every year.
2) 85% of greetings cards are bought by women.
3) In the UK lots of schools have special post boxes for students to send each other Christmas cards.
4) There are special shops in the UK that sell greetings cards. There are thousands to choose from.
5) Most people in the UK display the cards they receive for their birthday or Christmas in their home.
6) The greeting card industry in the UK is one of the biggest in the world.
• Have you learnt anything new?
• What was the same and what was different to how you use greetings cards in your country?
2. Match the greetings.
This activity looks at the language of greetings. Ask students to read the greetings and to try and match them to the special days. Encourage them to start with the easy ones and use a process of elimination.
1-d,2-b, 3-a, 4-c, 5-e, 6-g, 7-h,
Task 2 Match the greetings.
| Greetings to write in card |
Special Days |
| "Many happy returns!" | Valentine's day |
| "Season's greetings." | Christmas |
| "Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you!" | Mother's or Father's day |
| "Thanks! You're the best in the world!" | Birthday |
| "Wishing you all the best for a happy future together." | Wedding |
| "Congratulations on the birth of your new son." | Engagement |
| "Well done! I knew you could do it!" | A baby's arrival |
| "Congratulations on your engagement. We're looking forward to the big day." | Passing your driving test |
3. Special Days
Here's an opportunity for students to tell you about their special days and days that are special in their countries but which may not be celebrated in Britain, like Saint's days or national holidays. Even if you know lots about these days, you may want to tell students you don't so as to let them tell you about them as a guest in their country.
Task 3 Special Days
Look at the special days in the box. Cross out the days which aren't special for you and add some of your own. Then put them in order from your favourite to least favourite special days.
|
Valentine's Day My birthday Christmas Day Easter Day New Year's Eve
New Year's Day
|
• Are there any special days above that you don't celebrate in your country but you would like to?
• Which special days do you celebrate in your country that they don't celebrate in the UK? Tell your teacher about them.
4. What's your favourite special day? Why?
You can either ask students to read the whole text or you can put them into groups and read one message each and then share the information. Depending on the level of your class you may decide to pre-teach some vocabulary which you think will be difficult for your students. When they have read the text ask some general questions to check their understanding. Alternatively, ask the students to write one question each about what they've read, then ask several volunteers to ask their question to the whole group. Finally students should write about their own special day.
Task 4 What's your favourite special day? Why?
A website for young people asked ‘What's your favourite day?' Here's what some people wrote on the message board:
|
Toni: My favourite special day is my birthday because you get lots of presents! I love having birthday parties too. Last year I went to a theme park with four of my mates, it was fab! Sammy: I think Christmas day is my favourite day of the year. Mind you, it was even better when I was little! It's great as I get loads of presents, eat lots of sweets and chocolate and there are always good films on the telly too! It's better than your birthday because most years you have to go to school on your birthday, so Christmas is more special as it's always in the holidays. Jack: Since I've been going out with Sophie, Valentine's day is my best day of the year! Sophie and I always go out on a really romantic date. My mates laugh at me but I love being romantic. Last year I sent gave Sophie a dozen red roses, a card, a teddy and took her out for dinner.
Paul: My favourite special day is New Year's Eve. I love it! I always
have a really nice meal with my family first then after twelve o'clock
when we've seen in the new year I meet my friends and we go to a disco.
It's such a laugh! Everyone's always in a really good mood on New
Year's Eve.
Suzy: My favourite day is the anniversary of the day I started going
out with Simon - November 4th! It's more special because it's only our
special day and nobody else shares it with us. |
Now write your message to the website message board here:
| What's your favourite special day? Why? My favourite special day is....
|
What's your favourite special day? Why?
My favourite special day is....
What's your favourite special day?
5. ‘Greener' greetings
The title of this activity gives away one of the main advantages to communicating greetings by text messages or e-mails rather than sending actual cards. In fact, rather than printing out the activity you could easily just draw the table below on the board. If you have experience of sending texts or e-mails to give someone a greeting you could share the recent messages you've sent with the class. Then discuss with your group the advantages and disadvantages of each way. See some example answers for the first row of the table.
Advantages Disadvantages
Greetings cards
• More personal.
• ‘Special' to receive something in the ‘snail mail' post these days!
• You can keep / display cards.
• Cards are expensive to buy
• Waste of paper (not green)
• You have to buy a stamp if you won't see the person on their special day.
• Takes time and planning ahead.
Task 5 ‘Greener' greetings
Lots of people nowadays don't send cards in the post. Instead they send a text message on their phones or an e-mail to send a greeting on a special day. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the three different ways of delivering a greeting? Fill in the table below with your ideas.
| Method of communicating | Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| Geeting Card |
||
| Phone call | ||
| Text messages | ||
| E-mails |
6. Design a card for your favourite special day.
Throughout the lesson you probably will have spoken about your students' special days. If you haven't, ask them some of the follow up questions from task four to get them thinking about their favourite day. Then give students time to design their card and write the message for the inside. They may well need your help to compose the message so be available to assist throughout.
Task 6 Design a card for your favourite special day.
What's your favourite special day?
Do you send cards in your country to celebrate this day?
Design a card to send to a friend on this special day. Draw your card below and write the message for inside the card.
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Write the message for inside your card here:
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Internet links
An article from CBBC's Newsround site about sending too many Christmas cards.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7740000/newsid_7747700/7747755.stm
Another article from the Newsround site about a British school which has banned the students from sending Christmas cards.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7140000/newsid_7142200/7142226.stm
This vote on whether children send cards, texts or e-mails would be great to show students before they do task five.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7740000/newsid_7748200/7748273.stm
Statistics from the Greeting Card Association of the UK.
http://www.greetingcardassociation.org.uk/info-resource/market-info/fact...
By Jo Budden
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