Halloween

This lesson is loosely based around the Premier Skills English podcast - Learning Vocabulary - Halloween

Level

B1 / B2 (Intermediate / Upper-intermediate)

Age

Teenagers and adults

Time

40-60 mins

Procedure

Preparation

Read this plan, and familiarise yourself with the topic.

Make copies of worksheets.

Download the podcast to play on a phone/tablet (see the downloads section on the right) or listen to it online on the podcast page.

1. Introduction

Introduction: Tell your students that the topic of the lesson is Halloween and that in the class, they are going to do some vocabulary activities and then work on a ghost story.

Depending on how popular Halloween is in your country, you may want to put your students into groups to verbally brainstorm whatever they think about Halloween.

2. Halloween vocabulary

There are three vocabulary activities. You should pick one that you think will be best for your students.

1. Memory
To do this activity, you will need to copy and cut up sets of words and pictures from the Worksheet - Halloween - Vocabulary.

Divide the class into pairs (student A and student B). Show them the vocabulary cards Tell the students that they are going to try to find pairs (words and pictures).

Have the students arrange the cards face down in front of them.

The students will then take turns selecting and turning over two cards. If the cards match, they win the pair. If the words don’t match, they need to turn the cards over again.

The game continues until all the pairs have been found. The student with the most pairs wins.

2. Half a crossword
Divide the class into pairs (student A and student B).

Have the students in each pair sit opposite each other. Tell them that they must not show their worksheet to their partner.

Explain that they have to take it in turns to ask for a word that is missing from their crossword.

For example: What’s 5 across?

Their partner will give a description of the word but should not say the word.

For example: It’s a small animal with eight legs that likes eating flies.

Distribute the crosswords (worksheet A to student A, worksheet B to student B).

Set a time limit (10 mins). When the time limit is up, let the students compare their crosswords to see if they have completed them correctly.

You could follow up by asking students how they described the different words.

3. Don’t say the word
Divide the class into pairs. Tell them that they are going to try to race against the other pairs in the class.

Using the answer sheet from the Memory game, copy and cut up the cards so that each pair or group has a set of cards. The game starts with the cards in a pile. The students will take turns to pick a card and describe the word. They are not allowed to say the word on the card. Their partner has to try to guess what word they are describing. When they have guessed the word, they have won the card and the partner takes a new card.

The pair that describes all the words the fastest is the winner.

3. Telling a ghost story

In this activity, your students will create a ghost story by adding their own ideas to a common plot. 

Tell them that this story starts with them driving along a road in a car. 

Show them the picture on the worksheet and tell them that this is the road they are driving on. 

Now demonstrate folding the worksheet in half so that they can only see the questions.

Tell the class that they will have to answer the questions without looking at the rest of the story. Encourage the class to be creative and try to answer with whatever they like (this should encourage the students to make funnier stories).

Set the students a time limit (10 mins) and distribute the worksheets.

When the time is up (or the students have all answered the questions) ask the students to unfold their stories and read them. 

In small groups, tell them to take turns reading the stories to each other. Listen to the class and try to select a couple of the best stories to be read to the whole class.

Tell your students that this story is part of the Premier Skills English podcast and play the clip 04:20 > 06:55 so they can listen to Rich tell his version of the story. Tell your students to listen to the way Rich answered the questions.

4. Follow up / homework

There are discussion questions on the Premier Skills English podcast page. Your students are welcome to join in the discussion and leave any comments about the lesson.