St. Valentine’s Day
The party opens with the song “Love is…” by Greg Scela (students of the 9a form)
Introduction
Teacher: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon, dear students and teachers!
You’ve just listened to the beautiful song about love. And the words of this song are absolutely right: love is everywhere and it is the greatest thing in the world. To love and to be loved – these are the two things we can’t imagine our life without.
Nowadays it is also impossible to imagine the holiday calendar of the most European countries, America, and even Russia without the heartful expressions of love, flowers and presents exchanged on the 14th of February between sweethearts, good friends and acquaintances of many years. This is the most romantic holiday of the year-St. Valentine’s Day.
And in spite of the fact that the weather is quite unromantic today I hope you will all have a good time and enjoy our small party.
A poem “IT’S VALENTINE’S DAY!”
(student 1)It’s Valentine’s Day. And in the street
There’s freezing rain, and slush, sleet.
The wind is fierce. The skies are grey.
I don’t think I’ll go out today.
But here inside the weather’s warm.
There is no trace of wind or storm.
And you just made the morning shine.
You said you’d be my Valentine.
The History of Celebrating St. Valentine’s Day.
Teacher: Every holiday has its own history and we think it will be interesting and useful for you to know some information about its origin.
Student 1– St.Valentine ’s Day is neither a national nor a religious holiday, but it’s wildly celebrated all over the world. Only few people have taken time and interest to find out much about the origins of it. The celebrating dates back to the ancient Roman festival called "Lupercalia" which took place on February 14th or 15th in honor of Juno, the Roman Goddess of women, and Pan, the god of nature. On that day a curious courting ritual was played out in which young men randomly drew from an urn love messages written and decorated by young women. Thus, "matched by fate," the two would be partners at the upcoming festival. This echoes the old folk tradition that the birds choose their mates on this day as well.
Student 2–But merely imitating what the birds do could hardly justify the continuation and spread of this Roman custom throughout Christian Europe in the Middle Ages. It needed the sanction of the church and authority of some martyred saint. And two likely candidates were soon found. The first Valentine was a Christian priest who was imprisoned and executed in the third century for spreading the teachings of Christ. On February 14, he was beheaded, but not before he managed to heal the jailer's blind daughter and write her a farewell letter which he signed "From Your Valentine." The second Valentine was an Italian bishop who lived at about the same time and was imprisoned for secretly marrying couples, contrary to the laws of the Roman emperor. Legend has it that he was burned at the stake. The lives and deeds of these two men certainly fit in well with the theme needed to keep February 14th in the holiday calendar. And by some strange paradox their deaths have helped to keep many a troubadour from going hungry throughout the ages.…
A Game: “Miming Feelings”
Teacher: When you fall in love, when you are in love you can be happy and gay, but you can also be sad and blue.
What other words can we use to describe peoples feelings? (students’ ideas)
Teacher: Here there is a list of adjectives that should be mimed. Each group will have a card with two adjectives to be mimed for other to guess their meanings.
Adjectives: lonely, thoughtful, crazy, romantic, sad, shy, brave, foolish, sentimental, happy, cruel, gay, gentle.
(Students can only use things to help, but not words)
Warm-up: A Game: Pairs of Sweethearts
Teacher: In the world literature we can often meet the names of lovers, brought together by the fate or divine intervention. Het’s listen to a small extract from a well-known poem and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
Student 3 “I Loved You Once” (by A.S. Pushkin)
I loved you once. My love for you, it may be
Within this heart of mine is still aglow
But let it not concern you any longer;
I would not have it pain you anymore,
I loved you once-so hopelessly, in silence
By shyness now, then jealously beset
My love for you has been so true, so tender,
As God may grant, another’s may prove yet.
Teacher: Do you remember whose words are they?
Who is Onegin writing to?
Can you recite this part of the poem in Russian? (ask 1 student to recite the poem)
And I’m sure that the names of Tristan and Isolde, Mark Antony and Cleopatra are also familiar to you.
On your desks you’re got pieces of paper with the names of other famous pairs of sweethearts. Can you match these well known names?
(Students in their groups match the pairs of lovers. Get then individuals from each group to call pairs of sweethearts out one by one (in turns)
Symbols and Traditions of the Holiday.
Teacher: St. Valentine’s day, as well as other holidays, has it’s own symbols and traditions. Let’s listen to description of some of them.
Student 4 – Cupid.
Student 5 – Valentines.
Student 6 – Hearts.
Student 5 – Doves and Lovebirds.
Organizing a Poem. Completing the Poem.
Teacher: Shakespeare and Tolstoy, Pushkin and Byron, Burns and Lermontov, - what unite all these writers and poets? What did they mainly write about?
You’re absolutely right. Most of their works were devoted to love and sweethearts.
Would you be so kind and listen to the song written by a Scottish poet R. Burns to his beloved.
Song “My Love is Like a Red, Rose”
Teacher: Inspired by the famous poets and writers many teenagers today compose their own poems where they express their ideas of love.
Have a look here, please. All these lines are taken from a poem by an English girl, but they are in the wrong order. Can you put them into right order, to make a real poem? (students in their groups try to put lines into the right order. The leaders of each group then take turns to read the poem aloud.)
Teacher: And this is the correct version:
Love is a wonderful thing
Though it’s sad
Love makes you happy
And goes to your head
Love keeps you lively
When others are down
Love keeps you smiling
No trace of a frown
Love keeps you warm
On a cold winter’s night
Love makes you day dream
Make things seem alright.
Love seems for ever
Love never ends
Until those dreaded words
Let’s still be friends.
As you can see, there is no ending of this poem. Have a try end compose it right now. (students in their groups try to complete the last line. Ask then the groups to tell you their ideas)
A Game: “True/False Chairs”
Teacher: I’m sure that you’ve learnt a lot about St. Valentine ’s Day: its customs, traditions, symbols and origins. And now we can see how much you remember about this holiday with the help of true/false statements.
You know this kind of work, don’t you? But the rules are changed a bit.
“True/False Chairs”
(these are 2 chairs (“true” and “false”) near the board) Invite 6 pairs of students to come out to the board.Teacher: I’m going to read some sentences to you. They can be true or false. You should listen to them carefully, decide whether they are right or wrong, and run to the appropriate chair as fast as you can. The winner is the first student on a chair.
True/False Statements
Exchanging Valentines
Teacher: we’ve mentioned that St.Valentine’s day is a good moment for exchanging valentines, flowers and small presents between sweethearts. But there is one more nice tradition: in the dlays leading up to this holiday school children make valentines for their teachers. The cards are usually hand made and elaborately decorated.
A poem: “A Valentine for My Teacher”
(Student 7)Dear teachers. Today we also have valentines made especially for you.
Teacher: But all the students have made valentines and composed small poems not only for their teachers and classmates. This is our mailbox and every student of the class will be able to find a message with tender-hearted or sometimes funny words in it.
A poem: “Our classroom has a mailbox”
(Student 8)Our classroom has a mailbox
That we painted red and gold.
We stuffed it with more Valentines
Than it was made to hold
When we opened it this morning,
I was nervous as could be.
I wondered if a single one
Had been addressed to me
But when they'd been delivered
I felt twenty stories tall
I got so many Valentines
I couldn't hold them all.
(Students then take turns to pull anonymous valentines out of the box.)