Simon Smith, ELT consultant, Teacher trainer, UK

This is a seasonal information-gap activity to practise listening and speaking with young learners. The activity requires children to describe and organise objects in a picture according to their partner's instructions. The finished product provides both them and you with good feedback on children's ability to communicate. It also gives children the chance to practise simple vocabulary, cardinal numbers, and to give simple instructions. The activity requires some preparation before you use it in class, but the materials you have prepared can be used again in other classes.

Materials needed
Each child needs a picture of the Christmas tree, and cut-outs of each of the six Christmas presents or decorations.

Materials >> 40K

Procedure

• Before the lesson, copy a picture of the Christmas tree, and cut out six presents / decorations for each child. You may find it helpful to keep sets of tree and presents in a separate envelope for each child.
• During the lesson, show pictures of the six presents, and make sure that everyone knows how to say them. Explain to children that now they are going to put presents on a Christmas tree. Pre-teach the word 'branch'. Write the frame 'Put … the … on …'
• Place two chairs at the front of the class. They should be side by side, but facing different directions
• Choose a child and ask him or her to sit on one chair, while you sit on the other. This means that you can see each other if you look sideways, but that you cannot see each other's tree or presents. Explain that you going to work together to give an example of how to do the activity to the rest of the class. Make sure you are both sitting sideways on to the class, so that everyone can see and hear you.
• Take two sets of the Christmas tree and the presents. Give the child one copy, and keep one for yourself.
• Choose a present, put it on a branch, and then ask your partner to put it on the same branch as you. If you put the jigsaw puzzle on branch 7, for example, tell your partner 'Put the jigsaw puzzle on branch 7'. Your partner can ask for clarification if they need it, but they cannot look at your tree or presents. Your partner now chooses a present, puts it on a branch, and gives you their instruction. Now show each other your pictures to check that your pictures look the same.
• Ask children to work in pairs, give them sets of material, and monitor their work. If some children finish very quickly, they can start the activity again. There are eight branches and only six presents: this adds an element of choice to the activity.
• Provide feedback on children's work, highlighting anything they did well as a class as well as any areas they need to work on for next time.

Variations

• Fewer branches on the tree, or fewer presents
• Children decide on their own presents as a class. They draw or bring pictures of these for you to copy.
• At a higher level, you can remove the numbers, and ask learners to practise phrases such as 'first branch on the left', 'third branch on the right'. This can be especially challenging, as pairs may need to establish the perspective they are talking from in order to agree on left and right, first, second and so on.
• Use different topics, for example people in a street scene, school objects on a desk, clothes on a washing line.

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