Thursday, March 26, 2015

#26: Competition for Teacher Generated Materials: Holidays / Grade 12

General  Objectives : St. will be able to read the story about Las Fallas -Spanish Holiday, How it started ,Why do people celebrate it and Sts. Will compare it to the Georgian  Chiakokona , will find the differences and similarities between them .

Language  Objective : Sts. will practice the adjective :older than,  more interesting than, as important as , as well as. Also Students will practice  new vocabulary.

Civic Objective: Sts. will be able to speak about holidays.


TIME
TEACHER’S ACTIVITY
STUDENT ACTIVITY
COMMENTS
11:15
Which is your favourite holiday ? work in pairs and speak about your favorite holidays.
With some encouragement sts. say what their favorite holiday

11:20
Teacher distributes the text students are reading about celebration Las Fallas, When does it take place ? What do you know about the history ? How do people celebrate this ?

Teacher monitors and corrects the pronunciation .
11:30
Teacher  has Venn Diagram on the board .
Students speak about the differences and similarities between Las Fallas and Georgian Chiakokona
Sentence starter on the board : In Spain Las Fallas is celebrated to show…. In Georgia Chiakokona is celebrate…..These holidays are different because ….
11:35

Students fill the diagram ……

11:40

Students compare them …..and use as…adj..as,   adj…than , constuctions .

11:50
Teacher distributes the handouts about the new vocabulary in the text
Students work in pairs and try to guess the meanings of the new words

11: 55
Teacher analyses the whole lesson , gives feedback …..What do they learnt today ?
The whole class is involved
Classroom  is noisy and active .
12:00
Teacher gives the homework assignment and asks students to write a paragraph : Why is Las Fallas  so important to Spanish …


12:05


The class comes to an end .


Handout   2 ……Match the words with their definitions.

1        feel or show deep sorrow or regret for (someone or their death), typically by following conventions such as the wearing of black clothes.

2             pasteboard or stiff paper.

3             a person who is enjoying themselves in a lively and noisy way. partygoer, merrymaker,

4        smile broadly, especially in an unrestrained manner and with the mouth open.   "Dennis appeared, grinning cheerfully"   smile, smile broadly, beam, smile from ear to ear, grin like a Cheshire cat, smirk,be all smiles

5        a loud, explosive firework, typically wrapped in paper and lit with a fuse.
                                                                                                                     
6     of or relating to a festival   parties are held and festive food is served"

7   a person's emotional state or the atmosphere of a place as communicated to and felt by others."a lot of     moody people giving off bad vibes"  synonyms: feeling, vibration, atmosphere, sensation, energy

8     a low, continuous humming or murmuring sound, made by or similar to that made by an insect."the buzz of the bees"  synonyms: hum, humming, buzzing, murmur, drone

9    a way of dealing with something."we need a whole new approach to the job"   synonyms: method, procedure, technique, modus operandi, MO, style, way, manner,strategy, tactic, system, means
 
   come near or nearer to (someone or something) in distance.

10  noun  the most intense, exciting, or important point of something; a culmination or apex."the climax of her speech"

synonyms: peak, pinnacle, height, high(est)         point, top, acme, zenith, culmination, crowning point, crown, crest, highlight, high spot, high-water mark
vocabulary:
mourn , climax, approach , cardboard , firecracker, grins  reveler , buzzes , festive, vibe.

                Las    Fallas …….A   Spanish  Holiday

It’s March and I’m in Valencia, Spain’s third largest city, with my new friend ,Jose.It’s I’m . All around us ,fireworks are going off and the streets are full of noisy revelers .’’Welcome to Las Fallas‘’, Jose  grins .

Here you are going to see how Valencians party!

Seven hours later I understood what he meant .

Las  Fallas ( the bonfire) explodes over Valencia every March from the 12’th to the 19’th . It takes the whole of the previous year to get organized and everybody joins in the preparation.  The city buzzes  with a festive vibe all week ,but like all good parties , it is at night when people really get down to some series celebrating .

  The tradition of Las Fallas began in the 18’th century. At that time craftsmen used special candles to light up the dark evenings while they were working. At the end of winter they celebrated by burning all their waste material in a ceremony that brought together people from all the neighbouring communities. Before burning the waste material, they made it into life-like statues, and then dressed them up to look like well-known but unpopular local characters .

  Nowadays the statues , some of them over 30 metres tall, are made of cardboard and represent different aspects of modern Spanish society. The whole of the previous year is spent fund-raising, planning and constructing the monuments, some of which are worth over   S 200.000. But they all go up in flames with the maximum amount of fire and noise before the end of the festival.
 
         The Valencians like their guests to enjoy themselves, but after one hour’s sleep I am woken up by the sound of firecrackers and a bass band parading beneath my window. Valencia by day may be sleepier than Valencia by night, but during Las Fallas there’s always something going on. From the outskirts of the city, 200,000 girls and boys, wearing traditional dress march into the centre of town bringing flowers to decorate the statue of the Blessed Virgin.


       The festival reaches its climax on 19th March, a public holiday and St joseph’s day. This is the night when the cardboard statues are burnt. As midnight approaches, a feeling of anticipation rises up from the streets and hangs over the city. Firecrackers go off every second or two and midnight passes in a shower of explosions. The last statue burns down and ends Las Fallas. It is a sad moment, but the Valencians don’t have time to mourn the end of this year’s festival. After all, they’re too busy planning for the next one.