Octobel' 3Pt

Ha1loween n
Novembel' 2 d.

Day ot the Dead.

MeXiCO ------~ ..-~

Halloween is celebrated ali over the world on October Extra activity:

31 st and the Day of the Dead is a festivity that takes Find these Halloween-related words in the word seareh:
place in Mexico on November 2nd. Both celebrations
have many characteristics in common and it is a good
idea to explore them with our students.

Background
PUMPKIN
Halloween originated as a pagan festival especially in
Northern Europe. Some people claim that Halloween is a day VAMPIRE
on which spirits try to contact living people. As it takes place
one evening before Christian All Saints' Day, it is also called
AlI Saint's Eve.

The Day of the Dead in Mexico is a day when families and

friends get together to pray for and honour people who have
died. This celebration can be traced back to araund 3,000
years ago. Indigenous cultures used to celebrate it thraughout
MONSTER
the ninth month of the Aztec calendar. CANDY

What do people do? HAT

Typical festive activities for Halloween include the use of

costumes and masks, carving lanterns out of pumpkins,
playing pranks, telling scary stories and playing treat-or-
tricks. Halloween costumes range fram vampires, ghosts and
skeletons to witches and devil creatures.

Some traditions connected to the Day of the Dead include

honouring the deceased using marigolds, decorating sugar
skulls, and visiting their graves to offer them foods and
beverages. COSTUME
BROOM
SKELETON

Teaching sequence
For children
z p W I T C H U N C
5 I I G C A N D Y O
Objectives:
K X J H N 5 O O P 5
To aetivate students' previous knowledge of the parts of the
E G V A M P I R E T
body voeabulary.
To brainstorm voeabulary related to Halloween.
L R A T C U Y 5 J U
Before the dass, ask students to bring magazines in whieh there
E B R O O M X G H M
are pietures of people. Start the class by revising the parts of the T A V M R P G H O E
body. Ask students to eut up the pietures from the magazines O T A J L K L O 5 J
they have brought, separating parts of the body. Students
exehange the eut-outs with eaeh other; they ean also eut out the
N N M V M I R 5 T K
parts of a face and draw them or glue parts from other pietures. X Z P M O N 5 T E R
Give eaeh student an A4 sheet of paper, and ask them to make
their own Frankenstein monster to display in the classroorn.
Key: Horizontal: witch, candy, vampire, broorn, monster; vertical: skeleton, bat,
Older students ean deseribe their monsters. hat, pumpkin, ghost, costume.

4
 ents a video which compares the Day of the Dead to
: ttps:/ /www.youtube.com/watch ?v= Yuq p6vYTs_g
ake notes while watching.

ents compare both festivities. Ask them to find more

a ion and complete the following chart.
Follow-up task
Do you take part in any of these festivities? Is there a similar
celebration in your country? Do people wear costumes?
Day ofthe
Halloween
Dead Extra activity
Vou can try making sugar skulls with your students.
There is a detailed explanation on how to make them at
www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Sugar-Skulls-for-Day-of-the-
Country
Dead/
of origin

Extra reading for teachers:

www.diffen.com/difference/Day_oCthe_Dead_vs_Halloween
Date www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/halloween

www.celebrate-day-of-the-dead.com/day-of-the-dead-facts.html

Purpose
ofthe Did you know?
celebration Marigolds are known in Mexico as the flower of the
dead.
On the Day of the Dead some people hold all-night
Symbols graveside vigil.
On Halloween people dress up to frighten evil spirits ar
as a carnouflage to look like one of them.
According to an Irish legend, Jack O'Lanterns are named
Typical after a man called Jack who was farbidden to enter
food heaven ar hell because he tricked the devil many times.

5
 ~~

W e always want our students to be motivated

enough to learn more and more. When we
present new topic we know how important it
~ is to catch young learners' attention, but this is
Rhyme: Before playing with "The Mystery Box", we can
sit in a circle around it and say this short rhyme:

not so easy sometime. o, what can we do to get It's time to play

them interested? with the Mystery Box
Make a "Mystery Box", Take a hoe box paint and decorate it Clap your hands 1,2,3 .
with coloured question rnarks. On one of the sides, make an
opening; it should be big enough o get any object through. Open your eyes 1,2,3 .
Then, cover it up with a piece of black fabric to allow the
Are you ready to play
children put their hand in ide the box, touch the object and
guess what it is. with the Mystery Box?

How to use it (Encourage the children to say"Yes!")

You can use the box at any time, for example to introduce the
To introduce a new topic of vocabulary. For instance, in
supplies to make a craft, ar a CD to listen to a new song or
order to present vocabulary related to animals, you can put
even a book to read. Anything presented in this way will get
some finger puppets in the box. Then, as each student takes
the students involved and help to turn any simple activity into
one out, you say, Wow! A lion a bear, etc! for the kids to
an attractive and surprising part of the lesson.
repeat and leam.
Mariana Prats
To play a guessing game for vocabulary revision, By
touching the object inside the box, the students have to
figure out what it is. You can also turn this game into a
competition. Make two hole in the box and put two
identical objects in it so that two students at a time
can touch them and who gues es first is the
winner.

The "Mystery Box" is an excellent resource to

introduce and practise vocabulary related to
the sense of touching, for example adjectives
such as: wetjdry, soft/hard, srnoothjrough,
bg/small, thin/fat, etc.

Extra ideas

You can send the mystery box to the house of eacli

student, so that they can choose any item to put III it,
for example, their favourite toy. The following lessem" as
a warm up or maybe at the end of the class, the one
who has taken the box to their house can give some
clues for the rest of the class to guess what is inside.
The student who guesses is the next one to take it home.

6
G :-rThe m ster box
,...:'" ~\~?f{~ /'

C.
CLUES

I /
\

A COLLECTION OF 14 P PERS
TO INSPIRE YOUR CREATIVITY,

LOOK FOR THIS COLLECTION IN YOUR NEWSSTAND, FURTHER INFORMATION AT WWW,EDIBACOM

~
~
..
EDIB~

7
 Objectives:
to rap a poem
to react to poetry
to discuss fears and and offer tips

linguistic Features:
I'm afraid of...
Vou can ... (to offer tips on behaviour).
In this lesson plan, students will discuss fears, listen to a
poem about a monster and do some comprehension activities,
and finally they will rap the poem.
Start by discussing fears with children. Write some things they
may be afraid of on the board.
Elicit adjectives to describe monsters. If your students use U,
offer the English word.
Then, introduce the poem by aying, A group oi children visits
a monster at the campus. What may happen? Accept any
answers.
Present the poem by readng it, using the flashcards on poster 2. Before you read the poem again, go over the actions with the
Do not give the worksheet to lhe children. Just write these students.
questions on the board: A group of children made their way to meet the
What's the monster's name? infamous ghost at the campus
What's his problem? he had a scar
What solutioti do children offer? he swallowed dreams
he attacked
Present the worksheet on page 9 to deal with vocabulary. Ask he carne out shaking
students to match words according to meaning. stumbling through the doors
Another option is to use a dictation technique known as throw off your shoes
dictogloss*, which is appropriate for children who can read Nod and nod
and write fluently. Then, hand out different flashcards and ask children to put
them up in the air when you mention the actions shown in
*Dictogloss is a type of dictation with focus on meaning as well as their flashcard. For example: A group of children made their
formoIt has five basic steps: way to meet the infamous ghost at the campus-Flashcard 1;
1-Teacher reads the passage at normal speed. throw off your shoes- Flashcard 3, and so on.
2-Teacher introduces one or two words which may impede gist
comprehension. Information transfer task
3-Teacher reads the passage slowly allowing students time to write. Ask students to draw a comic strip about Grey and the
4-Students work in pairs recreating the passage to make a meaningful
children, including dialogue. They may change the actions a
English text
bit. Let them do more than just illustrate the poem.
~Students compare their versions with the original passage and
discuss both content and grammar mistakes.
Acting out
Divide the class into groups ar pairs and rap up the poem with
Text: "The monster lives iti the dorms at the campus an has
the children.
the name of a colour. Is he mighty? Mm ... not so much! He's
aitaid:" Carla Allende

8
 ~.::;;:::_?:- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
eginner (with a lot of scaffolding)

GREY'S AFRAID

atch

1) mighty a) bedroom

2) costume b) move your head to say yes

3)nod c) walk unsteadily

) dorm d) powerful

5) stumble e) special clothes

en to the poem and answer

1) What's the monster's name?
2) What's his problem?

ow put the pictures in the right order.

C) Make a comic strip.

I
1 _

Key: A) 1) d; 2) e; 3) b; 4) a; 5) c; B) 1) Edipous Grey; 2) He's afraid; C) 2;4;3;1.

 ._----------------------------------------------------------------------------------~-, ,
Levei: Elementary/Beginner (with a lot of scaffolding)
Age: Children :
GREY'S AFRAID
O) Rap it up!

Grey's atraid!
A group of Jittle chdren made thei!' wag
To meet the infamous ghost at the
campus.

o caed Ecfipous Greg

It was sad he was mightg
,
,
,
,
,
It was sad he had a scar ,
,,,
It was said he swa1loweddreams ,
,
It was said he attacked ,
,
,
Near the back garden ,"
,
,,
Out of the dcrms ,
,
There he was ,,,
The scariest? Of all? ,
,

Not at all!
There he carne oTit shaking
Stumbling through the doors
And se he spoke to the chldren ...
Ogres?
Scon one sad
I
'Tm afraid of lizards "Eh!Mr Greg!
I'm afraid 0' sharks
I Ten me chdren
Wear gour taVOurite costume
And listen. stag mute!"
What to do about that!"
When dogs are big rnamma said to me
'Trn atraid 0' school lill8 don't be sill8 and think shoo shoo
I'm afraid o/n.des If it doesn't he]p. throw off gour shoes!"
I'm afraid o1arks
And of the cfark!" So Greg ocds and nods
And off he goes
'Tm afraid of blkes The chdrennow know
I'm afraid 0' ticleS Where theg mag gO!
Of the sea and also tea
Evergbodg said "Heg!"
Of Witches and PiPes!
let' s go and Plag
Of good-lads and bad!
Ten me clnldren Explore aod visit
Rock evergwhere! ,
What to do about that" ~'
Carla Allende
,
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