Celebrate Hong Kong! by Matthew Cooper
This is a book about different festivals that are celebrated around the world, but have also found their home in Hong Kong. It shows the diversity of Hong Kong and the welth of festivals that comes with this diversity.
The story starts with homesick Oskar who has just arrived in Hong Kong and already wishes he were back in Finland to celebrate the Midsummer Festival. But, Oscar meets Ming who tries to cheer him up and introduces him to some of his Hong Kong friends. Oskar is about the find out that the party never ends in this unique city. Chinese New Year, Cheng Chau Bun Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Halloween, Ramadan, Diwali, Easter, and Christmas are just some of the festivals celebrated in Hong Kong.
The last pages of the book provide a brief explanation of what festivals are, why we celebrate them, and how they have changed over the years.
The book is illustrated by the Hong Kong based illustrator Stephanie Suen.
About the author
Matthew Cooper was born in England but has been living in Asia since the 2000s . After embarking on a varied career paths that included being a marine biologist, an IT helpdesk manager and dustman, Matthew decided that maybe he would take up writing for children. And then a friend pointed out that writers could stay in their pyjamas all day. From that moment on Matthew knew that writing was his destiny.
Matthew writes books that are relevant for children who live in the amazing cities of Hong Kong and Singapore but also in other parts of the world, books which encourage a love of reading and give children a desire to learn about the world around them.
Unit lesson plan
Book Title: Celebrate Hong Kong
Author: Matthew Cooper
Illustrator: Stephanie Suen
ISBN: 978-988-14132-2-2
Publisher: Muffin Books, Hong Kong, 2017
Reading Level*: Lexile 680L / Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level reading Test 4.0
Suitable for Ages: 8 to 9 years
Proposed grade level: P3
Themes: Celebration of different nationalities
Connection to Hong Kong Curriculum: English Language, Language Education KLA:
Values: Respect for others
Modules: The world around us; Me, my family and friends
General Studies Curriculum: Global Understanding
Lesson duration: 30 minutes per lesson
Unit Lesson Plan for Celebrate Hong Kong.pdfSkill Allocation
Reading
L1 (Inferencing – character traits)
L6 (Cheung Chau Bun Festival)
L10 (Boardgame)
Listening
L9 (Dictogloss)
Writing
L1 (Describing body language/actions)
L3 (Speech verbs)
L8 (Designing a festival – Part 2)
L9 (Dictogloss)
L10 (Boardgame)
Speaking
L5 (Festivals)
L8 (Designing a festival - Part 2)
L10 (Boardgame)
Grammar
L2 (Relative pronouns ‘who’ ‘whose’)
Literature
L1 (Inferencing – character traits)
L4 (Character description)
Vocabulary
L7 (Designing a festival - Part 1)
Download complete set of lesson plan and teaching materials
( Please email to engl.rcpce@polyu.edu.hk for the ZIP decompression password. )
Download individual lesson plan and teaching materials
( Please email to engl.rcpce@polyu.edu.hk for the ZIP decompression password. )
Lesson plans and teaching materials
Lesson 1 - Inferencing
Aims:
To be able to infer characters’ feeling from body language.
To be able to describe actions and body language to express feelings.
Focused skill: Writing
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to infer characters’ feeling through their non-verbal cues
Students are able to create sentences to express feelings through actions and body language.
L1 Lesson Plan - Inferencing.pdfLesson 2 - Relative pronouns ‘who’ ‘whose’
Aims:
To be able to understand the function and use of the relative pronouns ‘who’ and ‘whose’.
To be able to use the relative pronoun ‘who’ to make sentences.
Focused skill: Grammar
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to identify the subject being referred to by the relative pronouns ‘who’ and ‘whose’
Students are able to use the relative pronoun ‘who’ to make sentences.
L2 Lesson Plan - Relative pronuns who whose.pdfLesson 3 - Speech verbs
Aims:
To learn and identify speech verbs used in the book.
To create a short dialogue using the learnt speech verbs.
Focused skill: Writing
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to create sentences using speech verbs.
Students are able to create a dialogue using speech verbs.
L3 Lesson Plan - Speech verbs.pdfLesson 4 - Character description
Aims:
To understand the character traits of the main characters.
To create character profiles.
Focused skill: Literature
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to choose the appropriate adjectives to describe the main characters and express personal opinions about their character traits.
L4 Lesson Plan - Character description.pdfLesson 5 - Festivals
Aims:
To reinforce the understanding of the different festivals mentioned in the story.
To do a survey about which festival students want to celebrate the most.
Focused skill: Speaking
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to complete the matching exercise correctly.
Students are able to collect information about their classmates’ preferences for the festivals.
L5 Lesson Plan - Festivals.pdfLesson 6 - Cheung Chau Bun Festival
Aims:
To learn more about the Cheung Chau Bun Festival.
To practise reading comprehension skills and complete a reading exercise.
Focused skill: Reading comprehension
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to practise reading comprehension skills such as inferencing and locating key information.
L6 Lesson Plan - Cheung Chau Bun Festival.pdfLesson 7 - Designing a festival part 1
Aims:
To learn festival related vocabulary.
To be able to organise information about different festivals.
Focused skills: Vocabulary and writing
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to organise information about different festivals.
Students are able to use the target vocabulary to make sentences.
L7 Lesson Plan - Designing a festival (part 1).pdfLesson 8 - Designing a festival part 2
Aims:
To practise collaboration skills on a creative project.
To be able to practise presentation skills.
Focused skills: Writing and speaking
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to work with others on a writing project.
Students are able to create a festival and give a presentation to the class.
L8 Lesson Plan - Designing a festival (part 2).pdfLesson 9 - Dictogloss
Aims:
To practise note-taking and using existing knowledge to recreate a text from a listening exercise.
Focused skills: Listening and writing
Assessment Criteria:
Students are able to identify and record key words from listening to a text.
Students are able to use their notes and existing knowledge to recreate the text.
L9 Lesson Plan - Dictogloss.pdfLesson 10 - Boardgame
Aims:
To consolidate students’ understanding of the story.
Focused skills: Reading, speaking and writing
Assessment Criteria:
Students follow the instructions and play the boardgame correctly. Students will answer questions about the book to reinforce their understanding of the story.
L10 Lesson Plan - Boardgame.pdf