Marvellous March

Life of Saint Patrick – B1 B2 Listening

Good as an introduction before tackling the next exercise http://www.storynory.com/2008/03/10/st-patrick/ Saint Patrick's Day - Reading comprehension and vocabulary work B1 B2

Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He was born in the fourth century and is famous for bringing Christianity into Ireland. Saint Patrick’s Day is a very well-known Irish national holiday, which is celebrated not only in Ireland but all around the world. It falls on the 17th of March every year. History of Saint Patrick (Put the following paragraphs in order) B1 B2

After 30 years of being a missionary in Ireland, he finally settled down in a place called County Down, in Northern Ireland. He passed away on the 17th of March, AD 461.

He managed to escape after being a slave for six years and then studied in a monastery for 12 years to become a priest. This was when he knew that his ‘calling’ was to try and convert all the pagans in Ireland to Christianity.

Saint Patrick was born, in Wales, to wealthy parents in the late fourth century. Until the age of 16, he thought of himself as a pagan. He was kidnapped and sold as a slave at this age by Irish pirates. It was during this capture that he turned to God. Saint Patrick travelled around Ireland founding monasteries and successfully converting people to Christianity. The Celtic Druids were very unhappy with him and tried to arrest him several times but he always managed to get away.

Celtic Druid - a member of an ancient order of priests in Ireland in the pre-Christian era

A pagan - a person without any religion

A missionary - a person sent on a religious mission, especially to promote Christianity in a foreign country

Legend and Folklore (word formation – all words must be changed) B2

Shamrocks and leprechauns are with Saint Patrick’s

Day. Shamrocks are three-leaved clovers growing in

patches on grass. You are thought to be lucky if you find a four-leaved clover,

so do keep it if you ever come across one!

ASSOCIATE

FIND

Leprechauns are little Irish , and they are thought to work

as shoe-makers for each other. These little magical men were cheeky and

. They liked trouble, but if you caught one, he had

to give you a pot of gold, usually found under a rainbow. But be careful, if you

didn’t look at him, he could disappear.

Irish is full of many funny and scary creatures, and

legends. According to one myth Saint Patrick got rid of all the snakes from

Ireland. Do you believe it?

FAIRY

MISCHIEF

MYTH

Celebrations

A traditional meal that may be eaten on Saint Patrick´s day is bacon and cabbage. Some people may

even drink Guinness (a dark Irish beer) and because of the celebration they may even dye it green!

Lots of parties take place all over the world and some people even dress up as leprechauns complete

with their big green hats! In New York, about 150,000 marchers take part in a Saint Patrick’s Day

parade. In Chicago, the river is dyed green (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2tkTB65aog) and in

Dublin the party lasts for five days!

Phrasal verbs and idioms – B2

You will notice that some verbs have been highlighted in yellow. These are either phrasal verbs or

idioms. Match the phrasal verb or idiom to its alternative meaning.

Phrasal verb/Idiom Alternative meaning

To settle down To wear a costume or style of clothing

To come across To participate

To dress up To escape

To get rid of To begin living a stable and orderly life

To pass away To find

To take part To remove

To get away to go to someone for help

To turn to To die

Find the right match! B2 The following words have been underlined in the text. Your task is to replace the word with another word without changing the meaning i.e. thinking of a synonym. You may find some of the answers in other parts of the text.

Right, Wrong or Doesn’t say – B1

Read the full text through and decide if the following statements are right, wrong or it doesn’t say.

Saint Patrick´s Day is a national holiday in Ireland. Saint Patrick studied in a monastery for 10 years .

Saint Patrick is famous for introducing Christianity to Ireland.

Saint Patrick´s Day is celebrated in Spain.

Saint Patrick was a slave all his life.

Four-leaved clovers are very easy to find.

Saint Patrick was born in Ireland.

Leprechauns are well behaved.

On Saint Patrick’s Day people usually dress in green.

Story time – B2 writing Your class are entering a competition for Saint Patrick´s Day. You have been asked to write a story that begins with the following sentence:

Suddenly out of nowhere, I saw him, I saw the leprechaun. Your story must include:

• A description of the leprechaun • An imaginary journey with the leprechaun • A surprise ending e.g. You didn´t find the pot of gold!

well-known unhappy

disappear wealthy

parties convert

If I had a pot of gold I would travel the world!

Party time – A2 reading and writing Your friend has invited you to a Saint Patrick´s Day party. Read the invitation and take notes on the note pad. As an extension or adaption you could ask your students to make their own invitations for other parties they go to and set questions for each other. If I had a pot of gold…………. B1 speaking into writing Tell your students the story of the leprechauns, who they are, what they do, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow etc. Do your students believe in legends? Do your students believe in fairies? Introduce the structure and the use of the verb after “would” e.g.

If I had a pot of gold I would travel the world! You may have to explain the value of gold and that its meaning relates to money. Give your students a few minutes and ask them in pairs to brainstorm what they would do. Ask them to ask as many other students as possible using the question:

What would you do if you had a pot of gold? Once the children have finished, ask some of them to share their answers with the rest of the class. Would everybody do the same thing if they had a pot of gold? Use the image, on the right, as a template which can be made bigger or smaller depending on your needs. Have the students write their messages on the pot and decorate them with a picture. This would make a great display in your classroom. You could even add a rainbow to the display. This activity can be adapted to any topic or theme e.g.

Come for the craic!

Saint Patrick´s Day Party

On Saturday from 12.30 – 14.30pm in my garden.

Make sure you wear something green.

Surprise gift for the best dressed in green!

Bring a cake!

See you on Saturday

Steven

Person having the party:

Day:

Where:

Time party finishes: pm

What colour to wear:

Take:

What would you do if your brother or sister ate all your chocolate Easter eggs?

Thank you letter – B1 Writing Last week you attended your British friend´s Easter egg hunt party.

Write a letter to your friend Robert. In this letter you must include the following:

• Thank your friend for inviting you to the party

• Tell your friend what you liked most about the party (the egg hunt, eating the chocolate eggs etc.)

• Invite Robert to your birthday party

Easter eggs are pretty and they´re all for you! – Young Learners listening into speaking

Remove the colour words from the poem and depending on the level of your class give the word bank or not. You could even have no word bank and just ask the students to colour the gaps once they hear the colour word. Read out the poem and ask the children to fill in the gaps or colour them. Check the answers with the students and have everyone read aloud. In groups ask them to change the colours. Can they come up with a new poem? Speaking task Once the task is complete, give students the Easter egg template without any words. Do an Easter egg search on Google images and talk about the different patterns introducing new vocabulary: zig zag, dots, lines etc. Ask them to decorate their Easter eggs however they like. Once the students have completed their designs, put them in pairs and give them another template with no words. This time one student has to describe their pattern to the other.

My Easter egg has green and red dots. It has green zig zags in the middle etc.

The other student must draw the pattern on to the template. Once both have described their pattern they check to see if the patterns match. How well have they described them?

Easter eggs are yellow

Easter eggs are blue

Easter eggs are red and green

And purple too.

Easter eggs are orange

Easter eggs are blue

Easter eggs are pretty

And they′re all for you!

Word bank

blue

green

purple

yellow

orange

red

blue

The Easter egg hunt – Reading A2 On Easter Sunday at 9 o’clock in the morning, Max and Lucy were woken up by their Mum, Lyn. She told them that they needed to be up and ready for 10 o’clock because that was when their friends Sara and Rafael were coming over for the Easter egg hunt. Lucy asked if she could have an Easter egg for breakfast but Mum smiled and said no. Max and Lucy had porridge for breakfast. Max always liked to have a little bit of sugar in his porridge and Lucy liked a small dollop of chocolate spread in hers. During breakfast, Max and Lucy talked about how many Easter eggs they thought they were going to find. Max bet Lucy that he was going to find more eggs than her. Lucy laughed and said she bet there were enough Easter eggs for everyone. At 10 o’clock Sara and Rafael arrived at the house with their Dad, Juan. Lyn greeted them at door and took their coats. Max and Lucy said hello to Sara and Rafael and all four children asked if they could start the Easter egg hunt. They just couldn’t wait to get started. Lyn gave the children the first clue for the hunt and then asked Juan if he would like a cup of coffee. The two adults went into the kitchen while the children all read the first clue. There were 20 clues and each clue on the hunt took the children to a different part of the house, including the back garden. They took it in turns to read the clues out loud and made sure that they each had a turn at finding an egg. They found eggs behind the sofa, under the tree in the back garden and even in Max’s toy box. Each time the children found an egg they put it in the basket that Lyn had given them. After the children had found all the Easter eggs they evenly shared them out and were allowed to eat one and save the rest for later as they didn’t want to spoil their lunch. After reading the story carefully, answer the following questions. Try and answer using full sentences.

1. At what time did Max and Lucy need to be up and dressed for?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

2. What does Max like to put in his porridge?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3. Who did Sara and Rafael arrive with?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

4. Where did the children find Easter eggs on their hunt?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

5. If the 20 Easter eggs were shared out equally between the four children how many would each child have to eat?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6. Where would you hide an Easter egg so that nobody could find it?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Where are the Easter eggs? – Young learners A1 Reading into writing Read the following story to your class: http://www.meddybemps.com/Edgar1/Index.html Talk about where we could hide our Easter eggs in the classroom eliciting the use of prepositions. Act out the prepositions with an Easter egg i.e. On the table, under the table, next to the table etc. Hide, according to the clues below, some chocolate eggs or some eggs using the template above (the poem) that your students have designed (like in the story). The cards below can be used but may need to be edited to suit your classroom and/or students. Cut up the cards below and place face down on the table (the blank boxes can be filled in by your students after). Ask a student to pick a card and read it out to the class, the child then has to go and find the egg. They can be given a time limit where the rest of the class count down. Once all the eggs have been found, put the students into small groups and ask them to write their own clues using prepositions. Once complete you can have another egg hunt with the new clues!

Next to the rubbish bin Under the teacher’s table

In the art cupboard On the computer

In the reading corner Between the dictionaries

In the pencil case Behind the teacher’s chair

As a follow up activity, give the children the following writing frame which they complete finishing the sentence or drawing a picture.

We had an Easter egg hunt in the classroom. I found an egg …………………………………….. This, again, could be written in the egg template above. The children could write there sentence and draw a picture of the egg hunt and decorate the egg. This would make a great display in your classroom. If you have an interactive whiteboard, finish off the class with an online Easter egg hunt: http://www.meddybemps.com/easter/egghunt.html Enjoy!