5th november guy fawkes day tch.pdf

T E A C H E R’S N O T E S A N D K E Y

November 2008

S TARTING OFF

The students should be able to come up with quite a list here and there are many possibilities for exploiting this, from

categorising (religious traditions, state traditions, sporting traditions etc.) to comparing with other countries.

B EFORE YOU READ / F IRST READING

This discussion acts as the prediction stage of the reading sequence and is an important pre-reading stage, so be

sure to provide the students with sufficient time to do the task effectively. You might wish to summarise the students’

ideas on the board to provide a clear focus for the reading task to follow.

Key:

apples

- eaten, covered in toffee

prams

- used to carry the Guy from house to house

gunpowder

- was to be used to blow up Parliament

potatoes

- roasted in the embers of the bonfire

old clothes

- used to make the Guy

the Houses of Parliament

- the target of the plotters

S ECOND READING

Read the text again more slowly and decide which of the sentences below fit into which gaps (1-5 in the text).

Key:

a) 3

b) 5

c) 1

d) 4

e) 2

V OCABULARY 1

Find words or phrases to complete the sets. All the words and phrases you need are in the text.

some years

LEADING UP TO

badly

light

FORMER

most years

during

reasonably

medium

current

EVERY YEAR

following

WELL

DARK

future

superbly

V OCABULARY 2

Key:

1. current

2. every year

3. superbly

4. following

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T E A C H E R’S N O T E S A N D K E Y

October 2008

T HIRD READING

Key:

1. c

2. Old clothes, straw, paper and

anything the children can find.

3. To carry it from house to

house.

4. Hard.

5. He was betrayed.

6. Generally, no.

S PEAKING

The task is designed to allow for a mixture of general and personalised discussion. Encourage the latter as far as

possible, ideally by providing an example yourself of, for example, your family Christmas traditions.

E XTENSION

The discussion in the final activity lends itself to a writing task where the students write a letter inviting a friend to

come and stay with them; in the letter they would describe how their family spends, for example, Christmas. The

letters could then be exchanged and compared.

C ONTACT

Please let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for future editions of Around English.

Peter Moran

petersmaterials@gmail.com

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T E A C H E R’S N O T E S A N D K E Y

October 2008

The hurricane season is upon us again and it might be another record-breaking

season. But what are hurricanes and how are they formed?

Remember, Remember the Fifth of

November,

The Gunpowder, Treason and

Plot, I know of no reason

Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Bonfire Night

Every year on the 5th of November

British people celebrate ‘Bonfire

Night’ with large bonfires, fireworks

and special food. It is a very

popular tradition, especially with

children. (1) But where does the

tradition come from? The answer

might be surprising…

The Traditions

In the weeks leading up to Bonfire

Night, British children make a ‘Guy’

out of old clothes, paper, straw and

anything else they can find. The

Guy is put into a pram and in the

days before Bonfire Night the

children take it to houses in the

neighbourhood asking for ‘a penny

for the Guy’. ( 2) If the owner of the

house thinks the Guy is well made

then he or she will give the

children a few coins or something

nice to eat or drink .

The Guy is thrown onto the fire

after the bonfire is lit. Another

tradition is the building of bonfires

in gardens, parks and town

centres.

(3) The bonfires are built in the

week before and lit after dark on

Bonfire Night . Fireworks are set off

and toffee apples - apples covered

in crunchy toffee - are eaten,

together with very dark and hard

toffee called ‘Bonfire Toffee’.

Other foods are popular as well:

potatoes roasted in the embers of

the fire, parkin (ginger cake) and

marshmallows toasted on sticks by

the fire, for example.

The History

The celebrations on Bonfire Night

are related to real events in history

and date back over four hundred

years, to November 5th, 1605. The

Guy of Bonfire Night represents

Guy Fawkes, one of the most well-

known characters in English

history.

Who Was Guy Fawkes?

Guy Fawkes was a soldier who

had fought in the Netherlands on

the side of the Spanish Catholic

forces against the protestant

armies of the Dutch. He was a

Catholic nationalist and, when the

protestant James I of Scotland

became King of England, Fawkes

joined a plot to kill the King and the

protestant English aristocracy. (4)

The conspirators aimed to do this

by blowing up the Houses o f

Parliament by exploding gunpower

in the cellars .

The plot was betrayed and

Fawkes, who was guarding the

gunpowder, was captured, tortured

and killed.

Around the World

Bonfire Night is celebrated in many

former colonies of Great Britain,

including New Zealand and South

Africa. (5) As in Britain, however,

few people remember the real

story these days. Perhaps if they

did they might treat their Guys a

little bit more gently!

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