Unit 1 Festivals around the world

Period 1 Warming up and reading

江西省寻乌中学 张艺耀

Teaching goals

1.      To get the students to talk about festivals.

2.      To learn about how festivals began and how to celebrate festivals so as to enable them to learn more about different cultures while learning different languages.

3.      To develop the students’ reading skills : skimming, scanning, summarizing, and finding out details.

4.      To arouse the students’ interest in festivals, cultures, especially traditional Chinese festivals，thus promote students’pride in our nation own national culture and customs.

Important points

1.      Comprehension of the reading part.

2.      Knowledge accumulation of festivals and cultures.

3.      Useful words and expressions concerning festivals.

4.      Cultivate the students’ positive attitude towards traditional Chinese culture.

Difficult points

1. Student fully understand the passage festivals and celebrations.

2. Students learn different reading skills and take proper attitude to western festivals.

Teaching aids

Multimedia, including a computer, a projector, courseware,

Teaching procedures

1. Lead-in

Guessing game: Guess what festival it is according to the picture you see as quickly as you can.

2. Warming-up

1) Show some more pictures about some Chinese festivals. Ask them to give the names，the time and activities of festivals in English accordingly.

Ask 1，What’s your favourite holiday? Why?

2,When does it take place?

    3,What does it celebrate and which part do you like best, activities，food, music, visit, or family together?

T: Look at the pictures, can you tell us which festival is it about? When does it take place? What do they celebrate? What do people do? Discuss with your partners.

 And then show some foreign festivals.

3. Reading

1) Fast reading（skimming）

Ask “What is the main idea of the text?”An introduction to four kinds of festivals.

T: Got it. You seem to know many festivals of China. But do you know other festivals in different countries and how these festivals began? What do people do to celebrate? Luckily, the passage provides you much information. Read the passage quickly and find out the festivals mentioned here:

2) scanning:

Now, let’s get to know more about these festivals, find out the information accordingly to fill in the form and answer the questions:

3)Careful reading:

Paragraph 1:

What and when did ancient people celebrate ?

    Most ancient festivals would celebrate the end of______________, ________________and _________________. Sometimes celebrations would be held__________________________.

Paragraph 2: Festivals of the dead

1. What are      festivals of the dead usually held for?

2. What do      people do at each festival?

3. Are there any similar festivals in      China? What to do? What to eat?

     The Qing Ming Festival

Paragraph 3: Festivals to Honour People

Match the festivals with the proper people

Paragraph 4:Harvest Festivals

Harvest festivals are always happy events because people are _______ (=thankful) that food is gathered for the winter and __________________(农活) is over .

1) How do people celebrate the festivals?

2) What do people do to celebrate it?

In European countries, it is the custom to decorate churches and town halls with flowers and fruit; get together to have meals, win awards for their farm produce ; admire the moon, enjoy mooncakes.

Paragraph 5: Spring Festivals

Spring festival; Easter; Cherry Blossom Festival

What do these spring festivals celebrate?

It’s the most _________ and important festival in China, which  falls on the f______ day of the lunar year. Before the festival, houses  are cleaned and d_________. At the festival , people eat  ___________ and fish and give children _____ ______ in red paper (red packets). On the eve, people watch CCTV New Year Gala and often set off ________.There are ______ dances and ________  in the streets

Paragraph 6: What are the purposes of festivals?

Why do we have festivals?

1, love to get together to...                      2, let us enjoy...

3, be proud of                                4, forget.... for a little while

4. Consolidation

There are many kinds of festivals all around the world. The first one, festivals of the______.  For example, the Japanese festival Obon. People should go to clean graves and _____incense in _________of their ancestor. The western holiday Halloween, now it’s a children’s festival, when they can _____up and ask for________. If they don’t give any sweets, the children might play a _______on them. The second one, festivals to ________people. For example,  the Dragon Boat Festival. The third is Harvest and ___________Festivals. China and Japan have Mid-autumn festivals, when people ________the moon. The last one is Spring Festivals. They are the most energetic and important festivals that ______________the end of winter and to the coming of spring. In China, people eat ________(and give the children _______money. In Japan ,the country, covered with ________tree flowers ,looks as though it is covered with pink snow.

5.summary

Ask the students to give one sentence to describe the passage.

The passage is mainly about different festivals and the ways of celebrations and also the reasons why people celebrate them all over the world. 

6.Discussion:

A debate（highlight）

Ask “Foreign Festival VS Chinese Traditional Festival, which will you choose to celebrate?” Should we celebrate western festivals ？Why? There are reference structures as follows.

As our country and western countries become increasingly closer, more and more Chinese accept western festivals, some of which are becoming more and more popular .

   They are deserved to be celebrated because.....

   However, There are some bad effects as follows...

At the same time, our traditional celebrations are worth celebrating and protecting as well.Here are the reasons....

Personally/To my understanding/,  ...

7. Homework:

 Design your own festival. If you have a chance to create a festival , what will your festival be like? And then write it down as an article.