Create A Festival

Setup

Divide the class into groups of two or three students.

If the students are going to make posters, each group will need an A3 piece of paper.

Project

1. Elicit (and write on the board) a list of Wh- questions that when answered describe a holiday/festival (What, Where, When, Who, Why, How). Use an existing celebration as an example, and make sure you use the target language. For example for the passive voice, When is it celebrated?.
2. Working in their groups, students invent a new holiday/festival by answering these questions. Encourage the students to be imaginative and think of something they would enjoy themselves. Note that students should think of several details for ‘How’.
3. They then develop an oral presentation, poster or computer presentation to share their idea.
4. The groups take turns presenting their idea, using the target language. At the end the class can vote on which holiday/festival they want to add to the calendar.

Target Language

The Create A Festival ESL project is a short, fun project for any students at beginner or intermediate level. It fits perfectly with the topic of holidays/festivals, and works well around the time of existing celebrations.

Beginners can practise making basic present simple sentences (e.g. People celebrate Pets Day on June 25th. People play games with their pets.). With intermediate students, use it to practise the present simple passive voice. Ask students to include sentences of the form It is celebrated…, Chocolate is eaten…, Offices/Roads are closed… etc.

Consider using this project as a follow-up or extension to the Create A Country project. Students (especially kids) will enjoy developing their original idea by describing traditions/customs in more detail.