A British Christmas: Outdoor swimming

Objective & content

This Look Closer episode (A British Christmas mini-series, episode 72) is a one-minute documentary about the Christmas Day race of a London swimming club, told with real photos, old and new, and two drawings. A single narrator explains that the members swim in the Serpentine, a lake in Hyde Park, in water at about four degrees, that the slow swimmers start first so anyone can win, and that the first man and the first woman get the Peter Pan Cup and the Wendy Cup. Learners meet the present simple for a tradition (they swim, the slow swimmers start first), must (they must swim in the lake all winter), can (anyone can win), there's and this is, and the past with was and gave (The first race was in 1864). The vocabulary is about sport, cold weather, winter and large numbers. Learners listen, then answer the 10 questions in the app: 9 on facts and 1 on vocabulary (anyone).

Materials & prerequisites

You need the episode (audio and slideshow) and the printables: a one-page pupil pack and teacher pack (the text, three pictures, the key words and the 10 questions, with the answers highlighted in the teacher pack), a pupil question sheet and a teacher answer key. There is no lesson plan. Learners should know the numbers up to one hundred and the present simple with they. Swimsuit is shown in the pictures, lake is explained with the Serpentine, and degree is heard with a number (about four degrees).

Curriculum alignment

Tagged art-and-expression-of-feelings (6e, "Arts et expression des sentiments", study topic "The imagery of the holiday season", Cycle 3). The episode targets CEFR level A1+.