Wanna know what a Father’s Day lesson that’s fun and engaging for your language learners could look like? Then keep on reading! I will share some fun activities you can do with your students in this blog post. They include tasks to practice speaking, writing, reading and listening skills.
I love celebrating the holidays with my students, as you probably know if you’ve read my blog. First of all, I think it’s important that students celebrate their fathers, or father figures, once a year – at least! And second, it’s a familiar topic for them to learn about, since Father’s Day is celebrated in a lot of countries. So let’s see how we can teach them about the subject with these Father’s Day activities!
Ideas for Father’s Day activities
Let me list some fun Father’s Day activities for students right here:
- Get students to talk about their own fathers, or father figures.
- Have students watch this video about fathers telling their kids why they are proud of them (for older students as it mentions some more difficult subjects) or this one on the history of the holiday (easier video)
- Get students to read this text on the origin of Father’s Day (for more proficient students) or this one (easier text).
- Tell students to check out these quotes, pick their favorite one, and explain why they like it best.
- Have students write a letter to their dads, or father figures, in which they describe what makes him so great.
Father’s Day lesson plan explained
Speaking
Start with getting students to talk about their own fathers. What is so great about them? And what do they love to do? What do they look like? This is not only a speaking activity, but also a listening one as they discuss in small groups. I’ve got a set of discussion cards up in my store for this purpose.
Then tell students to look at these quotes pick their favorite one, and explain to each other in small groups why they like it so much. What is the quote? Why does it speak to them? Does layout matter? Make them be as descriptive as possible to do this, and you could even persuade them to ask each other questions about the quotes.
Listening
Have students watch this video about why these fathers are proud of their kids and ask them to summarize what they heard. Or if students are younger and/or less proficient, watch this one and have them summarize. They can use the 5W and H questions to do that. Or you can come up with your own comprehension questions to test their understanding.
Reading
Get students to read this text or this one on the origin of Father’s Day. Have them summarize what they’ve read. Again they can use the 5W and H questions, or you can have them come up with comprehension questions for a partner to complete. My students always enjoy doing this!
Writing
Have students write a letter to their dads, or father figures, in which they describe what makes him so great. Tell them to give many reasons and examples to illustrate their reasoning. Give them some nice paper to write on, so that they can bring the letter home to dad. Do also get them to do a draft version before creating the final one.
Consider using this fun flip book that has students fill in 5 prompts about their dad. This also makes for a nice gift for dad.
Father’s Day lesson plans essentials
If you don’t have a lot of time then I think any lesson plan for Father’s Day should include at least a speaking activity and a writing one. And then you should probably choose either a reading task or a listening or watching one. Or you could give students a choice board to work from! A choice board includes 9 activities, the ones listed above, and students can choose which ones to complete. This gives students ownership of their learning and will be lots of fun for them!
So these are my Father’s Day activities ideas! Give some, or all of them, a try!
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