Father's Day Lesson

South Korea doesn't celebrate separate mother's and father's days. Instead, they have one "Parents Day" in May. Students will buy small gifts for their parents, write letters, or do something nice around the house to show their appreciation.

Every few weeks, I prepare a lesson on a topic of my choice to give the students a break from the textbook and to expose them to different language points or culture in Western countries. I've already given lessons on St. Patrick's Day, April Fool's Day, Earth Day, Jack and the Beanstalk, and anger. Since it's June, I decided to do a Father's Day lesson.

Because I wanted to use this lesson with different grades and at both of my schools, I need to prepare an online version of the lesson and an in-person version. The online version was recorded and played for the grade three students at my main school. Once per term I need to deliver an "open lesson" that is viewed and evaluated by other teachers at the school. This doesn't amount to much for online lessons because I simply submit the lesson and anyone who wants to watch it can do so. I'm never provided with any feedback on my open lesson, so it's pointless. 

The in-person lessons were for my boys classes and were much more interesting because I decided to have a craft-making task, which I almost never do. It was simple enough, but I hoped it would be fun to provide some variety for the students and also give them the opportunity to make a gift for their fathers.

The task for the students was to write a thank you note for their father on a necktie template. I gave the students sample sentences to use, such as "Happy Father's Day", "You're the best dad!", and "Have a nice day." The students also decorated and drew on the necktie. The pictures were often meaningful activities that the students shared with their fathers, such as playing basketball or camping.

The lesson went well in that it kept the students occupied for the full class and everyone walked away with a, more or less, finished product. I was a little disappointed that most students didn't try to expand the written message beyond the sample sentences that I provided. My first-grade boys' classes did the bare minimum of writing and spent most of their time drawing the designs and pictures on the tie. Still, I think the end result was fine. Some of the more advanced students wrote longer, more personalized messages to their fathers.

Ultimately, keeping the written English to a bare minimum was probably the best choice because, at the end of the class when I reminded the students to give the gift to their fathers, some students noted that their fathers couldn't read English and probably wouldn't know what the messages meant anyway.

We're approaching the end of term exams, so from the time the exam finishes until the beginning of summer vacation, all of my lessons will be on free topics. It's a fun time for the students because we just play games or explore interesting topics, but it's difficult to come up with new material outside of the textbook. From last year and so far this year, I've covered lessons on most of the major holidays, so I need to get creative and come up with some new material. I'm thinking of doing lessons on clothing (fashion), types of laughter and humour, and cultural events in Canada such as the Calgary Stampede.