For the last class of the calendar year, I did Christmas lessons with my students. Most classes were dated nicely the week or two before Christmas, but two of the last classes were back in November. I thought it would be awkward for a Christmas lesson in November, so I just didn't do it for those classes.
For the older classes, we made Christmas wish trees. This class was amazingly relaxing, and great way to end the year stress free. I passed out a bunch of green paper, and the students drew their hands. Where the English comes into the lesson is that they're to write what they want for Christmas on the fingers. If they don't know the English, then they can ask me, and they learn a bunch of new words that they're interested in.
For the younger grades, making a Christmas wish tree is difficult, so we simply did a lesson with Christmas vocabulary. And I talked a little bit about Christmas in the United States.
Overall, the Christmas Tree was a great way to end the year. It brought the whole class together to create something. It was relaxing because I was basically working with the students, rather than teaching them, and running the class.
The ３年生 class was JUST barely able to do the Christmas wish tree. Our class didn't finish on time, and the Homeroom teacher basically took 10 or 15 minutes out of their next classes to assemble the tree themselves. I went by later and saw how it came out. The difficulty layed with writing the English words.
For some classes, I taught them "We wish you a Merry Christmas", but that really ate into the time for the class. Making the Christmas Tree takes the entire 45 minutes, and there's really no extra time at all. I could've probably had it playing in the background. Or I could've gotten a whole mix of Christmas songs to play in the background while everyone worked. That probably would've been better.
I choose "We wish you a Merry Christmas" because there's only 4 different lines of lyrics. But, like choosing any song, it took forever to find something just right. Many versions of "We wish you a Merry Christmas" have more than just those 4 lyrics.
Originally, I went with Weezer's "Wish you a Merry Christmas" because I liked how it sounded. It had those extra lyrics, but I thought it'd be OK. The students hated that song. They couldn't stand it. And the teacher was the same way. I mean, I didn't hate the song, but I could take it or leave it.
I switched to use the Barbie Christmas Carol version of the song. I thought it had the perfect tone. It was whimsical and musical. Plus, it only had those 4 lines, too! The problem with this song is the speed. It's way too fast. Some of the students could sing along and keep up, but others were struggling to keep pace.
Also, the younger kids had trouble saying, "tidings."