I Spy at Christmas!

Objective & content

This activity sheet is a seek-and-find page built around one big picture of a family's living room on Christmas morning: a Christmas tree with a gold star, presents, three red stockings over the fireplace, cards and candles on the shelf, and a snowman and a robin at the window. The grandma is knitting, the girl has got a teddy, the boy has got a toy car, the dad wears a yellow paper crown, the mum has got a cup of tea, the cat has got a ribbon and the dog is asleep on the rug. Pupils read sixteen words and look for each one in the picture, then read six short sentences and decide if they are true, and finally write two sentences of their own. By the end, pupils read and recognise Christmas and home words and understand short sentences with There are and has got ("The dad has got a paper crown.").

Pedagogical guide

The English is in the reading: there are no pictures next to the words, so pupils must read each one before they look for it. Task 1 is a list of sixteen words with a box for each; pupils tick the words they can find in the picture and cross the ones that are not there. Twelve are in the picture (tree, star, stocking, card, candle, snowman, robin, present, teddy, cat, dog, car) and four are not (bike, guitar, horse, umbrella), so a pupil who ticks every box gets four wrong. Task 2 asks for reading and looking together: six sentences, and pupils circle Yes or No for each. Three are true (there are three stockings, the cat has got a ribbon, the dad has got a paper crown) and three are not: the mum has got the cup of tea, not the grandma; the girl has got the teddy, not the boy; the snowman is in the garden, not in the living room. Task 3 gives two sentence starters, "I can see" and "There's a", for pupils to write about the picture; they read their sentences to a partner, who finds the thing in the picture. Page 2 gives the answer key and the teacher notes.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Look at the picture together for a minute: "What can you see?"
2. (10 min) Task 1: pupils read each word, look for it in the picture and tick or cross it; check together.
3. (10 min) Task 2: pupils read the six sentences, look again and circle Yes or No.
4. (5 min) Task 3: pupils write two sentences about the picture.
5. (10 min) In pairs, pupils read their sentences aloud; the partner finds the thing in the picture.

Adaptations

[S] Read the word list aloud together before pupils look for the words.

[A] Pupils write a Yes / No sentence about the picture for a partner.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy per pupil of page 1, in colour if possible, so the details of the picture are easy to see. Pupils need a pencil. Page 2 is the answer key with teacher notes: keep it. Pupils should have met there is / there are, the family words (mum, dad, grandma) and a few Christmas words; the sixteen words are short.