Jingle bells, jingle bells. Christmas activities are everywhere. Opposites bring fun.
Well, it’s not the best piece of poetry ever, but you get the idea: Christmas is in the air, and here comes a new activity to add to my collection of tried-and-tested and good-and-better holiday favourites to bring some festive spirit into the classroom.
This time we’ll play the Opposites Game. With Santa. And the whole song instead of just one sentence (see One-Sentence Games).
What can be better than the Christmas classic Santa Claus Is Coming to Town? A bit twisted, though.
Step 1. Santa is Leaving (??) Town
Say that the song is a version of a very well-known Christmas classic. Then play the song.
Step 2. Opposify
After the initial ‘What?!’ surprise is over, get students into pairs and ask them to turn the lyrics back into the classic Christmas song. They don’t need to reproduce the exact wording, just make it recognizable.
Step 3. Play the actual song
Students compare their reconstructed version to the real lyrics.
There are lots of versions of the song on YouTube. Personally, I prefer the classics – Frank Sinatra.
Follow-up?
If the creative juices are flowing, ask students to create a third silly version using exaggerations instead of opposites.
Exaggerations Game…Well, that could be a good idea for next year. What do you think?)
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